Red vs Blues classic

Cadavers (20) vs Blues
Tuesday March 2^nd
BU 8:00 pm

2-2 Tie

Another classic D level matchup with old time rivals the Blues. An early evening start at BU meant a bit of a scramble for parking, some paid, some walked a loooong way. At any rate we ended up with a nice full 13 for the roster, and this is what it looked like.

Lizzy in Net

D1: George, Valenti D2: DWH, Jeff

O1: Daley, AK, Hammit

O2: Roman, Neil, and Matvey

O3: Nelson, Elliot, and Gregson

I’m not 100% on those lines, you’ll have to comment if things were otherwise arranged. This was a good group, and the Red felt good as things got going.

The first would see the Red get heaps of chances. A bunch of times the Blues just iced the puck to take off the pressure. They were playing defensively but hanging #8 or greensocks at the top of the zone or in neutral ice, looking for breakaways. The Red would basically take the game right to them and were able to limit the number of chances in our own end. Still the score remained 0-0 for the majority of the period.

Then after a faceoff in our end a strange thing happened. Nelson took the faceoff and he and his opponent tangled their sticks while pushing against each other. Nelson’s stick ends up releasing… right into the Zeebra’s crotch. The Zeeb then grabbed Nelson’s stick… and wouldn’t let go. The Blues took advantage of the scramble and popped the puck behind Lizzy for the 1-0 lead. Reached for a quote after the game Nelson had this (or something like it) to say. “ I’ve played a lot of hockey games, but that’s no question, the first time, ever, that I’ve had a ref hold my stick. At least they only scored once.” So the first would end 1-0 Blue.

The second would see more good play from the Red, and eventually they would break the ice with a nice play by Mike Daley. Mike would wheel through the zone, would feed Hammit who would make a great pass back to Mike who stuffed the wraparound home to tie the game. It felt like things were starting to go the Zombie’s way, but the game would continue to be a struggle. Roman ( or Neil … they both wore 13) would go for a hook in the second. The Blues would take one too, but no blood on either penalty.

Then with just under a minute left in the period, a Blue would rip a slapshot from just inside our Blue line that would catch Lizzy napping (or something) and would slide under her stick and into the net for the 2-1 lead. The period would end that way, and the discouraged Zombies would take the ice for the third looking to come back.

The early returns were good in the final frame. The Red proceeded to keep the puck in the Blue zone for almost the entirety of the first two shifts of the period. With about 4 minutes gone into the period Roman would push the puck up through center ice. Knowing Roman, I almost don’t need to tell you that he neglected to pass the puck up to Neil who was open (and ahead of him) most of the way up ice and into the zone. Roman would hold onto the puck though and would eventually pass to Neil who would make a great move to shake a defenseman and then zipped a terrific pass back to Roman who banged it home for the equalizer. Really a great play by both guys.

So there we were. The minutes would tick away, the Blue goalie would make some nice stops and the play seemed to get a bit tighter as we went below the 10 minute mark. Hammit would finally reach his boiling point and went for a cross-check with just under 7 minutes remaining. We would survive the PK and Hammit did a good job not letting his temper get the best of him for the remainder of the game. The Blue goalie would get a call for a trip not long after, but again no blood on the penalty.

This brings us to the last 2 minutes. Tied. The AK, Daley, Ham line would look for a change at the 130 mark. AK was the last guy coming off the ice as the puck was taken by Red in our own end an came up the ice. Neil was anxiously waiting on the boards and jumped down as AK got close and raced to the puck in the neutral zone… then the whistle blew. That’s right friends, with 1:25 remaining in a hard fought 2-2 game we took a too many men on the ice penalty. Despite the many and loud prostestations so the Dead in Red the Zeeb held his ground and Hamm would go and serve the penalty (doesn’t count towards his Campbell totals). The Red would call time to try and get things together.

DWH, Daley, Neil and Matvey/Roman (they split the shift) would finish out the game for the Red and held off the Blues well. The game ended, a dissapointing tie, given the “time of possesion” inequality for the whole night. A hard fought close game with a division rival, but no joy for Schlidaveur Incorporated this night.

Honorable Mentions: Roman and Neil for good strong work all night. Daley for his terrific wrap around effort. Elliot for postgame beer. Matvey for splititng the last shift with Roman, and for showing up so soon after the birth of his second child. Congrats Matvey! Valenti also had a very nice game at the point and produced a number of really good shots.