Magnificent 7 crunched by 138Autobody

Schlitz (14) vs Rte.138 Autobody
Thursday August 1
Canton 7:00


7-1 loss



The Golden Beercans, at least a few of them, showed up to play the C level Rte.138 Autobody club for an early evening matchup in Canton last night, and suffered a predictable beating at their hands. This was despite a great effort by the few that skated.

This game was not exactly popular. Despite everyone on the roster and sub list being asked we only had 10 confirmed until a late visit from the Verizon man to the Capraro house made us 9 at best. Its never easy to get through the 93 traffic for these early games and yesterday a car fire and full highway closure resulted in 128/93 north and south becoming more clogged than Rex Ryan’s colon. It was not good.

This is all besides the fact that the opponent was a club that we’ve only seen once before, for good reason, they’re a C level squad, and we took it in the teeth that night. This must be our turn in the barrel week at the NESHL as the Monday night out of division opponent laid a smackdown on us too. Pretty sure that this, as well as gametime lent to the popularity, or lack there of, for this one.

It was about twenty of 7 when Mike Campbell kicked open the locker room door with a “Hello bitches” only to find the glum faced Fosdick boys contemplating their fate. After a while iJosh and Nelson would show and Lizzy after them as 7 approached. We’d have 5 at least and it was becoming clear that we’d have to go there and face a C level club with no subs, or at least very few, if anyone else survived the traffic crunch to make it. Lizzy was late enough and we all stalled a bit so the refs ran the clock at the beginning of the game.

We lost about 7 minutes by the time we were ready to play and they dropped the puck around the 10 minute mark of the first. Thankfully the Zeebs seemed to neglect to give the Beercan’s a delay of game penalty. They probably figured it was punishment enough to skate the whole time with 5.

I’m here to tell you, friend reader of the blog, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. The Can’s skated with a reasonable tempo, and countered the immediate strength of Team Autobody. They still worked us, but we did a good job defensively breaking up wat they were trying to do. Mike and Jeff played D, and Nelson centered iJosh and Chris. We held them scoreless for about 4 minutes until they scored at the 6 minute mark. Lizzy had already made a handful of good saves but it was clear that it would only be so long that we could stem the tide until they would get a few breakthroughs.

The first period would grind on and the Gold really took to the defensive style and even counter punched a few times. There was no shortage of Beercan Pride as the period got late with no breaks. Roman was sighted coming in near the end of the period.

Team Autobody would get another with 30 seconds left in the period on a ridiculous bang bang that we were undressed on.
The Gold was glad for the break and Roman made it out for the start of the second.

The grind was on. Jeff would get called for a hook about three minutes into the period. Maybe his strategy was to get a rest, but it backfired as 138 would score about a minute later to cancel the penalty. It was now 3-0 and the Gold was trying just to keep too much blood from getting in the water. But, they held strong. They kept fighting them to a draw and with 5 minutes left in the period something awesome happened.

Nelson, as usual, would tirelessly heft the puck into the Black end and create a play. His shot led to a rebound which Chris would wrist into the net for a goal. The Gold was only down 3-1 against a far superior club, with only 1 sub, almost to the end of the second. Unfortunately it wasn’t close enough to the end of the second and Black would deposit two quick goals, 40 seconds apart in the closing minutes.

The Gold welcomed Neil Shah to the bench for the start of the third. He had shown late in the second, and Neil deserves extra credit for showing up, at 740 after a ridiculous ride down in traffic. The guys were glad to see him.

The Blogger has to admit some pride here. I can honestly tell you that I think the Schlitz played a step faster in that third period. At least a little faster than the first. Its amazing what two subs will give you. So they started the third down 5-1 but dug in hard.

Team Autobody would score twice in the opening 5 minutes but that’s all they would get. Even at 7-1, the blood clearly in the water and the sharks clearly feeding the Can’s didn’t despair and no one gave up. No one.

To cop Nelson’s phrase from the postgame… The Magnificent Seven did everything they could to preserve whatever dignity we could for those last 12 minutes and held the Black scoreless.

Lizzy needs some bigtime props here. The Girl was ON it. She made at least 10-12 good saves. She made more than a handful of impressive saves. The slapshots were like lasers and the play was often right on top of her and moving side to side. All I can say is that she played great. That’s not usually what you say after getting 7 hung on you but it’s the truth. Great work Liz.

So there you have it. A beating, but we didn’t ever fold. That’s just about all we’ve got, with the exception of our aches and pains this morning.

Props again to Neil for showing so late and helping the cause. Props to Mr. Campbell for the delicious Limeys in the postgame.
Lizzy… go to the doctor. Today

This one would end with all seven in the lot for a few mintues behind Campbell’s truck but it was short lived. Everyone was tired and eager to be on their way. Campbell pulled out leaving behind the dour faced Fosdick boys by themselves to commiserate with a last round in the lot. They too were soon gone not having enough energy to long discuss their sour fates.