Cadavers (13) vs River Rats
Monday Aug 8
Canton 1010pm
3-1 Loss
The dead in Red hit the Ice in Canton last night as the Dead in Yellow, with new and old faces trying to bust up this miserable streak that the team has been on since the early part of the summer. Newcomer Jay McNamara was manning the pipes for the first time for the Dead and he did a fine job in his first appearance. Jon Carey (brought by his Dad Brian) was home on leave from the Marines and he skated a reunion shift with the forwards for the night. Likewise it was nice to see Eric Snow on the blueline again as he made only his second game for the Cads. Here’s how the roster shook out.
Jay McNamara in net
D1: Eric Snow; Bauer
D2: Baker; Jeff
O1: Sully, Daley, Matvey
O2: Parker, Carey, Elliot
and Doc Pounds did the floating.
The opponent for the night was the River Rats, a club we’ve seen before but very rarely. They usually play in a division one or two above us, and after the debacle last week against the Shock, there was a bit of trepidation in the room about the prospects of being badly outclassed on the ice. The blogger is glad to tell you that this wasn’t quite the case, and the situation was certainly made much better given that the Rats acted with a lot more class and sportsmanship than the F*ckbag Shock.
They were better than us. No question. They had two guys, no face sheild number 6 and blue helmet 18 that were a full step or two above the talent level we are used to. It was clear from early on we’d have to keep a sharp eye on both of those guys whenever they were on the ice.
I’m also glad to report that the Dead in Gold looked at the task at hand and dug right in and played hard matching the Rats intensity and keeping a dull shine on Zombie pride preventing anything from getting out of hand.
The Red forwards did a nice job backchecking, and the D was pretty well shutdown all night. Great play by Steve Baker all night helped anchor that D unit and he must have had 30 stops/breakups over the course of the game. Bauer and Snow worked pretty well together and the Gold limited the Red to short cycles in our end.
More good news. Jay McNamara is a nice find. Kudos from management go to George Moorachian for digging this guy up. He’s got game and shut down the Rat’s big guns a number of times in the first and third. The ‘davuers look forward to seeing him back in the nets sometime soon.
The first period would see a few scrambles in our end but in general the Gold did a nice job reacting to the Rats speed and snuffed out everything they brought.
Its notable that the first time the blogger remembered a good hard shot on the red keeper was at about 4 minutes remaining in that period. It would end a 0-0 draw and the Gold clearly had a moral victory at that score.
Really the only bad section of the game for the Cadavers was the beginning of the second period. The Rats would turn on the juice and land a bang bang pass and shoot goal just 15 seconds in. The goal was set up by the speedy number 18 who had serious wheels when he wanted to open it up. They plunked another one in less than a minute later and there was clearly a sinking feeling on the Gold bench. They would hand semi tough though and get their legs back, only to let another one in at the 1130 mark and the game was 3-0, but that was as far as the bleeding would go that period.
The Gold would get the next one on a nice play by Sully and Daley. Mike led the play in the zone 2 on 1 and threaded a beauty of a pass to Sully who ripped a good shot by the Red keeper to make it 3-1. That seemed to buoy the Gold hopes and they seemed to play a bit harder after that.
Each team would take a penalty. In our case Matvey went for a trip with about 4 minutes left in the second. No scoring on either the kill or the power play and the period would end 3-1.
The third would be a grind all the way. The Rats were clearly looking to bust it open but thanks to great plays by both Jay in Net and
Baker on the blueline the Gold held them without a score in the final frame. Of course we didn’t generate much offense and didn’t make any ground back on the 2 goal lead. Still it was again a bit of a moral victory just to play to a draw in two of the three periods.
It was all around a very good skate and a nice competitive game that had none of the nonsense from the blowout the week before. A tip of the cap to the Rats for that.
Honorable mentions go out to Mike Daley who played his usual very solid game covering lots of ice with each shift. Sully also looks to be becoming more of himself and showing the occasional flash. Nice to see greybeard vet Kevin Parker out there grinding it up with the offense too.
Management would be remiss not to thank Jon Carey for not just coming out last night, but all for his service to our country. Jon looked really well, and certainly added some muscle (and a new tatoo) over the last few months. Stay safe Jon. It was great to see you and remember you can play with us anytime.
Also nice to see his Dad who seems to be on the mend from shoulder surgery. It will be nice to have him back this winter.
That’s how that one went. The last bit of good news I’ve got for you is that we won the all important 4th period thanks to nice chilly collection of beers brought by Eric Bauer. There was good conversation to go with the beer and a laugh or two in the Canton lot before we called it a night.
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