Cadavers (15) vs Lobsters
Thursday Aug. 18
Dedham 9:00pm
4-3 Win!
The dead in Red... actually yellow thanks to playing the red-backed shellfish... stumbled into Dedham last night like a weary leigonier dragging himself into a desert oasis, desperate for a drink from the cool fountain of victory, our lips parched from the blistering passage of a 9 game winless streak. Its been since June 16th, a night we put the hurt on an undermanned CH Terriers squad, since we'd had our itching thirst slaked. Long overdue, and thankfully the Lobsters provided us with a golden opportunity last night. They were thin on players and only had a few that could really compete, from early on it was clear they were very beatable.
Of course, if you've stopped by here more than 2 or 3 times, you'll know it wasn't all that easy, even against a weaker opponent for us to shake our losing ways.
The Dead in Gold had nearly a full boat with 12 and Randy Dudek in the pipes for his third appearance. Here's your breakdown.
Randy in Net
D1: George, iJosh (yep)
D2: Jeff, Matt Elliot (sloshed)
Centers: Larry, Baker
Wings: Roman, Matvey; Sully, Gregson; Mitch, Dr.Pounds
The pregame locker room had plenty of good optimism. Nice to see iJosh make a return, its been too long since he's laced 'em up with us. Matt Elliot agreed to play D with Jeff, actually talked himself into the job as it was revealed that he'd had quite a number of CL smoothies during pregame and apparently "was up for anything". He also made some slurred remarks about being "dangerous". Jeff was glad for his enthusiasm and agreed to the D pairing right away.
Th
e first period was kind of frustrating. It was clear early on that we could out skate and out play these guys but somehow it wasn't translating into dominant play. In fact we looked like we didn't know exactly what to do with ourselves for half the time. 7 Minuets in the Lobsters would jump on a loose puck to Randy's left and thump it off him and the post into the net for the 1-0 lead. Worse than that one of their capable skaters made a nice play after a good pass and unleashed a strong shot that beat Randy for the 2-0 lead in the closing moments of the period.
So there we were, intermission number 1 and down 2 goals to a weak team. Looking down the barrel of 9 winless games (7 losses, 2 ties) over the last two months. I'm glad to report, that when it was gut check time, Zombie Pride made a comeback.
The Dead in Gold took to it and finally started to make some things happen. Jeff Fosdick led the way on D as he started to push things up ice at every opportunity.
A couple of minutes in he pressed the play up to Larry on the right. Larry gained the zone and made a nice pass back to Jeff who was crashing the net. Jeff took a couple of hacks at it, the keeper let it slip out from under and then Jeff flipped it into the net for the first Zombie score of the night.
The blogger gushes with pride to report that Jeff wasn't even close to being done. A few shifts later as the Gold continued to build momentum and keep things in the Lobster
end, Jeff would intercept a clearing pass at the top of the zone. He grabbed the end over end flip with his left glove, plopped it down in front of him and whipped it in to Jim Sullivan who was streaking to the net. Sully took the pass and banged it home for the game tying talley. Nice work on the finish by Sully there.
Other notable items in the second were a handful of stops by Randy and a curious play with Baker and Roman that saw Baker hesitating at the blue line putting Roman off side. The blogger thought this was hilarious. Baker just Romaned... Roman. The period would end with the teams deadlocked at 2.
The Gold continued to roll as the third opened. Jeff again figured in the play as he pushed up ice into the neutral zone. There he led Steve Baker with a pass at the blue line. Baker slipped into the zone, and as the D backed off of him he pulled up and released the hounds in the form of a lasershow slapper that the Red keep had no chance on. Bang. Good guys up 3-2.
Good things continued to happen as everyone got it in gear and made some plays. The forwards were doing a nice job getting things going and keeping the play in the Lobster end when possible. We were a long way from anything like "polished" or "dominating" but it looked good at times.
Baker would strike again, this time from George who made a nice play to Steve. Baker would provide the nice finish again with a wicked shot that put the Gold up 4-2 with less than 5 minutes left in the game.
Now... The Gold could certainly taste it, but as stated earlier, we don't like to make anything easier on ourselves. So there was the standard chase it around out own zone for a couple of the final minutes. This led to a goal with less than 2 minutes left and the score was 4-3.
Regardless, Team Zombie was able to grind this one out, snuffing out any offense the Shellfish could muster in the closing moments. Felt good.
Game Stars (whoa... its been a long time) 3rd Star: Larry. A nice assist and a lot of hard work all night long. Good solid game.
2nd Star: Pair of goals for Steve Baker and some very nice all around play. Steve has had a great summer working hard and making plays. Good job.
1st Star: The Blogger blushes... but since he was given free license by Larry in the postgame locker room... awards 1st star to hard working Jeff Fosdick. An all effort 1st goal to get things going and then 2 key helpers to keep it going for the Zombies. Nice work big fella. This 3 point outburst puts Jeff among the team leaders with 10 points on the season(tied with Larry and Baker), only 1 back from Jim Sullivan who has 11.
Honorable Mentions:
iJosh for carrying the mail on a regular D shift with George all night. Nice to see you out there dude.
Matt Elliot gets the Mike Campbell drunken defenseman award for surviving the night. Only a few spills but in general Matt played great.
Randy Dudek for hanging with us. He went from blowout loss his first game, to a hard fought tie in his second, to a nice win in his third. Careful dude... we may want to keep you.
4th Period Beerman Honor Roll for Larry Bell who brought a deliciously marinated selection of Limeys in a cooler. Nice to hang with Larry, Ken, iJosh, and George after the game. Been too long since the 4th period followed a nice come from behind win.
Great job Team. (click to make stats big)
Now... not to get too far ahead of ourselves... we stand now 6-7-2 with 2 games remaining over the next 2 Thursday nights. The CH Terriers next week and the Blues the week after. If we can figure out a way to pull these games off we could still finish over .500.
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