Zombies blow lead to Sputniks

Cadavers (11) vs Sitniks
Monday July 26th
Milton Academy 8:10pm

5-4 loss

Once again the Blogger was not in attendance for this tilt against our Russian friends. Therefore we will get a smattering of Guest blog action here to describe how the evening went. First off we have a very short and sweet (and stats oriented) recap by Larry Bell:

Come form behind loss as we gave up 2-0 and 4-2 leads to lose 5-4
1st: Seaver (unassisted) Pen: Baker-roughing, Baker-Fighting, ejected
2nd: DWH from Daley. Pen: Bell, tripping
3rd: Bell from Seaver, Seaver (unassisted)

Alright. Thanks Larry. Next we have a few more words from the always helpful Mark Reynolds on how things went:

"I have nothing but bad memories of Mon. eve. Overall a disjointed effort.
During Baker’s brawl, he did land 7 or 8 unanswered shots to the opponent’s cage. He was smart enough to leave his hockey gloves on this time (unlike his bout with Hammit).

Jay continues to be a stud player demonstrating some nifty puck handling and skating. Larry played a great game as well. His back-checking shut down some Ruskie plays.

In the end, the Ruskies had two players that controlled the pace of play when they were on the ice. We just couldn’t stop them.

Not much else to it." Thanks very much Mark. Good stuff.

And now we have a rarity in Guestblog action. Here, from the Opponent's perspective is Mr. Roman Kurin who skated with the Sputniks and had these words to contribute.

"To start the game the Schiltz had a good group of 12 skaters with Lizzy between the pipes. Sitniks only had 8 to start but then later 2 more people joined, so we had 10. Good back and forth action which was interrupted by a small fight between Steve and one of our D-men. The Refs got involved really quickly and that didn't result in ejections, just minor penalties. Unfortunately 5 min later there was another fight involving Steve and another D-man from our team which did result in ejections. Can't blame the refs, both guys were rolling on the ice, have to say it was entertaining. In any case that left 9 people for Sitniks for most of the game.

Lizzy made some amazing saves for the rest of the game, there were a few loud pings off the posts and crossbar by Sitniks. Jason scored a beauty of a goal, i had a front row sit for that one, he beat me behind the net, made a spin-o-rama and somehow managed to stuff the puck between the post and a goalie while skating from behind the net. pretty good stuff.

Second goal scored by DWH i think on the solo effort when he took the puck on the Sitnik's blue line and made a good wrist shot from faceoff circles. 2-0 after the first period. In the second Sitniks came back to tie it at 2-2. One was a solo effort by one of our guys and a good shot, the other one was a good passing game which was finished by "nifty #5".

In the third schlitz would score 2 more goals, one by Larry off the faceoff win i think and the other one was off the scramble in front of the net, not sure who got that one. Sitniks would come back again to tie it at 4-4 and then score the last goal on a breakaway 2 min before the time expired. All in all a good competitive game. Overheard during the game:"Way to be a hero!" to our guy who scored the last goal by Mark Reynolds"You got lucky!" - by Eric during hand shakes. Maybe true :)"

Great stuff Roman. Thanks very much for your contribution. The Blogger is in debt to everyone who sends in a few words and helps keep this space alive and ticking...

Suds downed by Sputniks

Schlitz (9) vs Sitniks
Monday June 28th
Canton 10:30pm

4-2 Loss

Late night in Canton for a Monday work week starter special against our old friends the Russians. Roman and Matvey are well know moonlighters with the team that usually wears purple. Must be a Tzar thing... The Sputniks have given us trouble over the past few seasons but most of the games have been entertaining.
Monday night was close at least, most of the way... but didn't end with the good guys on top.

Here's your Golden Avenger Roster
Nelson
Larry
Hammitt
Elliot
George
Mark R
Ken D
Neil
Steve
John
Jason
Eric
Jeff
Brian in Net

The blogger barely remembers this one... again I'm writing from a distance here. It might have had something to do with the night. The Summer heat had set in, muggy and damp. The day was long, and the blogger was delighted, distracted, and divided in thought, with sunshine daydreams, nice things, smiles and beers that he almost missed the game. He didn't though and it all worked out...even after arriving to the bench a few minutes into the first.

The Gold would take the lead on a Steve Baker solo run with about 10 minutes gone in the first. The game was close played and clearly it would be a back and forth affair. Both teams had their chances and escaped without any penalties in the first. End of 1, 1-0 Gold.

The Second would see more action and the Sputniks would score just after a penalty to Baker (leg check... iffy) would expire and the game was tied at about the 12 minute mark. Baker would go again though, coincidentally after he had plenty to say to the Zebra about his first penalty, but again the Gold would survive the PK only to give up another goal just a minute or so afterward.

Not to be totally out done the Gold would get one from Jeff Fosdick who would score on a long shot from the point (pass from D partner Hammitt) and was glad, even though in his mind he'd wished it was his second score of the night... and the game was tied 2-2.

The Sitniks weren't done with this period by a long shot and niffty #5 for the Purple would pot two more goals before it was over and the Gold would find themselves down 4-2 after two periods of work.

The Gold would fight the good fight in the third but could never seem to get over on Team Sputnik. AK and Larry would both take calls in the period, AK early, LB late but again no scoring on the man advantage. Brian did what he could between the pipes but there wasn't much he could do given that we weren't able to score any more and the game would end 4-2.

Gotta hand it to the bad guys for the hard work in the third that prevented any momentum for the Gold. No game stars... or regrets.

Suds versus Sputniks in nightcap

SCHLITZ (7) vs SITNIKS

Monday November 9th

UMASS 8:10 PM

9-1 Loss

The nightcap game featured a rivalry with some of our own good friends and 'daveurs. The Sitniks feature regular 'daveurs Roman Kurin and Matvey Nikhamik so its always fun to play against those guys... Although they had plenty of players and let us keep Matvey who joined a bunch of guys who had just played against the Windsuckers to face the RED MENACE.

It didn't go well. Think opposite of the cold war.

Let me put it this way... by the time the blogger left the building it was 3-0 Sputniks and that was with 8 minutes left in the first.

Here's Positive Pete Capraro with a recap.

Second period, The goal by Baker Assisted by Shah and Capraro.Second period,

Campbell sin bin for roughing in first. Chris Foz for checking.3rd period Hammit for holding.

That's it. 9 goals against.

My only blog comment is that it looked like after game 2 Larry the stat whore, with a big smile on his face, approached the score keeper that he berated with anatomical verbal gestures a few games back to make amends. Looked like he even showered and shaved the landing strip on his face for the approach.

What a beating, but I like that faster skate, I think we did alright for the first few seconds in the first period until they scored.

Thanks Pete. Well. I think we are just going to leave that right there and move on to sunnier topics.

Cads lose to Spuniks. Its all over now.

Cadavers (p3) vs Sitniks

Thursday April 16th

Canton 7:00pm

5-2 Loss.

The news out of Zombieville is no good this morning friends. The Dead in Red went down to the Red Army (wearing purple) and the book is officially closed on the Cadaver 08-09 campaign. The word is that Team Sputnik had three full lines to the Dead's two and really had a strong lineup on the ice. It also sounds like Brian "Long arm of the Law" Carey had another great playoff performance, only to be squandered by some lackluster play on the part of the rest of the Zombie roster.

There was the faint ringing of some complaints here and there but that's all that I'll say about it, our guest bloggers have a comment though down below here. It sounds like a frustrating one, but really, hasn't this just been a season of frustrating games? This whole thing had a stench on it from the start, so as far as the Blogger is concerend good riddance to Winter 08-09. Let's try to get some different mojo going for the summer season.

Lets get on to the first hand accounts and summary of the game. Here is the rundown from Defenseman Marc Valenti:

"Period 1
Sputniks Goal @ 10:05
Dead Penalty @ 12:07, Tripping #11
Close period, we kept the pressure and Brain played great.

Period 2
Sputniks Goal @ 6:21
Sputniks Goal @ 3:06
Dead Penalty @ 0:02, Roughing #16
With our two lines to their three lines of decent skaters we began to run out of steam. Brian played great.

Period 3
Sputniks Goal @ 16:33
Sputniks Goal @ 7:02
Dead Penalty @ 4:47, Roughing #11
Dead Goal @ 1:11, #2 Unassisted
Dead Goal @ 0:50, #44 Unassisted
We staged a comeback, just too late. Brian played great, score doesn’t show it.

Overall, the calls did seem one sided and they had #25 who was the ringer that we played with the last time we played them.
The roster says him name is Sasha Tkachev, NOT. Nelson told the refs to check his ID and they would not, therefore, it doesn’t matter. It’s all hot air. They brought in a ringer for a playoff game, really, it’s D league.
Final Score 5-2"

Nice wrap from Marc. Here are some comments from another D-man Chris Fosdick. He gives a nice recap on the two third period goals here.

"Brian turned in another amazing performance, he is really improving. However, we just couldn't get it done. ...

It's not that they were so good, but they did come out and hustle more than we did and that made the difference. They pass pretty well too, but if we had had even slightly different personnel we could have beat them. It was very frustrating. ...

Finally with less than 2 mins left Dan G. was battling in the corner with two guys on him, and I was wide open on the point, so I called for the puck, which he got to me and I released a cannon of a shot that beat the goalie high glove side. Then, 30 seconds or so later we get the puck in their zone and make another bid and Dan G stuffs in a losse puck in the scrum in front of the net. So in the end we had at least a little redemption, but also a condemnation ... [comment deleted]"

Thanks for the words and recap bro'. Good job with the goal at the end there, and thanks for taking the shifts on D when the team needed you.

Good luck to the Sputniks/Sitniks... try not to get blown out in the next game.

Thats all from here. See you for the begining of the Summer Season. I'll work up the end of season statistics and dreaded season wrap post while I'm on vacation in Florida next week.

As far as I'm concerned this party is over. Last one out... turn off the lights.

Zombies Bring Down Sputnix

Cadavers (8) vs Sitniks
Tuesday November 25
Canton 10:20pm

8-6 Win!



Oh baby this was a good one. A wild west style shootout with the Zombies and Ruskies going back and forth all night. Just like a cold war spy novel this one had twists and turns, handsome guest players, and plenty of "competitive escalation" on the ice.
There was some good pregame anticipation as we got ready to face off against our teammates and friends Roman and Matvey and their comrades. The Zombie locker room was a bit on the light side before game time when this guy/kid pokes his head into the room and says this:
"Do you guys need skaters? I was supposed to play for them but they have too many guys."
Jeff looked around the room, counted to 8 and said. "No problem." The kid (in shape and had the look of a ringer) said he knew someone on the 'niks and he had asked him along. No problem. So in an ironic turn of Glastnost... or would it be Peristrokia... the Sputniks held true to thier communtist manifesto and "spread the wealth" just enough to help thier opponents (us) out. Thanks commrades.
The kid... Tyler Mather turns out to be awesome. Not very tall but other than that he could skate, stickhandle, shoot, and pass with the best of 'em. He was a nice addition considering that there were plenty of new recruits in the Sputnik lineup that would have made the game a much more difficult experience had we not had our talent infusion.
The Dead in Red ended up with 12 total. Larry and Mather (wearing #1) centering 3 sets of wings. iJosh and Parker, Jasse and Jeff, Dr.Pounds and Mitch. The D was ably manned by DWH and Capt. George, and Hammitt and Valenti. Lizzy in the pipes.
The game was fast paced. Lots of stuff going on all over the ice at both ends. Lizzy was spot on through the early going.
The Flying Purple Satillites would strike first netting one at 8:36 in the first after a long scramble in the Cads end. They had broken through for the game's first blood and Team Zombie knew they had their work cut out... extra help or no.
DWH would strike with a great shot after a beauty of a rush up ice just 2 minutes later. Dan and George were really flying out there covering lots of ground against the rushing Russians. The Zombies would strike again with 3 minutes left in the first. This time Parker on the feed from #1. This was a hard cycle down low and a nice finish (gritty) from Parker. Larry would go for a hook late in the period but it was killed. 2-1 Cads after 1.
Good things kept happening for the Dead as Parker would score again (unassisted) at the start of the second. Niffty #1 would put another one in at the 10 minute mark and things were really looking good for the Cads. They were up 4-1 and the Russians were frustrated. Of course... the Sputniks had us right where they wanted us. The penalty bug would bite again, as it always does, in the second, when Parker went for a rough at 8:03. The Purple Satillites would score 20 seconds in to make it 4-2.
Then came the avalanche. The Cosmonauts would score THREE more times in the next 4 minutes of playing time to lead the game 5-4 with just under 3 minutes left in the period. There was no question a visible let down on the Red side as things just fell apart at the seams. The Purple were getting good shots and taking the game right to us winning battles.
The tide would be stemmed by the Red getting back on track with a great shift from iJosh and Parker and Nifty#1. They would do some hard work cycling and the play would go iJosh to Mather to Parker and in the net. Parker with the natural hat-trick, and well deserved. 5-5 after 2 exhausting periods.
The blogger is here to tell you there was definitely some Zombie Pride in the house as the teams took to the third. Everyone was tired. Nobody let up and we really finished strong. At the end of the first shift in the third Jeff would pick up a puck that Valenti kept in at the point and went through a defender to the net. He kept going and managed to get off a shot that found its way home and the Dead were back in front in the early going.
Another 7 minutes of hard work later Dan With Hands would take a nice feed from #1 in the slot and did like a turn around backhand thing (I think...) that put the Red ahead by two 7-5. Not enough can be said about the work of the D corps, DWH on the board with 2 and a bunch of play breaks, George covering lots of ground, and Hammit making some nice plays. Marc was probaly just happy he didn't have to deal with Jeff as his D partner for the night. Great work by all of 'em.
The game would have one more twist as the Sputniks would score with under a minute left to make the last 30 seconds interesting. Lizzy once again made some just terrific saves in the closing seconds as the russians buzzed around the net.
The game ended with (appropriately) our sub Mather landing the empty net with 3 seconds remaining to end the game 8-6. He gave a tremendous contribution all night with this legs and hands moving the play or stopping it when we needed to. We told him he could come back any time. (like when he's home on vacation again from St.Mikes...)
Game Stars
3rd Star: DWH with 2 nice goals and lots of plays on both ends. Breaking up plays or starting a rush, then finishing it, he had great contributions all night.
2nd Star: Parker with the hat trick, and probably an assist somewhere in there and just tough Neelyesque play all night. Great work.
1st Star: Who else but Tyler Mather the Young Gun, number 1, our able substitute that was very nearly skating for the other side... glad to have you skate with us. Come back anytime. Thanks.