Tigers Claw Cans.

Schlitz (10) vs Tigers

Monday July 14

Quincy 8:10pm

5-2 loss

Another early evening affair at the Quincy Youth Arena for our friends the Skating Beercans and the division leading Tigers. Good showing for both squads. The Gold knew that even though the Tigers were only floating along at .500 they still have a good determined club and still held the division lead. This would be a test and in the early going the Gold seemed up to the task.

The ‘cans roster was as follows. Dan Herbert and Dan Gregson, and Jeff Fosdick with Pete Capraro were the D pairings. The O was anchored by iJosh and Matt Elliot who took center duties with wing pairs Jasse and Chuck, Mark Reynolds and Scott Pounds, and Ken Goldenberg would eventually pair with Blake Underhill arrived. (Blake is nothing if not fashionably late.) Brian Carey backstopped.

Again the Gold got right to work. There was lots of locker room and bench banter about getting after it and taking the game to them and the first line of O did just that. iJosh led the charge into the zone and within a minute they had a chance. Cycling low in the zone, taking the play to them just as we talked about, Jasse bounced to Chuck over to iJosh who buried it for the early lead. Suds power got us off on the right foot.

The Tigers didn’t seem happy with the result of the early going and took the play back to the Gold for the next minute or so. With about 13 minutes left in the first the Tigers would break through and buried one after cycling the zone pretty well. The guy was standing on Brian’s doorstep and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

The first period wasn’t over by far. The Gold would strike again to regain the lead only 2-3 minutes after the Tigers tied. The second goal was another hard working affair, this time Dr.Pounds roofed a shot over the keeper after taking the pass from power grinding linemates Mark Reynolds and Matt Elliot.

Things were tentative but still looking good for the Gold. Whenever we could get them in their own end good things were happening. Trouble was the Gold then began to spend less and less time in the Tiger end.

The Cats came back and tied the game with about 5 minutes left in the period after another “‘round the zone in 80 seconds” tour. Again not much our guy Brian could do about it.

Pete Capraro would be whistled off not long after that for a hold, and the Tigers would finally take the lead just before the close of the first. End of one, 3-2 Cats.

Well friends, the Blogger wishes he had a better tale to tell, but that first period was as good as it would get for the Schlitz. The Gold knew what they had to do, and for the most part fought hard trying to make it happen. Trouble is, it just wouldn’t. Missed passes, turnovers, and botched breakouts were the theme for the rest of the night, and the uphill climb to take the game back, never left the basecamp.

Brian did Yoeman’s work turning away shots in bunches, leaping to cover lose pucks in the crease and fighting through a screen most of the time. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep them all out and the Cats would take the lead to two when a long shot found its way under his stick and across the line about halfway through the second. The game went to the third with the Schlitz down 4-2, still in the game, but hope was dimming for a comeback.

The Tigers would score once more in the third and the ‘cans would pack it up for the night after a 5-2 loss. The third didn’t have much play of note, other than miscues, the best of which saw a pirrouetting Chuck, and linemates Jasse and Ellliot all making a close pass to the puck in the neutral zone only to have none of them take it, and the Tiger defenseman picked it up and took it back into our zone. Jeff and Ken had their own moment of indecision in the Gold end that looked the same. That was kind of how things went, no matter how hard we tried to get it moving… we couldn’t get out of first gear.

So the Schlitz lose a chance to gain on the Cats as we enter the last third of the summer season. The Suds have lost their last 2 games now falling back to 5-4-1 on the season. Up next for the Suds are the Windsuckers next Tuesday night.

No Game stars.

Big Fan Kudos to The Underhill Family! Particularly “Cool” Mom Maria (she was freezing) and the two boys Sam and Santiago. Sam even went home with a souvenier puck. Good work guys! Thanks so much for being our fans! Wish we could have got the win… maybe next time….and some socks for Mom’s chilly feet.

Too bad the pic we have doesn't include the best looking member of the family... but the boys are cute.

Kudos to Parking Lot Champions Dr. Scott Pounds (for bringing the newley endangered Bud longnecks), Dr. Jasse for the Heinikens keg cans. Thanks guys.