Playoffs! Golden Zombies Boil Lobsters

Cadavers (2) vs Lobsters (7)
Monday March 29
Dedham 9:00


3-1 Win



The playoffs for the Winter season kicked off last night at the Boch Ice Palace in Dedham. The number two seeded Cadavers would take on the ever fiesty Lobsters who came in as a seven seed in the Islanders Division. Of course the Lobs wear red so Team Zombie skated as the Golden Schlitz. This squad… you may recall was George’s crew from the ‘daveur a few weeks back. The roster looked like this.
Jim Sullivan in Net
D1: George and Pete Capraro
D2: DWH and Jeff
Centers: Larry and Roman
Wings: Blake, Jasse, Gregson, Scott, Chris, and Neil

The game would start off with the Cads immediatley scrambling. It was clear early on the Lobsters had their excellent female player (8) and a pair of good players (73 & 75) who would take their chances and would press us whenever possible. The goldencads would scramble around a bit in the early going just trying to get set up and deal with the red. It wouldn’t be until well halfway through that the Gold would roll and couple solid shifts that would result in some extended time in the offensive zone and a handful of chances. Jim would be a stabilizing force for us in our own end making more than a few quality stops and forcing play stoppages when needed. There was only one penalty, to Larry who went for an elbow… as a kind of strange match for the hack he took just before, and the teams skated 4 on 4 but there was no blood. The first would end with no score.

The second would see more good back and forth action and both teams pressed for chances when they could. It was more than halfway through when the dealock would be broken. A just under the eight minute mark Jeff would take the puck on a rush through the far side of the neutral zone and over the line. Dealing in traffic he worked the retreating defensman and slid the puck to himself coming toward the center of the zone. A quick shot beat the keeper far side and low and Jeff came back up the ice with his arms up.

The red wouldn’t take it quietly and they wouild counter with solid chances. At one point Sully would make a great stop and fell back on the puck as it spun around litterally on the line. Another occasion he came sweeping across the crease and making a Bruce Lee-equse kick save that shot the puck out into the corner and away from traffic. Needless to say Jim was a big factor in the game for the GoldenZombies and did a great job filling in for regular Brian Carey.

The second was noteable for one other event which was a remarkable clearing out check laid on Roman right by the offensive net. What made this check unique was that it was delt by Chris Fosdick as he chased after the puck and got tangled with the russian (who landed on the ice) on his way by the net. Both guys had a good night on offense otherwise and got lots of chances. The second would end Cads 1 Lobs 0.

The third period would see a bunch more action on the ice and the scoresheet. Less than three minutes in the Zombie offense would hit paydirt. George would keep the play in the offensive zone and fed Larry who made a beauty of a pass to Roman who was out front. The Russian ripped a quick shot that put the Zombies ahead 2-0. Only another three minutes later the Gold would strike again. Dan Gregson kept after the puck in the offensive zone and then made a nice pass to Larry who buried a rising shot for the 3-0 lead and the zombies were feeling pretty good, now with just over ten minutes left in the game.

As the game would go under 10 minutes things would start to get desperate for the Lobsters and they would definitly turn up the heat. On a good break one of the 70s guys would turn Jeff but not before the flagging defenseman would get a piece of him with his stick. Jeff would go at 920 for the slash. No blood on the PK but the Lobs were gaining momentum

Jeff was back on the ice and trying to defend a fast paced 2 on 1 but was unable to intercept the pass and the Shellfish would score on the attmept @6:06 remaining. It was really a good pass and rush from 75 and and #8 finished it off nicely.
Number 8 would then tangle with the D once or twice, the second time resulting in a small skirmish with DWH. Of course Dan would be sent to the box, and no match for #8... who apparently doesnt take penalties because she's a she... The zebra didn't seem interested in any conjecture from Jeff or George and got downright snippy about it... but again, no blood on the penalty kill.

Thats how it would roll. The Golden Zombies trying to finish out the win and trying to keep thier mouths shut from inducing any more penalties.

Game Stars
3rd Star: Hmmm. I'll say DWH and George(1assist) who both had very solid nights on D and did a great job all the way around. I'll have some honorable mentions for the other candidates for this star below.

2nd Star: I'm going with Larry "I wish I didn't send that email" Bell. A goal and and assist and a typical hard working great effort all night. Also... Larry was sporting his new "I'm not saying shit to anyone about anything" philosopy... which seemed to work out... but he still made it to the box once. (but he didn't say anything...)

1st Star: Not a shutout but Jim Sullivan was a major factor in net. More than a handfull of EPIC saves and very solid play all night that helped anchor the defense. Great work Jim, nice to have you with us for the "tournament".

Honorable Mentions:
Jeff Fosdick for a wicked goal. (if the blogger does say so himself)
Dan Gregson for a terrific assist on Larry's goal.
Pete Capraro for playing D all night.
Blake Underhill for bringing the effort all night.
Roman for his goal which was a nice tally.

Playoffs Start Tonight!

Alright alright. The playoffs start tonight. Thanks to some wrangling at Management we have the teams, rosters, and times for the playoffs. We are off and running with games on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Cadavers vs the Lobsters
Monday 3/29
9:00pm Dedham

-Cadavers-

George

Larry

Chris Foz

Roman

Goody

DWH

Jeff Foz

Hammitt

Scotty

Ken/Mitch

Gregson
Pete
Jasse
Blake
This is part of the double elimination playoffs.
If you lose you will play Mon 4/5, Bavis 10:40. If you win you will play Thu 4/8, Bavis 9:30.

Schlitz vs D-minus

Tuesday 3/30

10:40pm Bavis

-Schlitz-
Neil
Daley
Baker
Nelson
Valenti
Reynolds
Ijosh
AK
Campbell
Chuckie
Elliott
Kevin
Greg
Matvey
Lizzie in net

If you lose you are OUT. This is a Play-in game to the playoffs.
If you win you will play Thu 4/8, Canton 8:10 (against the Blues!) and enter the double elimination playoffs.
Managment has every confidence that the Suds will prevail and actually end up with an additional playoff game because of it. Good luck boys.

Sunday Monsoondavuer!

Schlitz vs Cadavers

Sunday March 14th

Dedham 6:30pm

6-6 Tie

The season ending playoff seeding, monsoon season, Suday- daveur turned out to be an epic

daveur indeed, but ultimately left nothing more decided after the game than was before it. By that the blogger means... we tied. On a night when pucks were flying into the net at an alarming rate, ie... 6 total goals scored in the first 9 minutes of play, the combined schlidaveurs left with no concrete decision on which team would play as which for the upcoming playoff rounds.

Not to worry now... Managment will work something out, and will take suggestions from all participating 'daveurs on how the issue should be resolved.

First off Neil Shah (Cads) and George Moorachian (Suds) did a great job picking squads for this game. The sides were pretty even and it really was a terrific game up and down the ice all night. There was even a pretty good attendance factor given that it was a Sunday evening, and half the state was underwater at that point. Here's what the sides looked like.

Cadavers

Lizzy in net

D1: Valenti and Daley

D2: Reynolds and Baker?

O1: Neil, Nelson and AK

O2: Elliott, iJosh, Chuck and John Carey

Schlitz

Brian Carey in Net

D1: George and Hammitt

D2: DWH and Jeff

O1: Larry, Roman and Chris

O2: Gregson, KenMitch, Goody and Dr.Pounds

The game would open with the Dead in Red opening up like a house on fire. Led by Captain Neil and the Energizerbunnylike Nelson the Cads would capitalize on the early momentum and would take the game right to the Gold (and really down their throats).
First strike would go to Nelson from Neil. I think there was some good passing, and certainly some hard work that got that one done. This was followed up by the worst case scenario for Gold Goalie Brian Carey as son John would put in the second goal, this one from Steve Baker.

This would finally be counter by the Gold when Jeff Fosdick would keep the puck at the left point and fire a low shot that Lizzy got in front of, but then it dribbled under her pads and over the line to put the Suds on the board. Team Zombie was not slowed down much when only a shift or so after that Baker would assist AK on a nice 2 on 1 that would see the back of the net and put the Red back up by two, the score now 3-1.

It was punch counterpunch then as defensive star Dan "DWH" Herbert would push the play into the offensive zone, then taking the pass back from Roman would launch a wicked wrister that would give the Gold their second tally of the night. The momentum seemed to shift as the Gold would light the lamp again, this time a nice bang bang play that went from George to Larry to the back of the net. The game was tied 3-3 and we were only at the 8 minute mark of the first frame. Whew! The teams kind of settled in and there was no further scoring in the period.

The punch counterpunch theme would continue in the second, this time with the Gold taking the lead. The Gold line of Roman, Larry and Chris was really nifty at times. It showed on the next goal that went around the zone once quickly then from Larry behind the net to Roman, totally alone out front to the back of the net for the lead. I think... that the Gold would score again before too long when Lary and Roman would assist DWH who had another great shot that Lizzy didn't have much hope on. The Gold had a two goal lead and a pretty good feeling at that point. At some time Roman would take a hook call and there was no blood on the power play. The Red weren't down for long and would eventually answer with a goal from iJosh, assisted again by Baker, and then Steve would get one of his own not much after, this one assisted by Mike Daley who had a good night patrolling the blue line for the Zombies. The game was tied again, getting late in the period.

Then KenMitch Goldenberg would pop in a rebound from Roman and the Gold would take the lead again, now 6-5 just before the end of the period. 11 goals so far and the third looked like it might get even crazier... who knew if the game would end 9 to 8 or something like that at the rate we were going. It was still anyone's game.

The third, instead of being a scorefest was the opposite. The play got tight, and fairly well contested, each puck battled for at the line and in the corners, but there wasn't any scoring. That is there wasn't any scoring until less than 2 minutes left and the Red stacked a line and really put the pressure on the Gold.

It went like this. Steve Baker would make a nice shot after a scramble around the zone and a pile up in front. The ref blew the whistle as he lost sight of it. The puck goes in the net and Red starts celebrating. But the ref closest to the bench is skating in with his arms out (no goal). There is a huddle by the net, and then the other ref brings the teams up ice an says the goal was good. What? There must have been some good convincing going on because just about everyone was very surprised. The Refs, typically, offered no reasonable explanation and seemed pretty disinterested in general. As time wound down there was an intentional offsides, on Red and then instead of taking the faceoff down to the other end, with 3 seconds on the clock the Zebra tells the scorekeeper to run it off. What? Seriously. Jeff appealed and he said "no one's going to score from there in 3 seconds" pointing to the blueline dot. I appealed that it should be all the way down... but again, not interested. What crap. So bored they cant even give us the last 3 seconds on the clock. Kenny and Scott M were the fraud zebras in question. A couple of ham and eggers if you ask the blogger.

But enough of that. The game ends 6-6. Another tie for the season ending daveur. We'll have to work something out. Send your suggestions via email to management.

Game Stars

3rd Star: Larry for a goal and two assists and some great offensive work.

2nd Star: Linemate Roman Kurin for a goal and three assists and a big 4 point night.

1st Star: Has to go to Steve Baker for the Red. He had 2 goals and 3 assists for a whopper of a 5 point night. Good work Steve.

Honorable Mention to DWH for a pair of really nice goals.

Fourth period kudos to Chris Fosdick for bringing beer and to DWH, Matt Elliott, Mark Reynolds, Dan Gregson, and Jeff for standing in the rain (for about 5-10minutes) and drinking them. No shutout in the fourth, even on this rainy night.

Rosters set for season ending Sunday-Daveur!

Cadavers (23) vs Schlitz (23)

Sunday March 14

Dedham 6:30pm

Season Ending Playoff-Roster-Deciding- Daveur!

Ok Team. Here are your rosters for Sunday night in Dedham!

Be sure to be there, and to bring your "A" game as playoff seeding will be on the line.

Guest Captains Neil and George picked the rosters for their respective teams and management thanks them for their contributions.

See you Sunday!

-Cadavers-

Neil

Daley

Baker

Nelson

Valenti

Reynolds

Greenstein

AK

Campbell

Chuckie

Elliott

John - Brian's Son

Lizzie in net

-Schlitz-
George

Larry

Chris Foz

Roman

Goody

DWH

Jeff Foz

Hammitt

Scotty

Ken/Mitch

Gregson

Brian in net

Suds Vs Tigers in Milton

Schlitz (22) vs Tigers

Monday March 8th

Milton Academy 8:10pm

1-0 loss

Alright. Here we have a Guestblog courtesy of BrotherBlogger Chris Fosdick. Here's Chris' take on what went down Monday night:

"Good skate, tough loss: 1-0.
We had 3 D, Valenti, George, Mark R.

2 forward lines: Larry, Nelson, Chris & Steve, Scott, Matt.

We were taking it to them for the 1st and 2nd periods with no luck. Their goalie is pretty good, and we had some very frustratingly close chances, but to no avail. Near the end of the 2nd they made an adjustment and took their two best forwards and put them on D against the Larry line. This created more of a problem and made it a closer game. It was a fast game, lots of rushing up and down the ice. We started to loose our legs as the game wore on (me mostly).

Brian played really well keeping us in there, and shutting down one clean breakaway. Near the end of the game we rallied and were taking it to them again, led by great hustle from Larry and his line. However, with less (or about) 2 mins. to go they had a chance on Brian, and while everyone was covered, the puck trickled in after Brian had made the first save. (From the bench it looked as if the puck actually bounced off the back of Brian's pad or leg.)

The game closed out with us on the wrong end. It was a great hard skate though, and about as good as D-level hockey gets. -- Chris

Ok. Not the result we are looking for, but sounds like a good skate and a competitive night at the rink. Thanks Chris.

Now we have a few words from our own favorite cagey vet Nelson Sharfman:

"We lost 1-0.
I was gross. I failed to score on three separate golden opportunities, and had another handful of shots beyond that in which I failed to convert. The team played a strong game. Brian was epic in net. I was lame. When is the next game? -- Nelson"

Thanks Nelson. Better luck next time.

Stay tuned for details on Sunday night's Season ending Daveur!

Cads vs Lobsters: Ken we win?

Cadavers (21) vs Lobsters

Wednesday March 3rd

UMass Boston 8:00pm

4-1 Win

Alright alright. The returns look great on last nights game at the Prison by the Bay. The Blogger will hastily step aside for WunderGuestBlogger iJosh who has an excellent recap of the game action. Here's iJosh:

Morressey Boulevard, Boston - The Golden Suds would be in the building this evening to take on the one and only Boston Lobsters. The Lobsters have historically boiled us. Though in the recent past Schlidaveur Inc has been able to be a bit more competitive. So would tonight be more like the historical past or recent past? We'll find out after this short commercial break.

"Easton athletic support shorts for hockey. It has your cup built-in. It ain't no Dixie Cup and it ain't no coffee mug and you sure as hell don't want to be drinking out of it. But don't leave home without it. Right Mr. Valenti?"

Now back to the game.

With Schlitz primed and ready and fielding a full team they would set the lines as follows:

Line 1: Larry Bell, Angry Ken and Neil Shah Line 2: Mike Goodwin, Steve Baker and Matt Elliott Line 3: Dr. Pounds, Dan Greggson and NSA (Not so angry) Ken.

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks the defense would experiment with a new defenseman. So the defense would shape up with:

Mark Reynolds paired with Dan with Hands and Capt' George paired with iJosh Greenstein.

iJosh would try his best to no be a yellow version of an orange cone. But in this own, unbiased guest blogger's opinion it was a decent improvement from the 1st attempt.

From the very start the game was in the hands of the Golden few. Schlitz put pressure on the Lobsters right away, who at the time were still very short handed with only one sub. Multiple shots and some excellent passing and puck control deep in the zone would be displayed early. Though it would not produce a result, but if the play continued this way it would only be a matter of time before it would. However, before that could happen, the refs would show Mr. Baker the door (to the penalty box) for a goaltender interference. A mild complaint would go nowhere (does it ever) and the Gold were forced to play a man down. The team stepped up and played an almost flawless PK. After the penalty expired, the checking line would step on the ice. The Lobsters would try to play some transition hockey and sent a pass across center ice to a streaking forward. The pass would get intercepted by the newbie defenseman who would bring the puck to the blueline and dump it deep. NSA Ken would grab the puck along the boards and center it to a camping Greggson who promptly buried the puck 5-hole style. 1-0 Golden Boys. Before the period would expire, there would be a few words between #73 and Larry. The ref would advise Larry to head to the bench, who actually listened and sat down. But the period would end with a 1-0 advantage to Schlitz.

The 2nd period would see the Lobsters try to take the puck to us a little more. Now armed with a full team themselves they were able to play a little harder. Despite having a few strong skaters included their resident female #8, they would be unable to put one past Lizzy who had a quiet, but sold night. The Lobsters would then get trapped with too many men on the ice and give the Suds a man advantage. But George claimed that it isn't always a good thing to give a good skating line more room to move along with no icing. So the man advantage seemed a little more like a PK. A little bit of a down moment. However if that is the worst play of the period, then there should not be too much criticism. The power play over, it was time for the first line to demonstrate why they were the first line this night. Strong play deep would lead to a scrum in front of the net and would conclude with AK putting one away for a 2-0 lead. The Lobsters still trying to get their heads above water finally got a little pressure on Lizzie. But play would be cleared (barely) by the newbie D who almost put it into the net. However the 1st line would again make the team forget about the near travesty. As the puck was sent forward and tipped into the air, Neil would knock it to the ice. He would slap the puck toward the goalie, who made the initial save. Again, AK would be there to fire the puck into the back of the net for a now 3-0 lead. With 2/3 of the game complete, the Suds would take a 3 goal advantage into the final frame.

It is this blogger's opinion that momentum only lasts so long. And this would be true. Evidenced by the following: The Lobsters would finally find their way onto the scoreboard as they would beat Lizzy to the 5-hole. But due to undisciplined play they would be unable to keep the momentum going. And you thought I was going to say the Gold lost its mojo. Not so. The Suds would keep it going. Taking advantage of 3 Lobster penalties that just kept coming. This included one 2 man advantage that came about after another scrum in front of the net during a 5 on 4 situation. This one finished with Larry Bell backing away from a confrontation. I repeat, Larry used control and a level head, even after being pushed by a steamed Lobster. That would send a second Lobster to the pot and give the Gold the 2 man power play. That would really be it for the Lobsters. But the Gold would be able to tack on one more goal. Larry would slide an excellent pass to AK who completed the hat trick and sealed the game for the Suds.

Kudos to Gregson for providing BL and Baker for bringing the Sam Winter and stuffed hot peppers.

Scoresheet:
1st Period:
Greggson from NSA Ken and iJosh
2nd Period:
AK from Neil and Reynolds
AK from Neil and Larry
3rd Period:
AK from Larry and Neil

Penalty Box:
1st Period:
Steve Baker for Goaltender interference

Game Stars:
Ken Douville for his hat trick and no penalties for the 2nd time in as many weeks.
Lizzy for a solid performance in goal.
Neil Shah for a 3 assist night

Another fabulous Guest Blog by iJosh. Thank you sir!
And now how about some comments from Dr. Pounds who has some insight to share as to how things went last night.
Here's the good Doctor:

I had a clear view of the first goal. The third line was me, Dan G and Ken G. Ken G went hard into the boards, won the puck away from their defenseman, and popped it out to me. I just tossed it towards the low slot where Dan G was camped out in his reserved spot and one-timed it into the net.

(In the parking lot after the game we enjoyed some stuffed pickled peppers Steve Baker had brought along. I said to Dan G that we were either the Helicopter Line, the Doughnut Line, or maybe both at the same time. He took a slow puff on his victory cigar and replied, “No, we were the Awesome Line.”)

Red vs Blues classic

Cadavers (20) vs Blues
Tuesday March 2^nd
BU 8:00 pm

2-2 Tie

Another classic D level matchup with old time rivals the Blues. An early evening start at BU meant a bit of a scramble for parking, some paid, some walked a loooong way. At any rate we ended up with a nice full 13 for the roster, and this is what it looked like.

Lizzy in Net

D1: George, Valenti D2: DWH, Jeff

O1: Daley, AK, Hammit

O2: Roman, Neil, and Matvey

O3: Nelson, Elliot, and Gregson

I’m not 100% on those lines, you’ll have to comment if things were otherwise arranged. This was a good group, and the Red felt good as things got going.

The first would see the Red get heaps of chances. A bunch of times the Blues just iced the puck to take off the pressure. They were playing defensively but hanging #8 or greensocks at the top of the zone or in neutral ice, looking for breakaways. The Red would basically take the game right to them and were able to limit the number of chances in our own end. Still the score remained 0-0 for the majority of the period.

Then after a faceoff in our end a strange thing happened. Nelson took the faceoff and he and his opponent tangled their sticks while pushing against each other. Nelson’s stick ends up releasing… right into the Zeebra’s crotch. The Zeeb then grabbed Nelson’s stick… and wouldn’t let go. The Blues took advantage of the scramble and popped the puck behind Lizzy for the 1-0 lead. Reached for a quote after the game Nelson had this (or something like it) to say. “ I’ve played a lot of hockey games, but that’s no question, the first time, ever, that I’ve had a ref hold my stick. At least they only scored once.” So the first would end 1-0 Blue.

The second would see more good play from the Red, and eventually they would break the ice with a nice play by Mike Daley. Mike would wheel through the zone, would feed Hammit who would make a great pass back to Mike who stuffed the wraparound home to tie the game. It felt like things were starting to go the Zombie’s way, but the game would continue to be a struggle. Roman ( or Neil … they both wore 13) would go for a hook in the second. The Blues would take one too, but no blood on either penalty.

Then with just under a minute left in the period, a Blue would rip a slapshot from just inside our Blue line that would catch Lizzy napping (or something) and would slide under her stick and into the net for the 2-1 lead. The period would end that way, and the discouraged Zombies would take the ice for the third looking to come back.

The early returns were good in the final frame. The Red proceeded to keep the puck in the Blue zone for almost the entirety of the first two shifts of the period. With about 4 minutes gone into the period Roman would push the puck up through center ice. Knowing Roman, I almost don’t need to tell you that he neglected to pass the puck up to Neil who was open (and ahead of him) most of the way up ice and into the zone. Roman would hold onto the puck though and would eventually pass to Neil who would make a great move to shake a defenseman and then zipped a terrific pass back to Roman who banged it home for the equalizer. Really a great play by both guys.

So there we were. The minutes would tick away, the Blue goalie would make some nice stops and the play seemed to get a bit tighter as we went below the 10 minute mark. Hammit would finally reach his boiling point and went for a cross-check with just under 7 minutes remaining. We would survive the PK and Hammit did a good job not letting his temper get the best of him for the remainder of the game. The Blue goalie would get a call for a trip not long after, but again no blood on the penalty.

This brings us to the last 2 minutes. Tied. The AK, Daley, Ham line would look for a change at the 130 mark. AK was the last guy coming off the ice as the puck was taken by Red in our own end an came up the ice. Neil was anxiously waiting on the boards and jumped down as AK got close and raced to the puck in the neutral zone… then the whistle blew. That’s right friends, with 1:25 remaining in a hard fought 2-2 game we took a too many men on the ice penalty. Despite the many and loud prostestations so the Dead in Red the Zeeb held his ground and Hamm would go and serve the penalty (doesn’t count towards his Campbell totals). The Red would call time to try and get things together.

DWH, Daley, Neil and Matvey/Roman (they split the shift) would finish out the game for the Red and held off the Blues well. The game ended, a dissapointing tie, given the “time of possesion” inequality for the whole night. A hard fought close game with a division rival, but no joy for Schlidaveur Incorporated this night.

Honorable Mentions: Roman and Neil for good strong work all night. Daley for his terrific wrap around effort. Elliot for postgame beer. Matvey for splititng the last shift with Roman, and for showing up so soon after the birth of his second child. Congrats Matvey! Valenti also had a very nice game at the point and produced a number of really good shots.

Suds vs Suckas

Schlitz (21) vs Windsuckers

Monday March 1st

Bavis Arena 9:30pm

1-0 Loss

Ok, we've got a pair of great guest bloggers for this one.... so lets hear from them.

First up is Mike Campbell who had this summary of the night's actions.

Heres Mike:

Yes, Suds vs. Suckas.

The timeline is a little fuzzy, and as you know, I'm not so good a writah, but here's my story... and I'm stickin' to it.

Campbell and Reynolds along with special-guest-star-who-did-a-great-job-and-I-think-we-might-keep-him-back-here-on-D-like-we-did-Reynolds Goody made up the ice-hogging D-Trio. Not sure of the forward lines (although someone in the locker room afterwards referred to one of them as the "good" line - as in "Why didn't we put the good line out at the very end?" - but since there were no goals scored by anyone, it was really hard to tell which was the "good" line.), but the O was made up of Baker, Bell, Pounds, Capraro, Shah and Underhill.

These 'sucka guys are pretty good - with one, maybe two hot-shots and not a lot of weakness. Good C, maybe B level skater with Orange socks (whom we shut down). They also have a beastly, gargantuan goalie, that gives up VERY little net, hence the lack of goals on our part. That said, we gave them a damn good run for their money. Lots of end-to-end action, with very few (dare I say, none?) defensive breakdowns. I don't think they ever got an odd-man rush, never mind a break-away. Their one goal was scored in the second period, after Brian had made a nice glove save, one of their guys (23, I think?) gave his glove a good whacking, eventually knocking the puck out, and bashing the begeesus out of Brian's thumb. It only got more chippy from there...

Reynolds took a hit in the back in the offensive end, and let his guy know he didn't like it. Their resident big-guy with the beard chimed in and told Mark to suck it up, and I told him to f-himself, so the four of us had a little time in the box to cool off. Baker got hit so hard with an uncalled butt-end that he gave the ref a demo of what he had missed. The demo was so good that the ref actually flinched, giving us all a little chuckle. There were a few more hits, and grunts and poundings, and Reynolds and I each went to the Bin of Sin one more time. I don't remember any other calls against us.

They had a few other good chances. At least one off the post, and another one went in JUST after the whistle blew... although Brain will tell you he let that one in, after hearing the whistle. I'm not sayin' anything else about that.

We played better later in the game. We finally figured out that the puck wouldn't go in on its own, and we brought some good pressure, lots of shots and a few chances, but none of them cashed out. I got a little desperate and ended up on the ground, in the crease with the puck in the palm of my glove, so I tried to stuff it in by hand, and even that didn't work. It gave us all another laugh, though.

All in, one goal for the bad guys, none for the hops. Almost every penalty matched, and everyone skated hard. A few beers at the Blacktop Café sealed it as a good time in Rockland, despite the loss.
Good luck tonight boys.
~ Mike

Alright! Thank you Dr. Campbell... your words are always appreciated.

The blogger got another summary on this one, from frequent contributer Mark Reynolds. Here's Mark:

Close game Mon night, but the Windsuckers got the best of the Schlitz in a 1-0 loss.

The lineup was:
Brian in Net
Forwards
Pete-Neil-Blake
Scott-Larry-Steve
Defensive Trio
Goodie-Campbell-Reynolds

The only goal came after a wicked slash to Brian's thumb on his blocker side. There definitely should have been a whistle and a penalty. Instead, the puck bounced out and ended up in our net during the scrum. Overall, Brian played an outstanding game, and as usual, saved our collective arses with some tough saves.

The game got a bit chippy in the second. Imagine that against the Windsuckers. Reynolds gets checked hard into the boards from behind and takes physical exception with the offender. With a crowd of Windsuckers encircling Reynolds, Campbell jumps in on to cover his teammate's ass (thanks again Mike). Now two out of three Schlitz defenseman are in the box for roughing (matching with Windsuckers).

The Schladaveurs penalty leaders were at it again. In the third, Campbell went for roughing and Reynolds for checking.

Both teams played a tight game. The Schlitz passed better than usual and did a good job of controlling the puck in the defensive zone. Our forwards had lots of SOG in the 3rd period. We just couldn't put the puck in the net.

Our defensive trio was solid for the entire game. We didn't allow a single break away and only a few 2-on-1's, which the Schlitz handled well. Watch out Goodie; if you keep playing D like that, you'll end up as a full timer.
Thanks again to the forwards that hustled on the back-check.

Kudos to Blake for his best game of the year. He played excellent positional hockey, passed puck intelligently, and battled hard every shift. Pete played his usual balls to the wall style and was especially effective in the neutral zone. Larry, Steve, and Neil set the pace of Schlitz play in the offensive zone. The Dr's long reach kept the puck from leaving offensive zone on many occasions. He also had some quality SOG himself.

The Schlitz would sure like to have this game back again.

Great moments... Great opportunity...

USA vs CANADA
Sunday February 28
Olympic Ice Center
3:00pm

Good luck today Team USA.
I can tell you this, there won't be any Molson, Canadian or Golden, in the house today. No Labatts at the top of the garage stairs for the afternoon game. No way.
My beverage will be from Anhieser Busch St. Louis Missouri thank you very much. All American today, because the Gold is on the line and our brothers to the north stand in the way between US and the highest spot on the podium. Like all battles between brothers, it is sure to be passionate, emotional, and most of all, desperately hard fought.
So we've brought out the 4th of July buntings here at Schlidaveur World Headquarters, we've got MIRACLE playing on a non-stop dvd loop in the other room. The voice of Al Michaels wafts through the house bringing occasional shivers, and strange misty visions. A tale thirty years old is told again to a new generation and by this afternoon the living room will be echoing with the chanting... U S A, U S A, U S A...
Good luck boys. Get after those Canucks and show them that while they may claim the game is theirs by birthright... tonight the title belongs to US.

Good luck USA Hockey and Rosters for next week

Team.

First... good luck to the Yanks this afternoon against the Fins. Hopefully we can get through for a possible matchup with Team Canada for the Gold on Sunday. That's the matchup the hockey world... well... North America... wants to see. Good luck boys.


Check out the rosters for the games next week. Get any conflicts back to Management asap.

Mon 9:30 Bavis, Schlitz vs Windsuckers
Campbell
Ken G
Chris
Scott
Larry
Blake
Chuck
Pete
Mark R
Goody
Neil
Steve
Brian - Goal

Tue 8:00 BU, Cadavers vs Blues
Roman
Matvey
Nelson
Jeff
Hammitt
Gregson
Dan H
Matt E
George
Marc V
Chuck
Daley
Ken D
Lizzie – Goal

Wed 8:10 UMass, Cadavers vs Lobsters
Ijosh
Ken G
Scott
Larry
Dan G
Dan H
Matt E
George
Mark R
Ken D
Goody
Neil
Steve
Lizzie - Goal

Suds vs Call @ UMAlcatraz

Schlitz (20) vs Last Call

Thursday February 18

UMass 7pm

4-4 Tie

A chilly early evening matchup with the Last Call guys out at the Prison by the Bay. Really February is the time of year to make the trip out to the State House of Horrors... it really brings out the ... "atmosphere"... yeah... Nothing like paying to park at Arctic Station Zero to skate at a rink that has roughly the same comfort level of a 50 year old outhouse behind a summer cabin in the back woods of Maine... and that might be putting it nicely...

Anyhow the blogger was not on the Thursday roster and thankfully for you we have a number of sources on the action last night including guestblogger Extraordinaire iJosh. But first lets get the down and dirty from Greggy to start off...

"4-4 tie We started with 8 skaters then DWH came in late. So we had 9.

Ijosh had 1

DWH 1... Larry had 1 and Steve had 1.

I'm not sure about assists, but I had 6 or 7.

When DWH came in it was him Valenti, Matt E. on DLarry Jasse and myself on 1 line Ijosh Steve and Scott on the other.

Lizzy was in net and Jasse gets the gold Schlitz star for bringing the good sarsaparilla for the 4th."

Nice. Thanks Dan. Now we have a brief set of comments from Dr. Jasse who checked in this morning.

"It should be noted that Valenti showed up with no cup, no jock, sans socks and jersy.
With a little help from his teammates all worked out in the end.
Heard whilst lining up for the opening faceoff: “This is a battle for the basement dwellers”
Kudos also to DWH showed up late due to traffic-good for him for not turning around and going home if he doesn’t show we likely lose. He ahad a nice goal on a good rush as well.
Ijosh was writing his guest blog game recap in the parking lot. The bar has been raised."

Woah. The Blogger tips his hat indeed. Thanks Doc for those words. Now lets have the game story from the man with the ambitious thumbs... do I have to say his name...? Here's iJosh: "Good day boys and girls.

It has been a whirlwind few months and more so a whirlwind week for this guest blogger. Not only did I actually play 3 games in 8 days, but in the middle of it all I finalized a very lengthy legal proceeding. I won't say exactly what it is, but it does rhyme with shlivorce. All is good and with any luck it will give me more time to play and guest blog. Gotta have priorities you know (and of course my kids).

So I strolled into UMass Boston last night for an early 7:00 game. It would be a light crowd for both Schlitz and the Last Call for this game. The Golden Suds would start with a sparse 8 players. We would grow to 9 for the start of the 2nd period.

The forwards would start with: Larry Bell, Mike Jasse, Dan Gregson, iJosh Greenstein and Dr. Pounds. The Defense would begin with: Matt Elliott, Steve Baker and Daddy Valenti.

Both teams looked slow and out of sync. Not good hockey. The lone fan seemed content to stare at her book rather than pay attention to the action on the ice. Pucks were bouncing. Passes were missed and it just looked ugly. But no scoring early. Finally the Call would put one past Lizzy. After a little bit of a rush, the puck would jump out in the high slot. iJosh noticed he was in the way of Lizzy and tried to give her some visibility. But not quick enough as the puck sailed by his head and past Liz. 1-0 Call. The Beercans would then try to pull things together a bit. A few good chances were had. But no gold for the gold. Then Larry would take the puck away from an opponent in the defensive end and send the puck to iJosh, who quickly gave it back to a rushing Larry on a give and go. Larry then went end to end on a 2 on 1 with Jassman. The goalie was showing plenty of real estate to Jass, but was also showing 5 hole. Larry not sure which to do, then shot the puck, burying it for a 1-1 tie. The Call would answer back. On an odd man rush, a Call would take a slap shot from just above the left face off circle and put it into the back of the net. That would make it 2-1 at the end of the first.

To start the 2nd, Dan with Hands would make his timely arrival. This would allow Steve Baker to move to forward and create 2 cohesive lines (Larry, Jasse and Gregson & iJosh, Baker and the good Dr.). This would solidify play for us a bit (about as much as it can solidify for a bunch of old, slow, beer leaguers). Dan would get involved in the offensive pressure, and provide a boost on D. Early in the 2nd though, the Call would strike again. This time it would be on a rebound. Lizzy would make the initial save, but there wasn't enough people back to contain the loose puck and the Call would pick up the trash and make it a 3-1 lead. Now it was time for the Golden Suds to produce some offense. The first would be an end to end rush from DWH. He would collect the puck from Larry and then take it all the way and tuck it past the keeper to cut the deficit to 3-2. The Suds would not be done. iJosh would get the puck and try to center it to Steve Baker. The pass would miss and be taken the other way. But DWH would steal the puck right back and send it to Steve Baker who teed one up from the same top of the circle spot that Lizzy got beat by one period earlier. 3-3 tie. But once again folks, momentum only lasts so long. With the seconds winding down the Call would go on a rush again. This time with only Valenti back and iJosh racing to catch up. The Call would slip a man behind Valenti who had nothing but open net. Valenti would hold his ground, but was unable to play them both as the puck carrier slipped it to the open man who easily netted the puck. The period would end 4-3.

Final frame would see lots of action but only one goal. Early in the 3rd, Steve Baker would take a quality shot. The goal keep would leave the puck at the doorstep. iJosh would slap it into the pads, but would get a second rebound and would tuck it behind the goalie for a 4-4 tie. Play would be up and down the rest of the period. Lizzy would make some good saves and in the final minutes, Larry, Jasse, Baker and DWH all had quality chances. But the Call Keeper was able to keep them at bay. So the game would end with a come from behind 4-4 tie.

Jasse would provide 4th period spirits in the form of Heineken Keg Cans."

Scoresheet:
1st:
Larry from iJosh
2nd:
DWH from Larry
Steve Baker from DWH
3rd:
iJosh from Baker

Penalties:
1st:
Baker for a rough

Civil War Daveur @ BU Snowdome

Cadavers/South(19) vs Schlitz/ North(19)

Tuesday February 16

BU 8:10pm

SouthCads 6

NorthSuds 5

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS...

Well... we had a great concept... some good teams, an early start time and a pretty good location. Against us from the start was the weather, which was a classic snowy or wintry mix(!) for the whole day, continuing into the evening and game time. Most players had to find parking along the snowbanks on Babcock street or pay the $5 to park in the BU lot... the parking guys hadn't gone home yet... but in general everyone made it ok, if not eventually... except for one.

We didn't have two of our regular keepers available and Management called in a guy from the Goalie list to help out and play for the Suds. Lizzy was there for the Cads but as game time approached no sign of the fill in. This guy's name is Anthony Damplo, and had confirmed that he would be there. Given that there was no change in the weather during the whole day we can only assume that he wasn't taken by surprise when he realized it was snowing when he left for the rink... who knows. We may never get the story because Anthony Damplo didn't show... didn't call... just disappeared i guess and left the two teams, two refs and scorekeeper in the lurch. No official game, the crew went home, we turned over the net and played an hour of pickup. Too bad... we need to have a rating system for the goalie list so we can trash losers like Anthony that pull a no-show. Maybe someday he'll google his name and find this post... who knows. Chances are he could give a shit.
Anyhow Management apologizes for the lack of a game and hopes to not have this problem in the future...

The teams were pretty good and this is how they played out.

Schlitz/North

Goalie= No show

D= Daley, DWH, James and Elliot (i think...)

O1= Larry, Neil, and AK

O2= iJosh, Greggy, and Mitch

Cadavers/South

Lizzy in net

D1= DiLo, and Campbell

D2= Reynolds and Jeff

O1= Jasse, Chris, and Baker

O2= Nelson, Scott, and Goody

The game was actually pretty low scoring with only a goal a side for the first period. Lizzy making nice saves, both teams getting decent chances. The play was a little awkward as we called our own Goalie covers and offsides, but it had a cool almost pond hockey kind of a feel so it was alright. I believe that Greggy had a goal in the first for the Gold and possibly Chris for the Red... not certain... please comment to set the record straight.

We switched sides in the second and the Red shot on Lizzy while the Gold shot at the net webbing on the turned over net. If my recollection serves me the teams ended up 2-2 after the second period with Larry scoring a goal for the Gold and somebody (Baker maybe...) for the Red.

During the second there was a terrific collision between Greggy and Campbell as Mike was coming back out of the zone after a rush and the two Big Boys collided at the blue line. No reports on what the Seismographic Institute recorded when the two of them hit the ice... but chances are it rocked the needles. There was certainly some physical play here and there given the lack of refs, but really it stayed pretty subdued. No one took any rough or cheap shots and while there was a little contact here and there nothing egregious took place and in general everyone deserves a gold star for sportsmanship... maybe not Campbell... but what do you expect...

We switched at about 16 minutes left on the clock for the third and then the game opened up a bit. The Red went on a tear scoring the next three goals to bust open the game at 5-2. Again I'm not really sure about the goals but I do know this. Jeff scored the goal to make it 4-2 on a nice steal, rush and shot, and then must have felt so good about it... you know... scoring on the turned over net and all... we know what an accomplishment that is... that he turned and proceeded to ride his stick out of the zone. Uh... only one problem... he fell flat on his face as his legs went out and came to a skidding stop on the blue line... on his face... an epic fail of gratuitous grandstanding... good entertainment for everyone else. The Red would get that one more but then maybe Jeff's shenanigans spelled doom for the Red as the game would turn suddenly.

The Gold would swing the momentum right back as they would make a nice run, led by a terrific goal by Larry, fed by either Neil or AK... or maybe both... to bring them within two. Then Dan "The Ghost" Gregson would proceed to rack up two more goals, both of them coming after the Gold had done a nice job keeping it in the zone... letting the Red defence run around (Jeff)... and then deftly, silently,... ghostlike... slid into position on the left post and banged home two goals only a couple minutes apart to tie the game. No sign of Jeff on either goal as Greggy stood there wide open, in great position.... maybe he was still thinking about what went wrong on that goal celebration...

So there we were, with less than 4 or 5 minutes left tied up nicely with both teams making runs and getting good chances. As time was winding down the Gold would pull their goalie... which meant Daley would turn the net right side up and join as the 6th man... really they had nothing to lose... right? But the Red would capitalize as Hard Workin' Hard Skatin' Good Shootin' Nelson Sharfman would hold the puck in the Gold end and would unleash a nifty shot from the low left side (below the dot) that would find the net and put the Red ahead with less than TEN SECONDS on the clock. Really for an unofficial game... it was pretty darn good. A nice skate from everyone there and a good way to forget the bummer of the no show.

No Game Stars...

Which is a shame because Dan "The Ghost" Gregson came away with a beauty of a Hat Trick... that's 4 goals in 2 games also... and had a great night. So an Honorable Mention goes out to him.

More props to Larry who had a great night and a pair of goals, and to Nelson for the Game Winner, and Dave DiLoretto for great work on D all night for the Red.

At some point Jasse and Chris combined on a terrific rush that resulted in a great chance but no goal. This was highlighted by a give and go between them all the way up the ice.

Last but not least the atmosphere was actually pretty great... the snowy walk down the slippery ramp at the beginning of the night to the slushy BU lot with the cars warming, sharing a few (really) cold ones with the Apres Skate crowd. Big ups to beer men Jasse, Campbell, and... Larry maybe... again please comment to set it straight.... it was a fun night after the game.

We may just keep these teams for the end of season Daveur which is coming up in about two weeks which means they could be possible Playoff Rosters as well. Please comment to voice your opinion.
Thanks for reading... and being patient... the Blogger appreciates it...

Dead and the Call in West Roxbury

Cadavers(18) vs Last Call

Thursday February 11th

West Roxbury, 10:30pm

3-2 Loss

Well team... the blogger is more than happy to announce the Return of the Original Guest Blogger. That's right, iJosh not only played last night but he's got a "hot off the pressess" game story for us. So without further ado...

Here's iJosh:

"So it has been a long time since I have been able to write a story. Between not playing as often as I'd like (thank you Paul for the wonderful diverse schedule....Monday, Monday, Monday, Tuesday. Guess which days I can't play) and usually being paired with the Blogger there hasn't been much chance. Since this was a game on a Thirsty Thursday, I was more than elated that I would be able to make my way to the local arena.

Thank god I got to KenMitch's house early to pick him up. Because shortly after that a call from AK has us racing to Cambridge to add him to the carpool. AK had left an door or trunk open to his car which drained his new battery. That left him with no way to get to the rink. Again, thank god, because without him we would have been quite shorthanded.

So the carpool of iJosh, KMitch, and Angry Ken would arrive on the later side to get the group to nine. Nelson (making his usual timely entrance) would eventually give us an even ten.

To start the game, the pairing would be:
Gregson and Neil centered by AK
KMitch and Scott centered by Nelson

Defensive pairings would be:
Steve Baker and Mark Reynolds
The Natick Labs Pairing of Capt George and iJosh who did his best impersonation of an orange cone.

Playing at West Roxbury arena has its challenges. It is a small surface. But specifically there are no lines, dots or circles still visible on the ice. That issue would play a role in the game. More often than not, play would be offsides without a whistle or a Cadaver would slip over the blue line without realizing it. Or someone would dump the puck too early due to the fact that....well.....you can't see the freaking line. The ice surface was a touch choppy too, but that is par for the course for most of the places we play at.

Overall the Dead in Red would be a touch choppy too in their skating. Not much pressure offensively nor defensively. Mid way through the 1st, Last Call would a Cad and one of their own tussling in front of the net. The Call would send the puck toward them and a distracted Sergent Brian Carey. The puck would slide into the net untouched. However, the Call didn't realize that they had gone back over the blue line. Offsides. No goal. The Dead would get away with that one. Now the Cads would start to get some puck movement. At least for a little while. It would see a nice effort in front of the net where AK would finish the job and put the puck in the net for a 1-0 lead for the Red. Somewhere in there George would get his first penalty of the day for a slash. George claimed that the other guy did it first, but the ref wasn't buying it. In George's defense the Call were a little testy at the time.

Going into the 2nd frame, the Red had some mo'. Though as like any well thought out Schlidaveur plot-line there has to be ups and downs. So the eerie, melodramatic music is playing......So not long into the 2nd period the Last Call would finally strike and put one past Sgt Carey. This would soon be followed by George taking his 2nd 2 minute timeout of the night. With our depleted D corps, George could not afford to take a 3rd penalty. This would affect his aggressiveness a bit since it was his intention to take it to #10 (I think I am remembering the number correctly) most the night. Later in the period Brian would get beaten by a slap shot from above the left face-off circle on an odd man rush. This would make the score 2-1 and bring us to the end of the 2nd period.

Into the final period we go, still within reach of a win, despite not really playing any cohesive hockey all night. Sure there were some flashes of good play. Some good rushes. But nothing we could really point to. The Call would go down a man and finally the Dead would wake up a bit. This is aided by some upbeat "something is going to happen" music. This would be courtesy of shot from the high slot from Neil that would make its way past the goalie. Now in a 2-2 tie, the Red would try to make a push to get ahead.

Now the ominous music begins again. Only a few minor attempts would be viable before the Red would make a fatal error and become a victim of the lack of paint. An attempt to clear the puck would seemingly fail. But some would argue that it did not. Regardless, no call was made. But the Red did not cover the point nor the slot well (sorry that was my man). The point would send a shot into the middle that was well tipped by #30. The puck would redirect up, stick side, high and beat Brian for a 3-2 Last Call lead. Unfortunately there would be no comeback. As the clock wound down the Dead in Red could not control the puck long enough to make a viable push and pull the goalie. So the game would end with a 3-2 loss.

Noteworthy though was that due to the refs watching George's play AK stayed out of the box. However he has enough to deal with today with his dead battery.
Guest Blogger out and glad to be back...

Alright. Too bad the result wasn't better... but it is nice to have the OGB back in town. Thanks again Josh. See you all next week at the Schlidaveur on Tuesday night!

Suds beat Clinic (whew) @ UMass

Schlitz (18) vs Clinic

Tuesday February 2nd

UMass Boston 9:20pm

4-2 Win

Nothing on this. Well... almost nothing.

We won 4-2. AK had 2 goals, Nelson, Gregson and Elliot with 1 goal each. Neil and Larry with an assist each... and thats about it.

Glad we won. Anyone with any recolection of this game is welcome to comment. Really... please? Anything at all...

Zombies fall to Suckas

Cadavers (17) vs Windsuckers
Monday February 1st
Bavis Arena 9:20pm




4-1 loss



A cold Monday night on the South Shore for a tough division matchup with the pesky 'suckas, this one would suffer from being the same night as the Beanpot which would reduce the roster size considerable. Despite that Team Zombie showed and played hard against the Blowhards and it sounded like a hard fought game.
Once again the Blogger doffs his hat to another Guest Blogger for this game story, this time from dependable (on ice and off) Mark Reynolds who gives us a nice rundown of the action. Without further ado... Here's Mark:


4- 1 loss to the Windsuckas

Defense: Valenti – DWH – George
Forwards: Baker – Pounds – Matvey – Goodie – Chuck - Reynolds
Net: Lizzy

The Red started out with 8 skaters. Then, Goodie showed up after visiting the wrong rink (aka the Greg James syndrome), but arrived in the second as a huge and much needed relief.

The Suckas had us vastly outnumbered, but it didn’t faze the Red. We played a tough game and moved the puck reasonably well. They had a few guys that most wouldn’t consider “D leaguers” which accounted for their goals and generally gave us some trouble.

Steve Baker scored the lone goal on an extra effort by jamming the rebound past their “rent- a-goalie”, who happened to be far superior to the usual goalies we face. The Red had lots of high-quality shots on goal, but we just couldn’t beat him with anything.

Our defensive trio won most of their battles in the corners and our forwards passed well and did a good job of controlling the puck in the offensive end.

As for Lizzy, she played a kick-ass game. She stopped a number of high velocity shots and didn’t give up any rebounds. Way to go Lizzy!

Penalties: Matvey for tripping in the second immediately followed by Reynolds for slashing one of Suckas non-D league players (#5). Yes, I totally got my money’s worth.

Valenti tangled with #5 later in the game and gave him a WWF style body slam…simply outstanding. #5 went to the bin and Valenti remained on the ice, much to the chagrin of the Suckas.

Without their “rent-a-goalie”, the Red would have fared better. We’ll get em’ next time for sure.

Suds and Preds tangle to a tie

Schlitz (16) vs Predators

Wednesday January 27

Dedham 10:10pm

3-3 Tie

An interesting evening in Dedham last night as the Suds would face Division Rival the Predators for a late evening game. Things didn't bode well at the very start as the Gold were almost entirely late for the pregame warmups. Thankfully enough guys were able to make it out and get some stretches in to start the game. The rest of the team would filter in over the first few minutes. We didn't have a whole 13 as was figured upon but decent numbers nonetheless... here's what we looked like

Lizzy in net

D1: Valenti, Goody

D2: Reynolds, Jeff

Offense: Roman and Neil as Centers

Wings: iJosh, Mitch, Matvey, Chris, AK, and Nelson.

First off lets say this. The Preds have some players. By my estimation they had probably 3 guys skating that were better than just about anyone on our roster. In the opening minutes the Blogger was thinking we'd need a great effort just to stay close... but looks may have been deceiving... The first settled into a decent back and forth with the Gold getting more chances than the Preds for the better part of the period.
The Gold would go to the box 2ice, first Roman then Jeff for a trip late in the period. The Preds also sent two to the box earlier on, but no scoring on those PPs. During the Jeff penalty Nelson would make a terrific steal and would rush in and score a great hard work goal that would put the Gold up 1-0 with 2 minutes left in the first.

The Gold wasn't done. Just after the penalty expired Chris Fosdick would score on a feed from Neil (who did some great work in the zone) and would increase the lead to 2 with 30 seconds left. But they STILL weren't done. Neil and Chris had such good results from their hard work that after the puck drop they went right at it again. Neil charging into the zone, wheeling and dealing to get a chance. Chris was there as everyone converged on the net and he jammed home the puck just before the horn blew for the end of the period.
Suddenly the Gold sat on a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period. Stunning, but we knew it would still take a lot of work to win the game.

The Green would come out gunning to open the second. They put out a stacked line that took less than a minute to score. Thankfully their momentum was slowed by another penalty just a few minutes later. The Gold would send AK to the box but the two teams would play back and forth without incident until late in the period. One of their no shield strong skaters, the Red helmeted number 8 would take the play right into Lizzy in the slot and then was tackled by Valenti... who did the right thing. Of course 8 then cries and whines like he's never been touched in his life and... get this... talks the ref into giving him a penalty shot. Unbelievable but true. So as time expired this douche would get his penalty shot which he made about 3 moves on and put behind Lizzy for the second goal. 3-2 after 2.

The Preds would continue to build momentum as they would open the third with the stacked line again and would score to tie the game just over a minute into the period. The Gold was disheartened but to their credit no one backed down and the effort was still strong as the game wound down.

There would be more penalties as Matvey would go after a standoff/pushfest with #2 (another big no shield dude) in the corner. Number 2 would end up pushing a ref and getting tossed. Matvey would go off for ... falling down I guess. Goody would tangle with #8 and they would go for matching roughs.

What it all came down to in the end was that the very frustrated and slightly more talented Predators did everything they could to get the game winner, but it wasn't going to happen. Lizzy made some great stops down the stretch. The D played great, and the Offense for the Gold just kept getting chances and keeping the puck in the the other end when they could. All in all a good tie to earn against a strong opponent.

No Stars for a tie... but good effort by all the skating Beercans on this night.