THE

UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Smoke Eaters
Nordiques
1st
2
7
2rd
0
2
3rd
1
2
FINAL
3
11
Shots
28
41
March 25th, 2006 - 7:35PM
Pre-Game
Recap
Box Score
Discussion
Game ID: 282

Nords surprise Smoke Eaters (and themselves) 11-3 on 3/25.

The Saturday night scorefest continued, much to the surprise of the Nordiques who had all of two goals to their record in their first two games of the Mud League. Both benches were light but the captains agreed to play with whomever showed up. The Eaters had 8 skaters: Captain Jay Campion, Dean Cashman, Greg Gosselin, Mike Fitzgerald, Marty White, Dave Fitts, Singe Arnold, and official sub and defenseman extraordinaire Scott Peters who made his UVHL debut, and Frenchy in net. The Nords had: Seth Warren, Shawn McDermott, Matt Authier, Dan Ammel, Tom Dakai, Greg Marsh and official subs Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Koetsier, and Jake Obar subbing in net doing double duty for JT who was in Boston. It was a regular 8 on 8 pond hockey game with refs. Unbelievably the Nords found the net 13 seconds in on a quick unassisted goal by Ericsson that fooled Frenchy and took everyone by surprise. Ericsson then set up Ammel at 13:58 and the Nords finally felt it was okay to score after 6 periods with two goals to their credit. Ammel then went into the corner off his own rebound and threw the puck at the net and it banked off Frenchy's leg from behind the goal line at 9:26. Suddenly it was 3-0 and both teams were in shock. Koetsier fed marsh for a goal at 6:51 to increase the Nords' lead, but Dave Fitts answered with an unassisted goal at 5:05 for the Eaters making it 4-1. The first period goal-a-palooza continued at 3:29 on Marsh's second of the period from McDermott. Ericsson got another at 2:09 from Marsh, then Ammel completed the Hat Trick at 1:49 from Tom Dakai. Dean Cashman answered quickly for the Smoke Eaters 9 seconds later on a beautiful breakaway sending one off the post past Obar under the crossbar from Fitzgerald. The 9-goal first period may have been a UVHL record, and the teams entered the second period with the Nords leading 7-2. Jake Obar thanked the Nords players for the action saying he was appreciative of the quality shots they were giving up because he ws getting bored playing for Potter. Obar proved he could handle lots of action, stand on his head, and wasn't completely deserving of a Martin Brodeur-like comparison of big time saves when it counted on a low shot total per game due to a strong defensive team in front of him. Frenchy did turn away plenty of shots himself, and must have faced at least double (or more) the shots of Obar, but after the first two quick goals Frenchy did not seem to have his usual fervor for netminding, but was also the victim of just some plain bad luck. One of the Nords goals, I can't remember which, was deflected right into the top shelf by his own defenseman off a Nords shot from the high circle. In the second period the scoresheet changed as the penalties outnumbered the goals as fatigue and frustration began to set in for the Smoke Eaters. On paper the match-up was pretty close, but the younger Nords had more legs and it started to show as the game progressed. Thirty seconds in Dan Ammel scored another goal, unassisted, en route to a very likely career UVHL game. Three penalties were doled out and the Eaters Scott Peters went for tripping at 9:30, the Nords Seth Warren at 7:56 for roughing, and the Eaters Marty White for hooking at 1:09. However only Dan Ammel scored, again, during the sceond frame, and it wasn't on the PP either as he netted his fifth of the game at 2:21 from McDermott. The second period power plays went 0-for-2 and 0-for-1 for the Nords and Eaters respectively. In the third Fitts went to the sin bin for roughing at 11:39 for the Smoke Eaters and Captain Jay Campion became the only player of the game to score a goal while a player was in the box scoring a phenominal streaking shorty at 10:25 roofing a beautiful pass from an elusive Mike Fitzgerald that was threaded through McDermott onto Campion's magic stick past an outstretched Obar. It was the nicest goal of the game! Seriously, and credit is due where credit is due! However, in true Dangerfield style, the goal was not put up on the scoreboard for several minutes leading Campion to lament that he gets "No respect"! Dan Ammel passed some elite UVHL company with two more goals in the third to total SEVEN on the contest, and to the best of my knowledge
passed Coakley, Sinclair, Meyer and DeFelice's 5-goal games, AND Coakley's 6-goal game to (correct me if I'm wrong) stand alone in UVHL history on top with a frickin' 7-goal game. The former Hartford Hurricane had the men's league game of his life and joined some truly elite company at the pinnacle of this list. Ammel's final two goals came at 8:23 from Koetsier and at 8:01 from Ericsson, and that ended the scoring 11-3 in favor of the Nords. However, the drama did not end there. Singe Arnold got an interference minor at 5:56 and got chased around the net and shoved down by Marshy near the end of the game for dishing out some lumber, intentional or not, in Marshy's direction. Shortly after a face-off in the Nords end Marty White had words with Seth Warren after the two took the face-off, something about "watch your butt-end" or something like that. However, this author was right at the hash marks and saw and heard no contact on White by Warren. The failed face-off was even called back immediately by the ref for a re-drop, and the second face-off was clean, too. Later in the same shift Warren went down the right-side boards with the puck about a foot away from the boards. White skated across to meet him in an apparent attempt to cut him off, maybe gently rub him out to halt his progress (a perfectly legal play in the bodycontact, non-checking UVHL) or pokecheck the puck away, but instead White laid Warren out with a bodycheck with retaliation on his mind for a perceived foul. Not cool no matter who you bodychecked, White! I can understand, and have even done it myself on more than one occasion, sending a message to some asshole who crossed the line and was putting you in danger if the refs had put away the whistle and weren't calling shit, but to hit a player down along the boards who never even played contact hockey in his life for no other reason than to retaliate for a perceived infraction was bullshit. To White's credit, he was on the short list this season for Most Sportsmanlike Player up until this point, but is obviously no longer in the running. Luckily Warren was unhurt on the play, because we all should be reminded that we all have to go to work the next day. And yes, Marty, I know, I know, dammit. If you really wanted to hurt him instead of just giving him a love tap you could have, so you can leave with your extra strength machismo fully intact, alright? Its not like you two guys were actually fist fighting on your own bench...Oh yeah, it wasn't just my imagination and that really DID happen...
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