UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

ODDS:	Nordiques By 5 Goals
OVER/UNDER:	9 Goals

The Nordiques have had a pretty bad month of hockey. They were awful in a 5-3 loss to the Whalers then gave away two games in the last minute of play; 2-1 to the Gamblers and 3-2 to Tuck. They followed those stinkers up with by blowing a 5-0 lead and scrambling for an 8-6 win over Cardigan last week.

Dead River has been a team in disarray all season going winless in their first 8 games. They've had highs and many lows. Last week was a low. An 11-1 loss to the Whalers that almost ended in fisticuffs in their own locker room after the game.

Dead River needs to focus on defense before they will see any success and the Nordique's will expose that weakness tonight.

The Nord's Jordy "McNasty" McGee has 18 points this season...Dead River has only scored 19 goals total.

A high note for Dead River is that they will be able to rally around their goalie Matty "The Eagle" Crowson who missed last week's debacle.

The Nordiques are well balanced and solidly built. They'll play their defensive style of play and wear Dead River down, ultimately walking away with a 7-2 win.

Nordiques Battle Dead River to 7-4 Win

The Nordiques entered tonight's game as a 5 goal favorite over the 0-8-0 Dead River team. Dead River has had a rocky start to their season. They've had an inconsistent roster, trouble scoring and inter-squad squabbling to boot.

The Noridiques are coming off of a good win over Cardigan which followed back to back losses where they let up the Game Winning Goal in the last minute of play.

Dead River showed up with only 5 skaters tonight, but were lucky enough to pull in three players from the Whaler's squad. Jay "The Zamboni" Zanleoni, Dillon "The Punisher" Pierce and Gary "The Pearl Necklace" LaPerle. Zanleoni added some spark to this otherwise dreadful offense with a goal and an assist. On top of the rental players, their star goaltender Matty "the Eagle" Crowson was out of town and their Team Manager / Massage Therapist / Shower Boy Greg "WAGHIP" Hadley was between the pipes for his first game as a net protecter in years. Once he had the rink guy clear off the rust from his skates...no seriously, his goalie skates were completely rusted, Hadley was actually pretty solid. "He's a big at guy, takes up a ton of net just standing there like a big fat statue of a goalie and the puck just kind of hits his doughy body and falls to the ice in front of him. On a scale of 1 to 10, he was a SOLID 4 tonight, which is much better than the 30 goals I predicted he'd let in before the game." recalled a player who wanted to remain nameless. Ah hell, I said it and I'm proud of it.

This was a close game through the first period as Dead River hustled and played solid defense. Dead River actually took the lead around 10 minutes into the game when Ray "Spritely" Sprague bounced one in from behind the net off of the Nordique's Johnny "Temper Tantrum" Turner's skate.

A Tom "Big Tom Stud" Dakai point shot tied the game with 3 minutes to play and the two teams headed to the locker rooms after the first intermission deadlocked at 1 apiece.

Roger "The Dentist Drill" Phillips put the Nordiques up 2-1 from Greg "The Butcher of Hanover" Marsh almost half way through the first period.

Jordy "McKnight" McGee potted a pair of power play goals late in the second, both from his BFF Pierce "Fierce Mayhem" Mayhew. Those two must spoon together every night, because they could easily find each other's ball sack in a dark room any day of the week.

"The Zamboni" Zanleoni made it 4-2 off of a faceoff in the neutral zone as he walked through the Nordique's centerman, picked up the puck at the blue line and beat Turner with a quick snapper along the ice. "I wish I had that one back" recalls Turner.

"The Butcher" finally scored his second of the year...kind of embarassing for a true Canadian hockey player to only have 2 goals in 9 men's league games..but it is what it is. Marsh took a pass from Eric "The Kriv" Krivitzky in the neutral zone and blew Greg "Herpes" Hadley away with a ridiculous snapper 5 inches off the ice and just inside the post, glove side, for a 5-2 lead.

Zanleoni set up the next goal as he fired a quick snapper on Turner who was out aggressively on the shot. The rebound landed to Turner's right, not a bad play at all, but the Nordique's Shawn "McDefense" McDermott was daydreaming and watched Kyle "Sherpa" Koetsier skate right by him to the rebound and throw it in from no angle along the goal line.

Mayhew cleaned up a "Dentist Drill" Phillips rebound for a 6-3 lead before Turner stayed true to his name and had a meltdown after "The Pearl Necklace" LaPerle picked up a rebound of his own and threw it past an outstretched Turner for a 6-4 deficit. In Turner's defense, if you can actually defend a temper tantrum, the guy did actually make like 4 saves before the goal. Help a brotha out...will ya...his GAA is on the line.

McGee completed his hat trick with 5:04 to play and the game was in the books.

The Nordiques are a better team and luckily Dead River had some rental players to make it interesting. Dead River has some talent, but their talent is young and immature. They need to learn to slow the game down, move the puck east to west if they are going to be successful at all.

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
LAB	11:33	Penalty	Billings, Trevor(2)	2 minutes for Hooking
LAB	05:17	Goal	Sprague, Ray(2)	Assist(s): none
NDQ	02:59	Goal	Dakai, Tom(1)	Assist(s): McGovern, Ryan(2) Krivitzky, Eric(2)
2nd PERIOD
NDQ	09:44	Penalty	Park, Kelly(2)	2 minutes for Holding
NDQ	08:36	Goal	Phillips, Roger(4)	Assist(s): Marsh, Greg(1) Krivitzky, Eric(3)
NDQ	03:32	Goal	(PP)McGee, Jordan(13)	Assist(s): Mayhew, Pierce(5)
LAB	03:10	Penalty	Billings, Trevor(3)	2 minutes for Hooking
LAB	02:52	Penalty	Laperle, Gary(1)	2 minutes for Hooking
NDQ	00:53	Goal	(PP)McGee, Jordan(14)	Assist(s): Mayhew, Pierce(6)
LAB	00:33	Goal	Zanleoni, Jay(8)	Assist(s): none
3rd PERIOD
NDQ	13:50	Goal	Marsh, Greg(2)	Assist(s): Krivitzky, Eric(4) McDermott, Shawn(4)
LAB	13:42	Goal	Koetsier, Kyle(2)	Assist(s): Zanleoni, Jay(8)
NDQ	13:29	Penalty	Phillips, Roger(2)	2 minutes for Hooking
NDQ	09:44	Goal	Mayhew, Pierce(7)	Assist(s): Phillips, Roger(6) Park, Kelly(8)
LAB	08:47	Goal	Laperle, Gary(4)	Assist(s): none
NDQ	05:04	Goal	McGee, Jordan(15)	Assist(s): Racicot, Brian(2) Park, Kelly(9)

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Game Comments:
The Dark Canuck Fairlee, VT Registered: Dec 2004 Posts: 340	jeeez Dec 18th, 2012 05:43 PM What was that Parky? Motivation? It would be nice to light it up tonight for the team..I DO need to catch up in the goals dept. What better night than the game b4 Christmas? LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALLALallier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rgrunds Stowe, VT Registered: Posts: 376	Is Hadley's Dong still festering? Dec 18th, 2012 06:05 PM Jesus. It's the 21st century. They have stuff for that.