THE

UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

January 15th, 2019 - 9:35PM
Union Arena - Woodstock, VT
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Game ID: 1252

Defensive battle between the Blues & Gamblers

Historically the Gamblers have dominated the Blues with a 31-10 record. In the Blue's defense, the Gamblers went 23-0 against the Blues from 2010 - 2014, since then the Labatt Blues have taken 10 of 18 games. The two teams have also split their first two matches this season with the Gamblers winning 2-1 on November 20th and Labatt taking a 4-1 win on December 11th.

The defensive / goaltending battle continued in this low scoring Men's League affair. One of the cleaner games these two high powered and often aggressive teams have played with only 3 penalties registered. The Gamblers were without their fearless leader Will "Mighty Mouse" Meyer who was welcoming his second child into this world, congrats Will.

The first period was a deadlock as both goaltenders were called upon to make grade-A saves. The Gambler's Ryan Van Schoick was the busier of the two netminders in the first, making 13 saves to his counterpart Jay "Flex" Seals' 8 saves. Van Schoick's first period was his strongest, which means he had between 6-8 beers before the game, making a 2 pad stack early on and was consistently square to the shooters. The only penalty registered in the period came with just 33 seconds remaining when Labatt's Bart Moran was thrown in the sin bin for tripping.

END OF THE FIRST: Tied 0-0. SAVES: Van Schoick 13 - Seals 8

Labatts couldn't capitalize on the the powerplay to start the second, and racked some some shots on Van Schoick who continued to be solid. The Gambler's continued to play their chess game as they sat back and only registered 5 shots in the period, but did tally the first goal of the game with 7:13 to play in the first when Poli "The Nightmare" Nightengale chipped a puck off the boards to Max Woods. Woods cut in the zone 1v1 against a Blue's defender and let off a steaming snapshot, using the defender as a screen. Seals didn't have a chance as the puck beat him glove side off the post and in. Keith "Bubba' Lazarczyk registered the only penalty of the second period with a high hook, he went to the box and he felt shame.

END OF THE SECOND: Gamblers 1 - Labatt Blues 0. SAVES: Van Schoik 24 - Seals 12

The Gamblers had to kill off an early hooking penalty to Zach "Hands like Feet" Aher. Seals was required to make a big save on one of the Lacroix brothers shortly after but it was the Blues who would tie the game up at 9:40 on a beautiful cross ice pass by Ian Booth to Tyler White as he stormed into the Gambler's zone down the bench side. White let a quick wrister go that Van Schoick got a piece of, but Bart Moran was there to jam home the rebound in the crease wit 2 Gamblers on top of him. With blood in the water the Blues seemed to find another gear and started peppering the Gambler's goalie with shots. As the game wound down, the Blues finally broke the tie when Tyler White dangled through the neutral zone, toe dragged Spencer "The Flyin' Hawaiin" Zaha at the blue line, put the puck between a defenders legs in the high slot, took the puck behind the net and fed TJ "The Beard" Moran at the top of the crease. Beautiful goal. Moran got the insurance goal on an empty netter with 18 seconds to go.

With time winding down and the puck deep in the Gambler's zone, Brian "Smitty" Smith made one of the more interesting plays of the night when the Gambler's Ryan "Patrice" Bergeron took the puck behind his net with 4 seconds remaining, accepting the loss and planning on letting the clock run down. Smitty drove hard, stole the puck and put it in the empty net with under a second remaining. While the UVHL enjoy's Smitty's hustle, we refuse to recognize this second empty net goal due to Rule 372 Section B2. Smitty is effectively being Stat Fucked on this one due to poor sportsmanship.

END OF REGULATION: Gamblers 1 - Labatts 3. SAVES: Van Skoook 35 - Seals 17
LEAGUE PICK 'EM
 0%
Gamblers
0% 
Labatt Blues
PICKS
THREE STARS

Terence Moran

GOALS: 2
POINTS: 2

Jay Seals

GA: 1
SAVES: 18
SAVE%: 0.947

Tyler White

GOALS: 0
POINTS: 2

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