Post by Jim H. on Nov 14, 2021 22:37:45 GMT -5
Week 10 would have been a total bust had not Aaron showed up with daughter Gillian and wrested a decent game from the jaws of a lugubrious, low-energy scrimmage. Benches were still light--three subs on Red and two on Blue--but not so light that the will to play was eclipsed by the will to breathe. Kenny gave Red the extra skater--no surprise there. Nor were we surprised when Gillian took the ice in a blue jersey and Kenny used some extra-parliamentarian tactics to get her to switch into a Red one. What surprised us was how cold the locker room was. And the ice too. Vinnie tried to scuff up his crease and his blades were literally chattering like tires do across rumble strips. It was that cold.
Brian Pike gave Red the early 2-0 lead. The normally stay-at-home defenseman was out-and-about like a felon who had just severed his ankle bracelet. Red, by far, was the dominant team and if Blue had a chance to win it would have to tap into some resources it doesn't normally tap into. Cue Joe Bruno, who schmoozed his way onto the Blue bench several weeks ago and finally made good on whatever he insinuated he could do. He squeezed a knuckle-puck between Eddie's pads for Blue's first goal. Then Dan Dougherty did exactly the same thing and the game was knotted at twos.
The club broke for intermission. Kiyoshi and Frankie, on Blue, hashed out who was going to skate up and who was going to play back. "It doesn't really matter," Kiyoshi said. "I'm equally useless either way."
Not exactly the confidence level Blue needed from its biggest, fastest skater but it would have to make do. Play resumed and Gillian broke the tie in dramatic fashion. Skating coast-to-coast, she decided somewhere between Witchita and Rich Cerbone she could reach the Blue goal and hoist the puck over Vinnie's outstretched glove. In short, 3-2 Red.
Hughie showed up and posted himself on the Red bench. We could see him gesticulating in Kenny's face as if favoring him with another long-winded funny story. We skated by. "Hey Hughie. Tell us a quick joke," we said. "Blue," he replied.
Soon Red was up 5-2 all without the input of Bob Freiling. Usually Bob just has to sneeze and he scores goals but tonight he forgot to bring a box of Kleenex and so Red had to rely on players like Eddie deflecting slapshots off of players like Frankie to widen their lead. Jim Heffern scored twice for Blue and kept them in the game, down only 5-4. At 6-4 Red, Kiyoshi scored and narrowed the lead to 6-5. The outcome hung in the balance. Jim Heffern had a chance to tie it with a breakaway that began with the neutral zone and ended with Eddie spread-eagled on his stomach and stuffing the backhand with his outstretched leg pad. Eddie Balfour couldn't have done it better. Nor Eddie Giacomin. Mark Mayer scored in the closing minutes and Red eked out the 7-5 win.
The after party was well-attended and indoors even though the ambient temperature wasn't half as nippy as it was in the rink. Two pies were ordered, one white and one Brooklyn, breaking a long-standing tradition of ordering at least one traditional pie. Rich Devlin opened his Macbook, connected it to WiFi and put on "the game". We don't know what game; it could have been any for all the conviviality that ensued. The high point was toasting Kenny and his two new grand kids. He might have fixed the game in Red's favor but by then everyone was past caring.
Brian Pike gave Red the early 2-0 lead. The normally stay-at-home defenseman was out-and-about like a felon who had just severed his ankle bracelet. Red, by far, was the dominant team and if Blue had a chance to win it would have to tap into some resources it doesn't normally tap into. Cue Joe Bruno, who schmoozed his way onto the Blue bench several weeks ago and finally made good on whatever he insinuated he could do. He squeezed a knuckle-puck between Eddie's pads for Blue's first goal. Then Dan Dougherty did exactly the same thing and the game was knotted at twos.
The club broke for intermission. Kiyoshi and Frankie, on Blue, hashed out who was going to skate up and who was going to play back. "It doesn't really matter," Kiyoshi said. "I'm equally useless either way."
Not exactly the confidence level Blue needed from its biggest, fastest skater but it would have to make do. Play resumed and Gillian broke the tie in dramatic fashion. Skating coast-to-coast, she decided somewhere between Witchita and Rich Cerbone she could reach the Blue goal and hoist the puck over Vinnie's outstretched glove. In short, 3-2 Red.
Hughie showed up and posted himself on the Red bench. We could see him gesticulating in Kenny's face as if favoring him with another long-winded funny story. We skated by. "Hey Hughie. Tell us a quick joke," we said. "Blue," he replied.
Soon Red was up 5-2 all without the input of Bob Freiling. Usually Bob just has to sneeze and he scores goals but tonight he forgot to bring a box of Kleenex and so Red had to rely on players like Eddie deflecting slapshots off of players like Frankie to widen their lead. Jim Heffern scored twice for Blue and kept them in the game, down only 5-4. At 6-4 Red, Kiyoshi scored and narrowed the lead to 6-5. The outcome hung in the balance. Jim Heffern had a chance to tie it with a breakaway that began with the neutral zone and ended with Eddie spread-eagled on his stomach and stuffing the backhand with his outstretched leg pad. Eddie Balfour couldn't have done it better. Nor Eddie Giacomin. Mark Mayer scored in the closing minutes and Red eked out the 7-5 win.
The after party was well-attended and indoors even though the ambient temperature wasn't half as nippy as it was in the rink. Two pies were ordered, one white and one Brooklyn, breaking a long-standing tradition of ordering at least one traditional pie. Rich Devlin opened his Macbook, connected it to WiFi and put on "the game". We don't know what game; it could have been any for all the conviviality that ensued. The high point was toasting Kenny and his two new grand kids. He might have fixed the game in Red's favor but by then everyone was past caring.