Post by Old Bucks Admin on Feb 6, 2009 8:18:47 GMT -5
Turnout was strong for Super Bowl Sunday as club pride asserted itself against the temptation to watch 4 hours of pre-game drivel on television. Even the club’s two biggest Steelers fans showed up—Eddie, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh and Vinnie, who as a youth refused to play Pop Warner football unless he could wear Lynn Swann’s number 88. The closest thing the club had to a Cardinal’s fan was Jim Heffern whose mascot at Lawrence High was a cardinal. His classmate Craig Allen was skiing in the Poconos, or else could have testified that he himself wore the beaked and feathered headdress for four years during football games.
Both benches were manned by strong skaters with Mark Egner leading Red and Bob Freiling, the “franchise” player”, leading Blue—an apt expression if you can picture a boarded-up Cluck-U Chicken in a seedy neighborhood. Both house goalies were present—these days more the exception than the rule—and Vinnie’s faux Canadians jersey was a nice complement to his assignment on Red. In due time the game began and Art Rosenbaum got Red on the board early only to be upstaged by three straight from Blue, thus setting the tone for what would prove a fierce clash between two determined foes. Red managed to tie the game at three but bungled a shift change so badly that they were a man down for about a minute, culminating in a Blue goal and a 4-3 deficit.
As Blue rattled off three more goals to go up 7-3 Red looked lost and Vinnie was quite out of patience with himself and whoever was leaving Brian Urban, Dan Dougherty, and Rich Devlin untouched on his doorstep. Hughie’s stellar play on offense got Red back in the game and represented an unexpected dividend from the decision to replace him on D by Steve Thomas’s girlfriend, Kyle Foster. He scored two of his three goals during this stretch and together with Mark Egner, who came down from the point like a “deus ex machina” whenever Red looked near collapse, got the game tied at 8-8. Red’s defense also dug in its heels, especially Kyle, who had a thing for Brian Urban and wouldn’t let him buzz the Red goal without wrapping him up tighter than an airport sandwich. It took a wry trick of fate to swing the momentum back in Blue’s favor when Huck Fairman spearheaded a three-on-one and sent a guided missile into the top corner of the net, giving Blue the 9-8 lead. Red did manage to tie it at 9 but Blue won it, much like they did in Week 19, in the game’s final seconds, when Jim Heffern, finding himself the lone defenseman on a 2-on-1, was unable to prevent Dan Dougherty from knocking a rebounded shot back into the net. It was a crushing loss for Vinnie but, no doubt, quite forgotten four hours later when the Steelers hoisted up the Vince Lombardi trophy to celebrate their sixth Super Bowl.
Both benches were manned by strong skaters with Mark Egner leading Red and Bob Freiling, the “franchise” player”, leading Blue—an apt expression if you can picture a boarded-up Cluck-U Chicken in a seedy neighborhood. Both house goalies were present—these days more the exception than the rule—and Vinnie’s faux Canadians jersey was a nice complement to his assignment on Red. In due time the game began and Art Rosenbaum got Red on the board early only to be upstaged by three straight from Blue, thus setting the tone for what would prove a fierce clash between two determined foes. Red managed to tie the game at three but bungled a shift change so badly that they were a man down for about a minute, culminating in a Blue goal and a 4-3 deficit.
As Blue rattled off three more goals to go up 7-3 Red looked lost and Vinnie was quite out of patience with himself and whoever was leaving Brian Urban, Dan Dougherty, and Rich Devlin untouched on his doorstep. Hughie’s stellar play on offense got Red back in the game and represented an unexpected dividend from the decision to replace him on D by Steve Thomas’s girlfriend, Kyle Foster. He scored two of his three goals during this stretch and together with Mark Egner, who came down from the point like a “deus ex machina” whenever Red looked near collapse, got the game tied at 8-8. Red’s defense also dug in its heels, especially Kyle, who had a thing for Brian Urban and wouldn’t let him buzz the Red goal without wrapping him up tighter than an airport sandwich. It took a wry trick of fate to swing the momentum back in Blue’s favor when Huck Fairman spearheaded a three-on-one and sent a guided missile into the top corner of the net, giving Blue the 9-8 lead. Red did manage to tie it at 9 but Blue won it, much like they did in Week 19, in the game’s final seconds, when Jim Heffern, finding himself the lone defenseman on a 2-on-1, was unable to prevent Dan Dougherty from knocking a rebounded shot back into the net. It was a crushing loss for Vinnie but, no doubt, quite forgotten four hours later when the Steelers hoisted up the Vince Lombardi trophy to celebrate their sixth Super Bowl.