Post by Old Bucks Admin on Oct 29, 2010 20:24:33 GMT -5
Blue was riding high after Week 3, boasting their invincibility and giving ear to the hockey muse, bidding them to go forth and do great things. In Week 4 they lacked Bob Freiling but compensated with the one thing Bob doesn’t provide—teamwork. Nor did they have Kevin Saunders, who hasn’t been seen since Week 1. With the club’s new “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy his whereabouts will probably remain a mystery.
Both house goalies were absent; Kenny was out with a concussion he suffered during a collision with Jim Heffern last week, and Marty opted to stay home and watch Brett Favre’s last game at Lambeau Field. In their stead, Jamie played goal for Red and Rich Cerbone for Blue. Nine skaters were on each side—a decent turnout for an 8 p.m. game.
At the outset John Lupisella set the tone for Red’s futility. Simply put, he stumbled badly reversing direction while Diaz bore down on him with the puck, falling to the ice as if driven there by a middle linebacker. This gave Diaz a breakaway and Blue a 1-0 lead.
A Jim Heffern goal made it 2-0 Blue but Red gamely fought back, tying it with goals from Eddie and Mike Robbins. Yet trying to contain Blue’s offense was like trying to hold a fasting tiger by its fang. By the time Paul Egan assisted Brian Urban (the rink’s defective warming pad notwithstanding) Blue was enjoying a 3-goal cushion, up 7-4.
Meantime Rich Cerbone looked solid in goal. Everyone compared him to Marty only without all the surly growls at his defensemen. He did make one gaffe though. When clearing the puck from his crease he put it right on the stick of Jonathan Millen, who dished to Tim White for an easy layup, cutting the lead to 7-5 Blue. Blue faltered for the next ten minutes and allowed Red to tie the game at sevens.
Blue broke the tie about the same time Brett Favre broke his ankle. It happened this way: Alex Cerbone was buzzing the Red goal, sniffing for garbage a la Joe Peugeot, when he trespassed in Jamie’s crease and got lanced with the butt end of a goalie stick. He dropped both stick and (one) glove and bent double, retreating behind the goal in obvious pain. Play continued as skaters either did not know he was hurt or didn’t care. Slowly he recovered his stick and glove, only to find himself well-located just outside Jamie’s crease, where as fortune would have it, he was able to tap in a rebound for the game-winning goal.
When the clock struck ten, Blue appeared to have won 8-7. But the zamboni remained in its bay, the shut door attesting to its absent driver. Play continued in the form of an ersatz overtime where, at least for Red, a tie would be as good as a win. Red had the advantage of numbers; their team stayed put while three skaters left Blue with cramps in their arches. Yet it was Blue who dialed up the pressure, stoked by the chance to beat Red twice, both during and after regulation. When Rich Devlin scored his third goal of the night, giving Blue a decisive 9-7 lead, all on Blue expected Red to trumpet their surrender with a resounding “Pucks up!”
But stony silence was all Blue got, apart from more hockey. Blue was now like a vulture feeding off a carcass and it wasn’t until Brian Urban scored, extending Blue’s lead to three goals that Red acknowledged the bloody stake protruding from its barely beating heart. Rich Cerbone left the ice, having proved himself worthy of a Blue netminder. Laughably, a small contingent of Red players made one final assault on the now empty Blue net, looking more ridiculous than Don Quixote tilting at windmills. The assault ended with a John Lupisella shot from about 20 feet out that missed the net entirely.
It was just that kind of night for Red.
Both house goalies were absent; Kenny was out with a concussion he suffered during a collision with Jim Heffern last week, and Marty opted to stay home and watch Brett Favre’s last game at Lambeau Field. In their stead, Jamie played goal for Red and Rich Cerbone for Blue. Nine skaters were on each side—a decent turnout for an 8 p.m. game.
At the outset John Lupisella set the tone for Red’s futility. Simply put, he stumbled badly reversing direction while Diaz bore down on him with the puck, falling to the ice as if driven there by a middle linebacker. This gave Diaz a breakaway and Blue a 1-0 lead.
A Jim Heffern goal made it 2-0 Blue but Red gamely fought back, tying it with goals from Eddie and Mike Robbins. Yet trying to contain Blue’s offense was like trying to hold a fasting tiger by its fang. By the time Paul Egan assisted Brian Urban (the rink’s defective warming pad notwithstanding) Blue was enjoying a 3-goal cushion, up 7-4.
Meantime Rich Cerbone looked solid in goal. Everyone compared him to Marty only without all the surly growls at his defensemen. He did make one gaffe though. When clearing the puck from his crease he put it right on the stick of Jonathan Millen, who dished to Tim White for an easy layup, cutting the lead to 7-5 Blue. Blue faltered for the next ten minutes and allowed Red to tie the game at sevens.
Blue broke the tie about the same time Brett Favre broke his ankle. It happened this way: Alex Cerbone was buzzing the Red goal, sniffing for garbage a la Joe Peugeot, when he trespassed in Jamie’s crease and got lanced with the butt end of a goalie stick. He dropped both stick and (one) glove and bent double, retreating behind the goal in obvious pain. Play continued as skaters either did not know he was hurt or didn’t care. Slowly he recovered his stick and glove, only to find himself well-located just outside Jamie’s crease, where as fortune would have it, he was able to tap in a rebound for the game-winning goal.
When the clock struck ten, Blue appeared to have won 8-7. But the zamboni remained in its bay, the shut door attesting to its absent driver. Play continued in the form of an ersatz overtime where, at least for Red, a tie would be as good as a win. Red had the advantage of numbers; their team stayed put while three skaters left Blue with cramps in their arches. Yet it was Blue who dialed up the pressure, stoked by the chance to beat Red twice, both during and after regulation. When Rich Devlin scored his third goal of the night, giving Blue a decisive 9-7 lead, all on Blue expected Red to trumpet their surrender with a resounding “Pucks up!”
But stony silence was all Blue got, apart from more hockey. Blue was now like a vulture feeding off a carcass and it wasn’t until Brian Urban scored, extending Blue’s lead to three goals that Red acknowledged the bloody stake protruding from its barely beating heart. Rich Cerbone left the ice, having proved himself worthy of a Blue netminder. Laughably, a small contingent of Red players made one final assault on the now empty Blue net, looking more ridiculous than Don Quixote tilting at windmills. The assault ended with a John Lupisella shot from about 20 feet out that missed the net entirely.
It was just that kind of night for Red.