Blue Fin's Bistro Hockey

The Blue Fins are in a foot race to try and close out the season in first place. With two games remaining, they have a paper-thin one point lead over 2nd place Weevils.

The Weevils have two rather easy games left, while the Blue Fins play two formidable opponents.

The Mother Puckers have been steadily improving and are now a solid 0.500 team.

The Blue Fins were confident though, and in the first period were skating well and seemed to have things in control. However, when the Mother Puckers scored first, the Fins started to get nerved…..

The Blue Fins tied it up thanks to some hard work by ‘Super’ Dave Berent. Like a waiter passing a check, he wedged the puck through a crowd to Rusin who slid it under the goalie’s pads.

The second goal for the Blue Fins was a smart shot from John ‘Pinball Wizard’ Allman. Rich ‘Hawkey’ Denisi won the face-off to Vlad ‘The Impaler’ Potapoff who got it to Allman at the blue line. Allman sailed a high shot in on net that bounced off several Puckers on it’s way in.

At the end of the first period, it was 2-1 Blue Fins.

The second period was about puck control. The Puckers acted like frustrated Republicans as they tried to get past the ‘Congressional’ blue line of the Blue Fins. The Blue Fins defense democratically stopped them in their tracks. Gyure, McGee, Cookmeyer, Allman, and Fahey not only played a stingy game on defense – but they were able to navigate the referees’ exaggerated calls and stayed out of the box all night.

The offense, however, was not so lucky. They visited the sin-bin 6 times – and thanks to a 5-on-3 penalty kill – the Blue Fins gave up the only other goal early in the 3rd period.

But luckily in the second, they added to their lead.

Denisi skated the puck in, and had a 2-0 break with Potapoff. Denisi glided, paused, then took the shot – ricocheting it off the goalie’s pads.

Just seconds later, Berent and Hofmeister attacked the net. The puck bounced every-which-way and Berent chipped it over the goalie, bouncing it off the minder’s foot and into the net.

After 40 minutes – the Blue Fins were comfortably up by 4-1.

In the third, the Puckers cut the lead to a dangerous two goals on the 5-on-3 power play. Eric ‘Mad Dog’ Mussler got flagged for a very questionable interference call that all of Blue Fin’s ‘fans’ boo-hooed. (Well ok, there was only one fan… but she was real loud and sounded like fans – plural).

Responding to the skimpy two goal lead was Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker. His first goal came after Wes ‘The Hammer’ Gyure’s perfect pass sprung Locker on a break-away. Locker blasted the puck 5-hole and it was too hot for the goalie.

Then, Potapoff put on a show. He danced his way in on net, and put the puck on Locker’s stick like a pat of butter on a dinner roll. Locker was on a roll and easily scored.

The Puckers had a final chance to score, when the skater that scored their first two goals had a beak-away chance for a hat trick. But as this season’s best goalie – E.J. ‘The Sandman’ Darisse made the save. Darisse played very well and occasionally took a leisurely, but nerve-wracking skate around his zone to play the puck.

The Blue Fins win 6-2 and maintain first place and their one point lead.

The final game is for first place – if the Blue Fins win, they will have gone wire to wire for the first time in team history. Their final season game is Monday 4/6/2009 at 8:45 against Chick-Fil-A.

http://www.pointstreak.com/players/players-team.html?teamid=173025&seasonid=3629

Following a complete collapse against the Weevils, the Blue Fins next opponent was equally as menacing. Chick-Fil-A are the reigning champions, and in their last game – a flimsy 1-0 lead held for over 50 minutes of skating.

The Blue Fins were still slumping at the beginning of the game – and Chick-Fil-A made minced meat of them early. They went up by a score of 2-0 after the Fins failed to challenge them in front of their own goal.

The Blue Fins apparently were still feeling the wounds from last week’s loss. Slowly but surely, the Blue Fins started to find their way.

It started with an onslaught of forechecking by the offensive line of Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker, Vlad ‘The Impaler’ Potapoff, and Rich ‘Hawkey’ Denisi. They berated the Chick-Fil-A team in their own zone.

If only Custer had held like the Blue Fins defense covered the blue line – this made the offensive efforts even more effective.

John ‘The General’ Allman, Kevin ‘Chainsaw’ Lavin, Gene ‘Slow Broil’ Cookmeyer, and Wes ‘The Hammer’ Gyure worked hard to get to the loose pucks and open ice.

The next offensive line of Eric ‘The Muscle’ Mussler, Adam ‘Shocker’ Hoover, and Jeff ‘TBD’ Macfarland kept up the pressure and continued to turn the tide.

The second period ended without scoring – the Blue Fins were having real trouble finding the twines. In a rare battle of goalies, through 20 min EJ ‘The Sandman’ Darisse was actually losing to the Chick-Fil-Weeble-Wobble netminder. Darisse, however, was done fooling around and played the final two periods Stingy – yes, with a capital ‘S’.

Finally – Denisi got a loose puck deep in the zone, to the goalie’s right. Denisi only needed a glimpse of twines – and he got it. He ripped one over the goalie’s shoulder to put the Blue Fins back in the game (2-1).

The Fins kept shooting but continued to have difficulty scoring. Midway through the 3rd, Captain Mike McGee made his move. After catching a pass from Rusin, he bulldogged his way across the blue line – practically dragging two defenders with him. He protected the puck as long as he could – and as he got dragged to the ice – he gave the puck one last poke. His diving shot somehow found a hole and the Blue Fins tied the game.

A few questionable penalties forced the Blue Fins to skate short-handed for the last half of the 3rd period. The game ended in a tie – even after a hard fought 4-on-4 overtime.

The Blue Fins are almost out of their slumber and maybe in the horizon they can see their old selves. The fun continues next week when they play the Ale House at 8:45 pm.

The Weevils are the hottest team in the league.  The Blue Fins are the #1 team in the league.  

Immovable object v. unstoppable force? 

Not exactly.  Lack of mobility on the ice is not a good thing – but was the one thing the Blue Fins did well against the hard charging Weevils.

For about 56 minutes, the Weevils out-skated, out-hustled, and out-played the Blue Fins.

The goals the Weevils scored – they deserved them.  A few times the Blue Fins didn’t challenge the skater in front of their net, and the Weevils punished them with good shots.  E.J. ‘The Sandman’ Darisse played well – but there were just too many opportunities for the Weevils.

The loan goal was scored by Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister.  He worked hard all the way down the ice and got enough daylight to get off a slap shot.  The puck found its way in the net, and for the next few minutes the Blue Fins looked like they were going to bounce back.

But the Weevils were the team that responded.  They squashed the comeback like a fat lady squashes her skinny, sickly husband on Jerry Springer.  

Is there such thing as a good loss?  Maybe.  Did anyone expect the Blue Fins to go undefeated?  Doubtful. 

The Blue Fins drop their first game of the season 5-1, but remain all alone in first place.

If the Blue Fins want to keep the respect they’ve earned – they’ll get their opportunity in short order:  Next week they face an equally eager team when they play Chick-Fil-A at 10:00pm.

The Blue Fins were a little thin when they skated against the Carolina Ale House.  Captain Mike McGee almost had his team ‘govern’ themselves….

But thanks to a celebrity coaching appearance by the fastest man on blades – Kenny ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville – the Blue Fins were in excellent hands.  Scooby Doo transitioned to coach with class and style – impeccably dressed complete with a suit, tie, and topped off with a wing-dinger of a derby.

The Blue Fins scored first when Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister carried the puck over the blue line on the left side.  Just like a Vegas dealer passes a card, Hof slid a sneaky pass across to ‘Super Dave’ Berent.  Berent easily flipped it in the net.

With E.J. Darisse out – Mike ‘Stone Cold’ Papst once again carried the torch – hoping to maintain the Blue Fins undefeated season.  Stone Cold’s game plan was to stop the first shot and then rely on his defense.  Stone Cold did just that – he stopped every first shot and played a good game.

The second shots and rebounds were gathered up by the constantly present Blue Fins defense – led by Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey, John ‘The General’ Allman and special guest star Matt ‘Wheels’ Pusateri.  

After the Ale House tied the game, the Blue Fins started to roll.  During a power play, Eric “Flex” Mussler hustled hard behind the net, dug it out and made a good shot.  The shot was blocked, but the puck was laying there like a lost wallet.  Adam “The Shocker” Hoover dove at the puck and knocked it in.

Then on the very next shift, the line of Rich “Hawkey” Denisi, Vlad ‘Pan’ Potapoff, and Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker got the next goal – capped off by a shot by Denisi.  There was a lot of traffic and this trio just out worked the Ale House.  The Blue Fins now led by 3-1.

On their next shift following their power play goal, Jeffrey Macfarland and Eric Mussler teamed up to score again and gave the Blue Fins a commanding lead.

Split up by the break in periods, the Ale House scored the next two goals and put them right back in the game (4-3) thanks to a lot of non-skating and confusing line changes by the Blue Fins. 

Then, late in the game, the Blue Fins got a timely power-play.  After Denisi, Potapoff, and Locker worked hard to get the puck into the Ale House zone.  Blue Fins changed lines to get fresh legs on the ice.  Rusin won the ensuing face-off and sent it to Hofmeister.  Hof stopped it with his skate and then shot it low past the Ale House goalie.

The Blue Fins win again and keep their undefeated season in tact.  

Of course the highlight of the night was Coach Glanville.  Coincidentally, cougar sightings are up 670% in the Wake Forest area.