Blue Fin’s Bistro Hockey

This is one of those reports that are difficult to write……..and keep factual.

“The Blue Fins dominated the more skilled B-level Ziggy’s team with hard work, pin-point passing, scrambling saves, and a flurry of slap shots.”

So that’s not exactly the way it turned out.

Less than a minute into the contest, Ziggy’s scored their first goal.  From their, the Blue Fins were Ziggys’ Jodie Foster in the back room of the bar.

Joe ‘Son a Motherless Goat’ Durant was treated like a jay walker in a maximum security prison (Biley - I said Jay, with a “J”).

Also, the Fins didn’t play well.  Poor passing and the inability to clear the puck absolutely killed them.

With all that said - Ziggy’s was a better, more dominant team.  Even at their best, the Fins would have had their hands full trying to keep up.

There were a few bright spots - Adam ‘The Cheese Grater’ Hoover carried the puck well from time to time.  In the 2nd period, Hoover carried the puck across the blue line and fed Mike ‘Chunks 2′ Horne.  Horne converted by banging the puck into the right side of the net.

But the absolute play of the game was made by Rick Kessler.  Kessler preserved some self respect for the Fins when he forechecked the former Fin Mike Meehan and stole the puck.  He made a great move to the net and scored right in front of the Blue Fins bench. 

The Fins defense played well, but Ziggy’s was relentless.  The puck was in their zone most of the night, and it was often a mad scramble to clear it.

The Fins went down in flames 13-2 against a better team.  They’ll try to rebound next week against Vincent’s - Wednesday at 9:15pm.

The Blue Fins came into their second game of the season riding high as this, to date, was clearly the best season in team history.

Their opponent ‘Off in the Showers’ was a recently converted B/C level team that moved down looking for quick and easy success.

 ’Showers’ established an early two-goal lead against Joe ‘Clinically Insane’ Durant, but the theme for Durant and the Blue Fins was hard work and comebacks.

Rusin dug the puck out from behind the cage and passed it to Mike ‘Scoring Machine’ Hofmeister.  Dave ‘Godfather’ Berent and Hof out-muscled a ‘Showers’ defender and Hof careened a hard shot off the goalies’ skates to put the Blue Fins back in the game.

The ‘Showers’ increased their lead again, thanks in part to a small mental lapse on the Blue Fins and with a three goal lead - hoped to put the game out of reach.

Hof passed the puck to Rusin who was camped in front of the ‘Showers’ cage.  Like stuffing meat into a calzone, Rusin tucked the puck in behind the ‘Showers’ net-minder.  The Blue Fins shaved a goal off the lead to bring the score to 4-2.

Chunks kept the momentum going on a mini-break followed by a great shot that cleanly found the back of the twines.

With only a one goal deficit, Crazy Joe Durant picked up his game as well. Several snap-glove saves, and fast scrambling kept the biscuit out of his cage after relentless attacks by the fast ‘Showers’ attackers.

The game see-sawed a bit and after a goal by the Showers - Wes ‘Calves’ Gyure followed the charge and hard shot from Chunks.  The rebound popped straight back, and Gyure nailed the loose puck in to restore the one-goal game (5-4).

With time waning, the Showers crowded the net and got a lucky tip to get a 2 goal lead.  The feisty Chunks stormed back up the ice and blasted a shot through traffic and cut the game to 1 goal.

But with just minutes left, Rich Kessler got flagged for retaliating against an un-seen hook and the Blue Fins were now down by a goal and a skater.

But with the Blue Fins defense playing strong, their confidence did not waver.  Matt ‘Mites’ Pusateri, Wayne Roan, and Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey skated hard all game and at the end they had just enough gas left in the tank.

With the Fins defense controlling their zone, Mike Hofmeister poked the puck loose and it squirted down the left boards.  He out-hustled the Showers defender and got to the puck first.  From the cheap seats, he backhanded the puck through the defender and more importantly through the goalie’s legs.  This shorthander tied the game with less than 2 minutes in the 3rd.

The Blue Fins strong defense killed off the rest of the penalty and the regulation ended in a tie. 

Unfortunately, the Showers outscored the Fins in the shootout - 2 goals to 0 on the first 3 shooters. 

The Blue Fins fell just short of an amazing comeback - but managed to salvage 1 point out of the OT-SO-loss.  It was a hard fought, hard played game by every Fin.  They played extremely well against the former B/C team.

It was the start of a new season for the Blue Fins.  After last season’s extended slide, hopes were high once again for the Boys in Blue.  But hopes were high for the Weevils too - they returned to C1 and fully expected to beat last season’s worst team.

Three new players were added to the roster - Rich Kessler, Mike Something, and Chunks.  (Granted two of the names are not exactly corret, but we are all sure about Chunks…..) 

 Another player joined as a sub and hopefully player to be.  Kenny ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville triumphantly returned to the factory ice for the Blue Fins.

The Blue Fins skated with a lot of energy throughout the game.  The first goal was waved off by the more aged of the two refs after the blind zebra didn’t see actual puck cross the actual goal line of the actual net.  The Fins didn’t blame him - it was probably difficult to not see the play from his vantage point of not near the play.

The first half of the game was even.  The Fins defended their zone well, but couldn’t quite get the puck up the ice for any type of structured attack.  Leading the strong defensive effort was netminder Joe ‘Heavily Medicated’ Durant.  Durant made some great saves - including a floater that popped straight up.  He snagged it on the way down as it fell directly towards the twines.

Offensively, the Fins enjoyed their injection of speed as the two youngsters lead the charge.  After he purged some extra bile he was carrying, Chunks scored the game’s first official goal by following his own rebound - slamming it past the goalie on the right side.

The next goal was scored by Mike - Chunks2 - when he wristed the puck over the left shoulder of the Weevil’s goalie. 

But once the Weevils felt pressured - they started playing physical.  They especially played the body on Chunks and Durant.  (not the way Bily ‘plays a body’ either….)  Chunks was getting plowed into the back of the cage by ‘Thor’ - the Weevils biggest skater.  Rusin broke it up by clearing ‘Thor’ off the Fin’s young speedster.  In the process of this little melee - the Weevils went down a skater for four minutes.

Wayne Roan capitalized on this, and scored a sneaky power play goal from the point. 

The refs tried to ‘even up’ the game and made some ‘questionable’ calls down the stretch.  There was no question on Captain Mike McGee’s roughing penalty - he clearly shouldered a Weevils attacker in an admirable show of support for Durant.

With the game tied at 3, and less than 3 min to play, McGee sent in a line to try and close out in regulation.  After the Fins won the drop, Matt ‘Cage Match’ Pusateri hustled for the puck before it exited the Weevils zone.  He fed the puck in deep to Chunks 2 - who grabbed the biscuit, paused, and shot it clean under the left arm of the goalie.

The Fins win the first game of the season, thanks to hard play all around.  The Blue Fins’ tank of high hopes is back to full and they expect the wins to come more often………as least double last season’s mark!