Blue Fin’s Bistro Hockey

The Blue Fins played the Chiefs Wednesday night.  The Chief concern for the Blue Fins was their ailing goalie Joe Durant, who sat out with the flu.  Ed Hughes, former Comstock net minder, filled in admirably.

The Fins were the first to light the lamp using text-book teamwork.  Kenny ‘Scooby-Doo’ Glanville made a great pass to Chris ‘CSI’ Biley, who blistered a shot on goal.  The Chief’s goalie made the initial stop - but Jon ‘Glory Hole’ Probasco slammed in the rebound. 

Even with good, hard skating in the first period, the Blue Fins own blue line may as well have been the Berlin Wall - the Fins could not seem to clear the puck.  Net minder Ed Hughes made up for his skaters and kept the Chiefs scoreless in the first period.

While the Chiefs were still trying to rebound from his first goal, Probasco found himself in front of the net again with the puck.  He easily put it past the goalie for his second goal, this time unassisted.

Carrying a 2-0 lead, the Chiefs started to play more physical.  This was a plus/minus for the Fins.  On the up side, the Chiefs visited the sin bin three times in the second period.  But the bad news for Fins was that the Chiefs scored just as many times - two of the goals coming on the penalty kill.

At the end of the second period, the Chiefs led by 3-2. 

The Fins held off the Chiefs for most of the third period.  After a strategic time-out by Captain Mike McGee, his team came out ready to skate hard and tie the game.  The Chiefs, however, didn’t get the memo - and poured in two more goals less than a minute apart.

“What we’ve witnessed is the greatest collapse in Blue Fins Team history,”  remarked Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister…..

The Blue Fins’ streak ended at two games - losing 5-2.

 Their next game is Wednesday at 9:15pm against Carolina Ale House.

The Blue Fins met the Jackals Wednesday night, in a late-night contest predicted to be a very physical match.

But the Jackals pack was not in full force.  Just short of a forfeit, the Mangy Mutts were forced to go with just 6 skaters.

But even with their foot on the Jackals throat, it wasn’t a walk in the park for the Fins. 

Kenny ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville was the first to light the lamp.  Skating with Glanville was Jon ‘Glory Hole’ Proabsco and Rich ‘BV’ Kessler.  At the end of the first period, this line led the Fins to a 2-1 lead thanks to a nice goal by Probasco.

Mark ‘All-In’ Ross feathered a great pass to Mike ‘Not Chunks’ Horne who skated in on a break-away.  One nice move and an easy backhander gave the Fins a 2 goal lead.

Defensively, the Fins played strong.  Led by Wayne ‘Newton’ Roan and Captain Mike McGee, they kept Joe ‘Egg Roll’ Durant almost as bored as the Maytag Man. 

When Durant was busy, he played well and posted another quality save percentage. 

After Matt ‘I’m Innoncent’ Pusateri was flagged for tripping, Probasco scored his second goal - shorthanded.  He was able to complete his hat trick following a bit of chaos in front of the Jackals’ net. 

The Fins notched a 5-3 victory - their 2nd in a row.  With this win, the team set several historical records:

Longest Win Streak

Most Points in a Season

Best mid-season record

Most Wins in a season

Highest season ranking

 The Blue Fins carry all of these records into next Wednesday’s game against the Chiefs at 9:45pm.

The Blue Fins played ‘Off in the Showers’ for the second time this season, after losing the first contest in a shoot-out.

The first period was all Fins - and was especially dominated by the Fins offensive line of Jon ‘Crisco’ Probasco, Ken ‘Scooby-Do’ Glanville, and Rich ‘Velvet’ Kessler.  This line repeatedly carried the puck down the ice and left ‘Showers’ gasping for relief.

Led by Probasco, this line turned the light on four times in this period as Probasco, Glanville, and Kessler each scored.  Jumping in on one of the many rushes was ‘Wild, Wild’ Wes Gyure who capitalized on a rebound at the perfect time. 

The Fins easily won the first period and led by a score of 4-0 after 20 minutes.

In the second period, ‘Showers’ stormed back and doused the Fins hope of an easy win.  They cut the lead in half by out-skating and out-working the Fins and scored two goals.

For the Blue Fins, the second period could have been disatrous - were it not for two factors.  First, their defense.  The Fins defense, led by Matt Pusateri, crowded the slot and attacked the ‘Showers’ skaters like a Jay-Walker on D-Block.  Mark ‘Gambler’ Ross chipped in with solid poke-checks, while Captain Mike McGee tore up and down the ice like the guy on the Immodium commercial.

The other factor that not only kept the Fins ‘in’ the game - but ‘gave’ them the game was Joe ‘Clinically Insane’ Durant.  Durant played one his best games.  Not only did he make some lightning quick saves with his glove, he followed the puck through the busiest scrums and repeatedly put his body and pads in front of the puck.  No dispute here - Durant gets the first star.

In the 3rd period, the Fins held on for dear life as ‘Showers’ gave it everything they had.  Kessler faked the goalie out of his pads, scoring on a mini-breakaway, but ‘Showers’ did manage to tie the game with time running out.  The Fins gave it one last gasp and with less than a minute remaining - Probasco scored the go-ahead goal.  ‘Showers’ pulled their goalie, but thanks to Dave ‘Baby Back Ribs’ Berent and the Fins defense - they held off the rush and to seal the victory.

 The Fins win for the second time this season to improve their ‘official’ record to 2-1-2.  With an ‘official’ point total of 6 - this is the most successful season in Blue Fins History.

 Their next contest is Wednesday February 20 at 11:15 pm against the Jackals.

Due to the writers strike there we’re no game reports for 1/30/08 and 2/6/08.