Blue Fin’s Bistro Hockey

When Captain Mike McGee stepped on the ice Monday night, he made an important observation. The opposing team, Chick-Fil-A, dressed their ringer, #4, that was officially removed from their team not once, but twice. McGee reeled in the referees and Chick-Fil-A knowingly chose a forfeit in order to allow their ringer to skate with them.

So although the Blue Fins already tallied the win - the condescending attitude and statements by Chick-Fil-A, ‘We don’t need the points’ didn’t leave the Blue Fins satisfied.

The first period was chaotic, as the game started early and not all of the Boys in Blue were on the ice. After a full 5 or 6 minutes, the Fins finally settled down the lines and got down to business.

For the second game in a row, Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker got things started. Locker proved that the top shelf is good for more than J.D. when he hammered a shot over the goalie’s left shoulder.

Kenny ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville - even if he didn’t get a goal - deserved an ‘A’ for effort. Glanville peppered the goalie with shots, slapped at rebounds, loose pucks, etc. Glanville was getting frustrated as he just couldn’t seem to light the lamp. But when Rusin won a faceoff in their own zone - Glanville took the puck and blazed down the ice. He broke free and fired a shot too fast for the goalie to handle. ‘A’ for effort - but ‘A+’ for this goal.

Chick-Fil-A - although they had ‘nothing to play for’ were certainly putting everything that had into the game. With 14 PIMS to their credit, the Chicken Burgers played anything but clean. Unfortunately, Stephen ‘The Mystery’ Tsotsoros took the brunt early in the game and left with a possible torn MCL.

The Fins took advantage of the PIMS mainly by wearing the Chickens down and controlling the puck. Finally though, they used the power play to help their number on the scoreboard. Rusin drew the face off back to Bob ‘Quickla’ Cwikla who beat the goalie where he supposedly couldn’t be beaten. Cwikla blasted a slap shot from the right side and buried it deep into the twines.

A 3 goal lead is cushy, but no guarantee against the first place team with a B-level, or better, player.

Another thing wasn’t cushy either - the Fins Defense. Yes, with a capital D. Led by Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey, Gene ‘Hot Hands’ Cookmeyer and ‘Roamin’ Wayne Roan, they felt it when McGee was forced up to offense because of the injured Tsotsoros. The Fins D stopped the Chickens at every turn. Cookmeyer was steady and controlled the puck in his zone. Fahey was a master at the pinch. Amazingly, this guy seems to have a view of the future because when he takes the puck in, he’s always right. Roan thankfully battled through some nagging injuries and added strong back checking.

The player of the game for the Fins was EJ ‘The Sandman’ Darisse. Even at the end of the game, when the Chickens sent their ringer in trying to score, Darisse stood tall. Darisse faced many good shots and answered with great saves each and every time. One was a quick flair of the right leg pad, several other saves came thanks to his lightning quick glove.

Against the # 1 team, against a B level ringer, against an army of skaters - Darisse got a shut out at the perfect time.

Despite the forfeit, the Blue Fins earned a 3-0 victory because of hard work and clean play. The Blue Fins enter the play-offs riding high, thanks to a 3-game (technically speaking) win streak….

When the Blue Fins took the ice Monday night against the Nailers - several strategies were ruled out. With only 2 subs - surrounding them or asking for their surrender was out. Also, with more than one exit to the Nailers’ locker room - they couldn’t lock them in.

Instead, E.J. ‘The Sandman’ Darisse and his 7 Blue Fins skaters would have to just grit it out.

As he often does - Vlad ‘Pan’ Potapoff skated with the puck stuck to his stick like it was covered with peanut butter. Potapoff made a handful of moves and then passed it to Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker who scored on a slick reach-around shot. [pun intended]

Six minutes later, the Nailers evened the score and looked to make a game out of it.

But Rusin, and then Ken ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville followed with unassisted goals that gave the Fins the lead and a ton of momentum. The Blue Fins finished the 1st period with a 3-1 lead.

Although it’s customary to name 3 stars, this game deserves four for the Blue Fins. First, E.J. ‘The Sandman’ Darisse was like a fast, scrappy, sort of cat-like animal - but with goalie pads. He stopped pucks with ease. The few rebounds that came out - EJ dove and swatted them away like Tsetse flies. He also stopped a would-be break away by skating out and smartly passing the puck out of his zone.

The other stars were the Blue Fin Defense. Thanks to ‘Mean’ Gene Cookmeyer’s suggestion of keeping the defense strong - Cookmeyer, Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey, and Stephen ‘The Mystery’ Tsotsoros played perfectly. They controlled their own zone, passed the puck between themselves, and played offensively enough to contribute shots, rebounds, and goals. The Nailers could not penetrate the strong defense all game.

The second period was all Blue Fins. Although Rusin got the next goal - it was all Tsotsoros after he made the perfect pass right to the blade of Rusin’s stick. Glanville followed up with not one, but two more goals to complete his hat trick and reverse-cougar-like domination of the Nailers goalie.

The Nailers scored their only other goal in the third period, thanks to a well earned rebound. Rusin joined Glanville’s accomplishment with a third goal - but the final marker came from Tsotsoros. Tsotsoros skated in to the goalie’s right, and as he was tripped he managed a diving biscuit flip with less than a minute to go.

The Blue Fins win lean and mean by a final score of 8-2. Their final game of the regular season is Monday at 10:45 pm against Chick-Fil-A.

Captain Mike McGee - he’s one of the hardest workers on the ice and works even harder for his team off the ice.

McGee made sure as many Fins came to the game as possible. For once, they were loaded with skaters. With two full lines on defense and three full lines on offense, the Fins had all the leg power needed to stay with the Carolina Ale House.

In the first period, Carolina Ale House scored on a bounce off E.J. Darisse that a lucky attacker slammed home before E.J. could reset.

Ale House was always aggressive, frequently chippy, and occasionally dirty. This playing style didn’t hurt the Blue Fins - they are not physically intimidated by anyone and played their own game.

Blue Fins tied the game on a power play goal. Wayne Roan was camped out in front of the goalie in a battle of sticks, while Bob ‘Quickla’ Cwikla raced around the back of the cage. Cwikla scored a fantastic wrap around goal to tie the game.

The rest of the game was quite even and the teams battled to a 1-1 tie.

In the shootout, Carolina Ale House scored on their first attempt. On all three of their attempts, the Blue Fins could not get past the Ale House goalie. The Blue Fins drop another game in a shootout loss.

Or did they????????

Ale House had a sub goalie - a young kid that was practicing before their game. They recruited the young lad and he played extremely well. But like Chris Hanson on Dateline NBC, McGee was there to spoil the fun. Upon further review, the goalie didn’t meet the age requirements.

The Blue Fins win by forfeit. A win is a win, and fair is fair - but the Blue Fins are not even remotely satisfied.

Their next game is Monday at 9:15 against 1st place Chick-Fil-A.

It wasn’t a full moon….not quite flu season….no free cheese giveaways. But for some reason - the Blue Fin Bistro Hockey team was bare bones in the attendance department: Only 8 skaters laced up blades against 15 for 5-Hole Sports.

Let’s just get this out of the way in paragraph 2 - E.J. Darisse played a great game. He was faster and bigger than what 5-hole would have liked to see. His glove hand was pure gold. He also helped out his defense with his ability to skate out and pass the puck.

Speaking of the defense - the Blue Fins “D” earned a solid “A” for their efforts. Gene ‘Hot Hands’ Cookmeyer anchored the defense with long, smooth strides that kept him ahead of even the fastest attackers. Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey played great too - particularly in the 3rd period on a 1-on-1 play into his own zone. He plucked the puck away from the rushing opponent like Daniel-san caught a fly with his chop-sticks. Last, but not least - Wayne ‘The Brain’ Roan made a triumphant return to the Blue Fins. Despite the duo of Golden Corral sliders wedged between the 7th/8th ribs - Wayne didn’t miss a step.

Offensively, the Blue Fins didn’t get a lot of shots. Rich ‘Hawkey’ Denisi, Ken ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville, and Captain Mike McGee’s hard work paid off when the puck skittered well over the goal line. Unfortunately, the referees must have thought they were at a public skate as they didn’t bother moving with the play and weren’t close enough to the net to see the goal. The Fat Turnip netminder for 5-hole - even when confronted, lied like a politician and adamantly denied the puck went across the line - and so the goal was never tallied.

In the 3rd period, Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister took out the papers and the trash when he grabbed a loose rebound and slammed the garbage in the can for the Blue Fins only official goal.

With only half of the skaters, the Blue Fins just didn’t have the legs to pull off the victory. There was no one they couldn’t stop or skate around, but there was just too many of them.

Losing 3-1, the Blue Fins drop their 3rd game in a row. Their next game is Monday November 10th at 9:15 against Carolina Ale House.