Captain Mike McGee laid out the game plan which focused on containing #18 (Vincitorio) and keeping him from rushing up the ice.  In the early stretches of the game, his play time seemed to be reserved for special teams - and probably for later in the game…

The Blue Fins opened up the scoring thanks to a low quick snap from Bob ‘Quickla’ Cwikla.  The 1-0 lead lasted just over 5 minutes until #18 took control of the puck and out maneuvered several Fin skaters.

Both teams scratched and clawed, hoping to take the lead, but the game stayed deadlocked at 1-1 for over a period.  It was an evenly played game, and the tension rose as each team tried to grab the elusive momentum.

Then on a face-off in the Ale House zone – Rusin dropped it back to Dan ‘Cabo-Wabo’ Fahey.  Fahey muscled a blistering shot on goal.  The Ale House goalie managed to block it, but the shot was too hard for him to cover.  The rebound came right to everyone’s favorite blogger who put it past the scrambling goalie.  (no need to mention the fact that this is the only blogger…)

Finally, the momentum started turning:  a minute later – Stephen ‘The Locomotive’ Tsotsoros increased the Fin’s lead, assisted by Cwikla.

E.J. ‘The Sandman’ Darisse didn’t need much help from his defense – but he certainly got it, giving him a restful final two periods.  The Blue Fins held their blue line like the shores of Normandy.  Matt ‘Greased Lightning’ Pusateri played tough defense – poke checking the best Ale House had to offer. 

Also on defense – you might as well put this guy’s picture in Webster’s next to hustle – was Captain Mike McGee.  McGee played good defense and capitalized his hustle on a hard working keep-in that he rolled back into the zone.  Behind the net, Rusin caught the pass and sent it quickly in front to Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister.   In the blink of an eye, Hofmeister one-timed the puck, backhand, top-shelf.  It was the shot of the game and the goalie never had a chance.

In the 3^rd period – as expected, the Ale House tried to mount a come back.  But ‘Sandman’ Darisse lived up to his top rated expectations – a sheet of plywood bolted to the cage wouldn’t have stopped more pucks than Darisse.

Rounding out the game – Tsotsoros and McGee slyly moved Tsotsoros back to defense for the final period.  The plan worked to perfection, and the Blue Fins defense swarmed the Ale House attackers. 

Kenny ‘Scooby-Doo’ Glanville iced the game on a fast shot from the right side of the net to increase the lead to 5-1.  

Regardless of the score, the Blue Fins kept hustling and skating hard to the end – giving them one of their most gratifying wins.  The Blue Fins earned a bid to their first championship game ever.  They play league-leading Labatt’s – next week at 7 pm.

The Blue Fins increased their lead thanks to a pass from Bob ‘Quickla’ Cwikla to Kenny ‘Scooby-Doo’ Glanville. Glanville deked the goalie out of his pads and flipped the puck in backhand on a goal tailor-made for the highlight reel.

Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister was all hard work and hustle and it paid off early in the 2nd period. He scored his first goal of the night, assisted by Dave Berent, putting the Blue Fins ahead by 3-0.

Matt ‘Speedster’ Pusateri led the defensive effort and repeatedly carried the puck out of his zone to safety. Another slice of the defensive pie was served up from Mark ‘Skipper’ Ross. Ross’s eye-hand skills paid off with skillful poke-checks as well as a pin-point pass that resulted in an assist. Rounding out the Blue Fins protection was Wes ‘That Guy’ Gyure who also played hard despite only 3 skaters to share the load.

This reporter’s favorite player scooped up a loose puck and delivered it past the Crunch minder which increased the lead to four goals.

The Crunch thwarted E.J. Darisse’s attempt at a shut-out early in the 3rd period. Either before or after this goal, though, it didn’t affect the game. Darisse again was at the top of his game and showed why he leads the league in Goals Against, Goals Against Average, Shutouts, and Save % for regular goalies.

Tsotsoros restored the four goal lead early in the 3rd period thanks to more superior locomotion.

Then - ‘THE BODY’ took over:

Mike Hofmeister’s next goal was a result of more hard work. When the goalie failed to smother the puck, Hof raced from behind the net, grabbed the puck, and scored his second of the night.

Hofmeister completed his first career hat trick on the final goal of the game. After a pass from Rusin, Hofmeister skated around the Crunch defense - and scored shorthanded - completing the rout for the Blue Fins.

The Blue Fins end the regular season with a strong win and enter the play-offs in 4th place thanks to a 7-4 record. Their first play-off game is Monday at 10:00 pm against the Wanderers.

It didn’t take long to figure out Labatt’s game plan.  One of their star ringers, #66, repeatedly outskated every Blue Fin on the ice.  The first period was all #66, and all Labatt’s, as they jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead.  Their star scored two of the goals by controlling the puck, his zone, and the action.

But the Blue Fins are a hard working bunch:  Led by the two best subs in the league – Bob ‘Quickla’ Cwikla and Kenny ‘Scooby-Doo’ Glanville, the Blue Fins fore-checked and peppered Labatt’s until they screamed ‘Uncle’.  Glanville camped out in front of the net and scooped up a skittering pass from Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister.  Glanville snapped the puck into the net like a stale motza ball.

Not long after, Matt ‘Blazing Saddles’ Pusateri passed it to Hofmeister who out skated everyone.  Hof dipsy-do’d the Labatt’s keeper and scored such a pretty backhand goal that he skated over to the scorer’s table and asked to dedicate it to his wife.  (No word on any further scoring by #20 later in the evening.)

Defensively, the Fins skated with only three men.  As usual, Pusateri and McGee played very well.  But this week, they were joined by Mark ‘194’ Ross.  Ross played a good game.  In the first period, he played very physical and cleaned several Labatt’s clocks.   

Although playing on offense, Adam ‘Vapor-Lock’ Hoover made a superb defensive play when he dove for and knocked the puck from a rushing Labatt’s skater.  It did result in a tripping minor, but it was still a great effort from Hoover.

GateKeeper Easy E.J. Darisse had several plays for the highlight reel.  The first was a smart poke check that dislodged the puck from a Labatt’s skater looking for a tricky wrap-around goal.  Another was a snap glove save that required slo-mo replay to fully appreciate the speed of this grab.

The Blue Fins comeback faded early in the 3^rd period as they went down by 2 goals.  Labatt’s iced it with their fifth goal and the Blue Fins didn’t have the gas or the time for another rally.

The Blue Fins lose their 3^rd game in a row.  Their next game is against last place Crunch – Monday at 7:00 pm.

Did I mention superstar John ‘Going Commando’ Probasco?  Well, I just did.

The first 20 minutes were even enough to prevent any markers from being tallied on the scoreboard. Throughout the game, the Weevils used the center of the ice for on-the-fly passing on offense. Defensively, they clogged the Blue Fins passing lanes like a drain in a Liquid Plummer advertisement.

After a little bit of chaos in front of the Blue Fins cage, the Weevils chipped in a lucky shot to give them the lead. Just minutes later, they doubled their lead when the Fins got caught in a Chinese fire drill type line change.

Down 2-0, the Blue Fins were looking for a spark. After Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker stepped up his physical game and landed himself in the sin-bin - Stephen ‘The Locomotive’ Tsotsoros responded. Tsotsoros skated through the Weevils and scored his first short handed goal of the season, assisted by John ‘Hot Sauce’ Probasco……(Yes, for those of you scoring at home - #67 was credited with the assist on this goal. Scoring error? Inside joke? We’ll let you decide….)

With his offense sputtering and failing to produce shots, net minder E.J. “Poblano” Darisse played another great game. Late in the 3rd period - the Weevils young ringer jumped into the Fins’ zone on a break-away. Even with all the seasoned moves he’d perfected in his 15 years of age, E.J. Darisse stopped him cold.

With the game essentially over, the Weevils continued to pressure until the very end. Their 200-lb gorilla tried to show Captain Mike McGee some of his best ‘footwork’ and slammed him to the ice. But while he was being repeatedly kicked by the Grape Ape, McGee fought his way back and took Kong off his feet too. Both teams charged in and ended the melee with the predicatable pushing and shoving. McGee and Monkey-Man were directed to the locker rooms just a few ticks before the game officially ended.

The Blue Fins drop their second game in a row and slip a little bit more in the standings. Their next game is Monday at 8:15pm against 1st place Labatt’s.

The Blue Fins hauled in the first catch of the day when Captain Mike McGee blasted a low slap shot from just inside the blue line. 

‘Easy’ E.J. Darisse put on a great show for all the fans in attendance and had several snap-glove saves.  E.J.’s play put the Fins in the drivers seat, and allowed them to really control the game in the first two periods.

Ken ‘Scooby-Doo’ Glanville and Stephen ‘The Locomotive’ Tsotsoros teamed up to light the lamp mid-way through the second period.  Tsotsoros carried the puck down the left side and drew the goalie to his post.  Then he sailed a perfect pass to Glanville who popped it in the cage faster than Shaggy with a Scooby-Snack.

The Blue Fins, like spawning salmon, came out strong – but eventually the short bench began to take its toll.  As the Blue Fins tired, so did the visual acuity of the Wright Referees.  After finishing second in the ‘Father of the Year’ contest to Hulk and Nick Hogan, these two turned their skills to Hockey and the Blue Fins ‘reaped’ the rewards.  After a 5-3 advantage was allowed to tick off the clock, several other infractions were ignored with a simple shrug of the shoulders. 

Carolina Ale House handled the scoring for the rest of the game.  Slowly, but surely, the Blue Fins lead and grip on first place faded away.  

The game was just a few minutes too long for the Blue Fins who just ‘ran out of gas’.  They drop their second game of the season and fall into a tie with Labatt’s for second place.  

Their next game is Monday 7/24 at 9:15pm against the Weevils.

At the beginning of the game – things were nearly evenly matched.  Although the Blue Fins had better puck control and slightly faster skating, the Factory goalie held strong.  

Eventually “Even” Stephen Tsotsoros made his move.  Playing at center, Tsotsoros controlled the puck and skated freely.  He cashed in his first goal, unassisted, to give the Blue Fins the lead.  Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker scored the next goal the only way he knows how – hard work.  After a nice pass from Dave ‘Grouper, Grouper, Grouper’ Berent, Locker carried the puck across the blue line.  He quickly blasted a low shot that snuck under the goalies pads.  The Blue Fins now led by 2-0.

‘Easy’ E.J. Darisse played another great game.  The Factory couldn’t beat E.J. with any of their shots, so they relied on luck.  They did get lucky, twice, and scored two fluke goals.  Aside from that, E.J. was as unstoppable as usual.  

Tsotsoros scored the next two goals for the Blue Fins.  The first one was assisted by Matt ‘Blinding Speed’ Pusateri, and the last was unassisted.  It was a great night for Tsotsoros – he not only scored the game winning goal, but also recorded his first career hat trick as a Blue Fin.

The Blue Fins defense was again too strong for the Factory thanks to strong performances from Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey and Mark ‘Skipper’ Ross.

In the 3^rd period, the Blue Fins put on a fore checking clinic.  After a roughing penalty by the Factory, the Blue Fins dominated the entire power play – setting up camp in the offensive zone.  Joe ‘More is More’ Moreschi ricocheted a pass to Rusin who popped it into the net to give the Fins a 4-goal lead.

The Factory bobbled a puck into the net to cut the lead to 3 goals late in the game.  With time waning in the game, the Blue Fins Captain got just a bit of revenge:  Mike ‘In Your Face’ McGee rifled a slap shot from the right point that sailed into the twines untouched.  This goal put the icing on the cake – and all E.J. Stern could do was watch McGee celebrate.

Despite losing their best player, the Blue Fins win the game and take sole possession of first place.  Their next game is against 2^nd place Carolina Ale House – Monday 7/14 at 9:15pm.

Like a wanting John, Keith ‘Smooth Criminal’ Locker frequented the bin like it was a renowned red light district.  Locker skated and hustled hard the whole game.  Not ‘all’ of the penalties were legitimate.  Then again, he wouldn’t get a whole paragraph if he didn’t deserve one or two….

But Locker wasn’t the only troubled Fin and too many minutes were lost in the first period.  Despite their penalty woes, the Blue Fins did manage to get and keep the lead right from the start.

John ‘Afternoon Delight’ Probasco certainly had the moves working.  His control of the puck was unmatched, and the goals came easy.

Bob ‘Silent’ Cwikla was again a great addition and scored a pair of goals.  Playing center - Stephen ‘Not So’ Tsotsoros’ speed was too much for the Nailers and he had another multi-point game.

Goalie E.J. Darisse had another fantastic game.  This net minder has improves every game.  His saves were good - his poke checks were better - his passing was great. 

The Fin’s defense played another great game - not only providing tough back checking - but also were the spark for numerous offensive rushes.  Captain Mike McGee, Matt ‘Wheels’ Pusateri, and Joe ‘More is More’ Moreschi rounded out the defensive effort.

The goal of the game was scored by none other than Dave ‘Push the Grouper’ Berent.  John Probasco fired a laser shot from the point that Berent one-timed in with authority.  The goalie never stood a chance, and unless you were watching - you would have missed this lightning fast play.

The Fins win easily by a score of 7-4 and keep themselves in a first place tie.   Their next game is against the Factory - July 7th - at 8:30 pm.

There was a wide range of expectations on the Blue Fins side of the puck.  Some expected a physical game, some expected some trash talking, some expected physical play, others didn’t expect much.  One thing was sure - on the other team, the Twiss’s were serious.

Regardless, there were no surprises.  Mike Twiss played strong on the puck, Ryan still skates fast.  Both of them took some ’special time’ to congratulate John ‘Afternoon Delight’ Probasco on his high skill level.  Mike’s wit was as sharp as ever and sent him to the bin for unsportsmanlike comments that had the referee grinning.  Was there reason to be surprised by any of this?  No. 

New man on the sub list - Bob Cwikla - proved his worth right out of the blocks.  He got the scoring going with a breakaway and quick shot.  ‘Afternoon Delight’ followed this up with an unassisted and shorthanded goal.  After this, Captain Mike McGee opened the gun turrets and sent his team out firing.  Cwikla scored another goal late in the 2nd period and was really a great asset to the team.

Probasco haberdashed his way to a 3 goal game.  On his last breakaway, the puck stuck to his blade like glue.  He dipsy-do’d the defender and a quick shot between the legs beat the goaltender cold. 

The third goal, and eventual GWG, was scored by Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister.  Hof bullied his way up the center, kept the puck moving, and made a diving shot just before he hit the ice.  Somebody cue the ESPN music, this one’s for the highlight reel.

Keith ‘White Shadow’ Locker had two goals for the game.  On the first, he fought off two Crunch defenders and then sent an impossible shot towards the goalie.  The goalie fumbled as the shot deflected in.  Locker’s second goal was a result of a picture-perfect pass by Adam ‘Van Dam’ Hoover.  Hoover skated the puck behind the net, and sliced it up the gut to Locker who one-timed it deep into the twines.

Stephen ‘The Show’ Tsotsoros out raced the rest of the Crunch and scored a sweet breakaway goal.  Tsotsoros played a great game both offensively and defensively.

‘Easy E’ E.J. Darisse played a nearly flawless game in goal.  E.J. seems to improve every game, and his coolness on the ice is settling to the Fins defense.  The Crunch spoiled his shut out opportunity by scoring early in the third period.

A bit of sweet revenge was had by the Twiss’s - when Mike assisted Ryan and scored the 2nd goal for the Crunch. 

Matt ‘Wheels’ Pusateri excited the crowd (well, the Blue Fins part) by charging the puck up the left side and firing a laser into the far side of the cage. 

In a surprising move, the Crunch pulled their goalie - apparently to add more physical presence at the end.  Pusateri took advantage, skated the puck up, and passed to Hoover.  Hoover got the freebie to finish off the game.  The Blue Fins win 11-2 and bounce back after their previous loss.

Overall, the game wasn’t the cleanest - but it could have been much worse.  The Crunch, and the Twiss’s, played good hockey.  Mike had some sour, yet warranted, comments for the Blue Fins, but in the end there were ’no hard feelings’. 

Either way, the game wasn’t about one or two guys.  It was about playing hockey and having fun.  Both the Fins and the Crunch did both.

Next up for the Blue Fin’s - The Nailers.  June 30th, 7:00 pm.

So to dispell the question about ‘Why are you guys in C2?’  I’ll summarize some of the facts.  Mike, Matt, Mike - please chime in as necessary.

The Factory let many teams move down a league.  Is it just for the summer?   That remains to be seen.

Regardless - there is no longer a B/C.  Teams from B dropped to C1.  Teams from C1 dropped to C2.  The integrity of each division, with respect to skill level, was completely disrupted.

When it came time for the Blue Fins - we requested to play in C1 - but E.J. Stern, the hockey director, forced us to play in C2.  A few reasons were given, but our only choice was to go to C2.

Captain Mike lobbied hard to go to C1, as did Matt, but E.J. Stern would not hear of it.  We told him we were not going to break up the team just to fit into his plans.  Plain and simple - John was staying put.  E.J. agreed.

So yes, John is good - ringer good.  But in C1, we were a .500 team and wanted to stay.

Are we dominating C2?  No way.  We aren’t undefeated, we aren’t winning every game by a lopsided margin.  Maybe we can go back to C1 - but we weren’t given a choice the first time.

So………we’re sure to get continued jabs about John; we’re likely in for a chippy game or too.  But the bottom line - E.J. Stern forced us to play here.  Don’t believe us?  Ask him.

We’ll keep trying to win.  We’ll keep trying to boost morale with these mostly fact based reports.  At the end of the day, we’re just playing to have fun.

Additional clarification - mpusateri:

I’ll try to clarify some things as I was at the captains meeting:

Initially we were in C1(at the start of the Captain’s meeting)  There was a lot of back and forth of the competitiveness of the league.  If you include this season 6 B teams have dropped to C1 because they felt they were not competitive in B. (Don’t get me started on how 6 teams cannot play competively in B, but can in C1 especially with only 8 teams in C1)  So a discussion among several teams ensued about moving divisions, in an effort to even out the playing field for all.  Blue Fins had concerns(which I expressed) that so many B  teams were dropping, and maybe we needed to look at C2.  I stepped out to make a phone call to try to discuss dropping to C2 with our captain and upon my return we had already been moved to C2.  We had a scheduing conflict with the C2 nights and I said that I would go back to my team and see if they wanted to play in C2 or in C1.  Again, I did not fully commit the Blue Fins to C2, and the only reason we even slightly considered it was because we knew whewe were loosing some C1 talent. One of the statements EJ made, was that he expected the Captains to evaluate the calibur of talent on their teams and place them in the appropriate division.   So in the midst of figuring out what division, we recruited some C2 players and C1 players, but felt overall that we were a C1 team and wanted to play C1.   EJ at this point said that he had an even amount of teams in C1 and C2 and would not let us play C1, that it was a scheduling issue(Mike McGee correct me if I’m wrong.  Mike had more discussions with EJ about this as he is our captain) Turns out we ended up with 7 teams in C2 anyways, and have the scheduling issues anyhow.  In fairness to EJ, hindsight is 20/20, and all teams owe it to EJ, to give him the opportunity to fix things come the fall.  This is EJ’s first season, and he walked into a league plagued with problems.  Blue Fins hold no grudges and are not worried.  Also keep in mind there is no A league this summer, so B is probably more competitive for the summer, but it should be expected by ALL that there are some C1 teams that should move back to B  in the fall just as Blue Fins should move back to C1 in the fall.

Mainly we as a team wanted to point out, we don’t enjoy winning 10-2, we didn’t want to be in this position.  Also it was just two seasons ago that we went 1-13, and were getting creamed in C1.  What I can say is 1 or 2 players do make you competitive whether that’s in B  or C1 or C2.  One problem is that the time between seasons is so short that it is incredibly difficult to recruit in such a short time.   Also this blog was created for the Blue Fins enjoyment, we really struggled with posting this type of content as we never envisioned it to be for outside our team, but since others in the league are following it, and since some are upset that we don’t belong in C2, we thought we should publically acknowledge the facts as we see them.  I’m sure there will always be two sides of every story

Bottom line is it’s a “recreation league”  sure it everyone wants to win, wants to be competitve, but lets leave it on the ice, and all go have a beer afterwards!

Matt P.

Captain Mike McGee’s strategy was to put his best (present company’s literary prowess excluded) on defense.  It was a sound strategy, but relied on the defense to finish with goals as well.  Taking nothing away from the offense - all six forwards work furiously hard - but are more grind than glamour.

After Labatt’s scored the first goal, Keith ‘THE WHITE SHADOW’ Locker - scored his most spectacular goal as a Blue Fin.  He took the puck over the blue line, took 3 hard strides and buried the puck in the back of the net.  As THE WHITE SHADOW deservingly shook his fist, the Labatt’s goalie appeared to take a swipe as he went by…and such started the Blue Fins woes.

In terms of physical play, the Blue Fins give as good as they get - but only react - rather than provoke.  In this case, the provocation was handled solely by the inept officiating crew.  In this game the Fins visited the ‘Sin Bin’ twice as often as Labatt’s - and it hurt.  Although they only gave up 1 power play goal, playing a man down emptied the Fins tanks too soon.

The game see-sawed back and forth, but with each Blue Fins goal - Labatt’s topped it with one more of their own.

John ‘Afternoon Delight’ Probasco tallied a hat trick thanks to a blistering slap shot and two break aways.  On each breakaway, Probasco had the puck on a string and he had at least a move or two more than the goalie could handle.

Not helping matters for the Blue Fins - the refs and Shrek Jr. allowed Labatt’s star (Barney) Fyfe score 4 goals.  This was only noticed by Captain Mike McGee well after the game had ended.  E.J. ‘Insert Expletive’ Stern promised to ‘Look into It’.  Thanks for the attention to detail, E.J.

McGee, with his back-up stick, and Steve ‘Choo-Choo’ Tsotsoros worked hard to score a hard working goal.  McGee fought off 2 defenders and the Labatt’s goalie and Tsotsoros slammed the puck home - and cut the lead to 2 goals.  (McGee, with his back-up stick, gets the assist - no thanks to Poinstreak!)

Once again Labatt’s increased their lead to 3 and that’s how the game ended.  Other hard working Blue Fins included Joe ‘More is More’ Moreschi - made a key diving poke check and cleared the puck while face first on the ice; Matt ‘Speed Racer’ Pusateri carried the puck well - despite being mugged over and over by the Labatt’s defenders; and finally - Dan ‘The Man’ Fahey returned to the Blue Fins without missing a step.

Next up for the Blue Fins is ‘The Crunch’ - Monday June 16, at 7:00 pm.

Be sure to tune in, as this episode is bound to have a Twiss(t)….or two!