Blue Fin’s Bistro Hockey

The Blue Fins hoped to exact a bit of revenge Wednesday night when they skated against the undefeated Ziggy’s team.

Just prior to the season….Mike Meehan chose to leave the Blue Fins ‘to play with his old team’.  Surprisingly though - the first time they played Ziggys this season - and saw Mike Meehan on the ice, his response was - “Well, you guys aren’t good enough.  That’s why I left.”

Despite the fact that Ziggys dropped to the C league because the competition was too tough in their original league, they did not see the irony of going undefeated….

The Blue Fins started the game with a lot of effort.  Every skater wanted to win, but knew it would take nothing less than hard work.

With a bit of razzle, and a dash of dazzle - Ziggy’s made the first two goals like easy - and soon after, scored a third to jump out to a three goal lead.

But thanks to a great poke check, Mike ‘Hammer’ Hofmeister stole the puck from Ziggy’s star player.  He made a quick pass to Dave ‘Move the Salmon’ Berent who slid an off-speed shot past the goalie.  (3-1)

But the Ziggy’s ringer took offense to Hofmeister’s steal, and proceed to put on a show - skating end-to-end and scoring.  (4-1)

 From there, the Fins lost composure and spent - or wasted - too much time trying to ‘even the score’ with the Ringer and Meehan. 

Not even two break-away goals by Jon ‘Youngblood’ Probasco were enough to keep the game close. 

Star players in the losing effort were Matt ‘Pinky’ Pusateri and Captain Mike McGee on the defensive side; while Wes ‘Restraining Order’ Gyure, Chris ‘CSI’ Biley, and Mike ‘Shaggy’ Horne shone brightly on offense.

The Fins’ next contest is Wednesday, 8:45pm, against Vincent’s of Raleigh.

After last week’s disappointing loss, the Blue Fin’s Bistro hockey team was looking to rebound against Carolina Ale House.  Coming into the game with a superior record, the Blue Fins were favored to win it.

The Blue Fins treated the Ale House like a health inspector with an axe to grind.  Jon ‘Mr. Hockey’ Probasco played defense, with an offensive mindset.  He repeatedly skated the puck out of his zone which he converted into the first two goals for the Fins.

 After Mr. Hockey made it look easy, the rout was on.  Wes ‘Choir Boy’ Gyure chimed in with two opportunistic goals.  The second he scored on a rebound - the initial hard blast by ‘Master Blaster’ Biley was too hot for the goalie. 

The rest of the Blue Fins defense played very agressively - Matt ‘Speed Racer’ Pusateri and Dan ‘Lock Box’ Fahey both repeatedly jumped in on the offensive rush. 

Goals were plentiful - Kenny ‘Scooby Doo’ Glanville, Rich ‘Smooth’ Kessler, and Biley all scored goals of their own.  Earlier this season, the Ale House’s regular goalie sudddenly quit - and the pipes were being manned by one of their skaters.  He was obviously chosen for his sheer size.  Unfortunately for the Ale House, his skills as a goalie were about as good as those of his college carousing days.  [single guy, likes Dungeons & Dragons, lives with his Mom]

The man who led the Blue Fins on this historic night, was Mike ‘The Body’ Hofmeister.  Entering this season, he held the record for goals and points scored for the Blue Fins, but his latest scoring drought had extended past a handful of games. 

Hof returned to his scoring ways by skating hard, lowering his shoulder, and crashing the net.  [It's all about hard work, boys and girls.]  The first goal was a blistering shot from the left side.  The second time he turned the light on was a power-play goal; the third was a snap pass from Dave ‘Cheese Fries’ Berent that Hof shoveled through the goalie’s pads.

 The Blue Fins doubled up on the Ale House by a score of 10-5.  They didn’t play their best, but they had more than enough and the game was never in doubt. 

 Their next game is against the Bulldogs - Wednesday night at 8:15 pm.

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.

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!

The Blue Fins went down faster than a 3 dollar - Whoa was it a rough game!

With a score of 9-0 (Point Streak is incorrect), there isn’t much to say.

Chris ‘Stalker’ Bily said, “I’ve been to autopsies that were less bloody.”

A bright spot in the game was the overpowering hustle by Captain Mike McGee during a penalty kill.  McGee charged the puck and kept it in the offensive zone, by himself, for nearly half of the kill. 

Sure the Renegades passed well, skated well, and had great, sneak shots.

But those Blue Fins looked good too………only because their uniforms matched.

But was this a true beat down?  Are the Blue Fins really playing that poorly?

Or……..

Are they in the midst of the biggest hockey set-up/scheme ever?

Can you say HOCKEY-GATE?