While sipping a last one ...

It was with a small dose of apprehension that I anticipated this Saturday's games in the absence of the president of the league, but all in all, things went pretty well, especially since he was taking care of finding the countless subs from a distance, some of which at the last minute, which is always interesting ...

In the first game between the Czechers and Loggers we were treated to a penalty festival (10 for the Loggers against 5 for the Czechers) that gave the Czech’s numerous 2 men advantages in which they were a bit disappointed not being able to score. In fact no goals were scored  on power-plays in this close game that ended with a 4-4 tie. The tension was palpable especially late in the game but despite appearances (and all those penalties) the guys kept their cool, from what I saw the majority of the penalties called were a result of excess intensity or combativity rather than plain old frustration. Throughout the game the guys had a lot to say to Thierry the referee who upheld his calls without flinching as it should be.

As for the second game between the Vipers and the Shamrocks, The green men opened the scoring and managed to carve out a two-goal lead that held until the end of the second period, until Jacob Poliquin took matters in his hand by scoring two unanswered goals thus allowing the third period to  begin with a  4-4 tie. This last period being at the advantage of the Vipers that capitalized on 3 occasions, the «Shams» being less opportunistic and scoring only one goal, for a final score of 7 to 5. One might add that the goalies saw a lot of "rubber" with 40 shots on goal for the Vipers against 35 for the «Shams» ... which is sort of a rare total if I'm not mistaken ...

The third game of which I saw only more or less the second half was hotly contested, despite what the final score might have us believe, the Tomahawks only taking a significant lead only at the end of the third. The Avengers where in the game all along without being able to overcome a deficit that was of no more than 2 goals for the majority of the game. I heard that there had been a controversial goal accorded to the Toms, but again the referee called it as he saw it, and as they say : "that's it that's all ! ".

With this victory, the Toms are now at the top of the ranking which is as pretty much as tight as can be, each team being able to win against another on any given day.

A little anecdote worthy of mention; some scheduling conflicts and / or outright absences deprived the Shams and Avs of one player each, which never bodes well especially late in the game as we witnessed, although one cannot attribute the result of the games to just that, we can definitely conclude that it is always more fun to have a full team ... 

But what can we do: shit happens !!!

Also I would like to thank everyone who contributed to Patou's Haïtian sister’s fundraiser. I have no idea how many of us participated but I know he was grateful, it's not easy to ask guys you barely know to donate money, though a little 10 bucks for a chance to win a pair of tickets to a Canadien’s game and above all for a good cause , is not really a big deal for us but can make a big difference for her !

see you next week!

Larry