UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Nordiques Look For Redemption.

ODDS:	Nordiques by 2 goals
OVER/UNDER:	10 goals

The 5-1-1 Nordiques are looking for redemption from their 10-2 loss to Tuck five weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Nordiques can't win this one...even if they win. The Tuck team they will be facing this week will be missing a large core of their team, who are on vacation from business school, so even if the Nordiques do get their redemption, it won't be against the same roster that completely and utterly dismantled them in their first meeting.

Tuck is a powerhouse, they have the deepest roster in the UVHL that consists of several ex-Division 1 players. They have arguably the best netminder in Dan "The Man" Yacey, a solid set of defense & some scary-talented forwards. Last week, Tuck barely beat the basement-dwelling Dead River team 4-3. Dead River was missing their top two offensive players, while Tuck had to pull in two subs and were missing 5 of their top 6 point producers.

The Nordiques should see their full roster on Tuesday night, which is bad for Tuck. The Nord's top line of Jordy "Nanny" McGee, Pierce "Mayhem" Mayhew & Brian "Redbeard" Racicot have put up a combined 60 points in the first 7 games, while their second line has put up a VERY respectable 39 points. Not to mention that the Nordiques have combined for the league leading 53 goals.

This offense may have been what got the Nordiques into trouble in week 3, as they walked into their game with Tuck a little bit over confident. Tuck is still dangerous, even without their top players.

Depending on Tuck's Roster, this should be an easy win for the Nordiques...possibly 6-4. But could be opened up as much as 8-2.

Helming has his way with Nordiques in 5-4 Win

Andrew "Hellboy" Helming was on fire tonight, single-handedly dismantling the Nordiques with 3 goals & 2 assists in a 5-4 win. Helming had points on all of Tucks goals, and contributed both offensively & defensively. A second period onslaught by Tuck turned this game around and doomed the Nordiques in the end.

Tuck was without a majority of their star players tonight as the business school is on winter break. With only 6 of their regular roster players available, Tuck needed to pull in two players from their minor league system to fill their roster, but still didn't have a problem pulling out the win. Filling in between the pipes for Dan "The Man" Yacey was Benny Dower who saw a shit-ton of rubber, stopping 43 of 47 shots en route to his first UVHL win.

The Nordiques were without their star goaltender, Johnny "Temper Tantrum" Turner who was in Maine getting a psych evaluation. In Turner's absence was Greg "First Period" Feiden, who's tumultuous ride with Dead River has him on suicide watch. Feiden saw a good amount of rubber himself turning away 36 of 41 shots.

The Nordiques looked good early in this game, but just couldn't break through on Dower. It took over 14 minutes to finally put one in, when Jimmy Kerrigan found Ian "The Grin" Coates for the 1-0 lead.

Roger "The Rusty Drill" Phillips put the Nordiques up 2-0 from his main man Coates and Greg "The Hanover Butcher" Marsh. Things looked good for the Nordiques, up 2-0, until Kelly "The Mouth" Park didn't take Helming's stick in front, allowing him to grab a rebound, spin around and slide the puck under Feiden with 12:58 remaining in the second period. The Nordique's bounced right back on the next shift, with a Jordy "McMuffin" McGee breakaway.

Helming got his second of the game after a hail mary flip pass out of Tuck's zone found Helming at center ice. Helming chipped the puck to Coughlin who threw the puck to open ice for Helming to chase down. Feiden hesitated for a second before charging out of his net, only to see Helming retrieve the puck first and slide the puck in the open net.

Halsey "Turn Your Head And..." Coughlin scored a nasty game tying goal at 8:55 when he took a pass from Helming and burst out of the far corner, roofing the puck on Feiden who was down on his knees praying to the hockey Gods that Coughlin wouldn't roof the puck. Helming, put Tuck up 72 seconds later, tipping in a Ryan "The Govenator" McGovern point shot.

The third period saw little action until a 20 MPH Colin Carrahill flip shot from 30 feet out rolled over the stick of Feiden and into the net giving Tuck a 5-3 lead with 3:34 to play. The Nordiques pulled their goalie with just over a minute to play, and were able to notch a goal with 47 seconds remaining after a Brian "The Beard" Racicot's rebound found Marsh in the slot for the open net.

In the end, Tuck pulled out a solid win over the Nordiques. They were missing key players, but in the end had the right tools to grind out a win. There were no penalties in this one...weird for men's league. Helming was awesome, and earned a well deserved POW nod.

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
NDQ	00:27	Goal	Coates, Ian(8)	Assist(s): Kerrigan, James(4)
2nd PERIOD
NDQ	14:43	Goal	Phillips, Roger(8)	Assist(s): Coates, Ian(9) Marsh, Greg(10)
TCK	12:58	Goal	Helming, Andrew(4)	Assist(s): Walsh, Nate(2)
NDQ	12:18	Goal	McGee, Jordan(12)	Assist(s): none
TCK	10:25	Goal	Helming, Andrew(5)	Assist(s): Coughlin, Halsey(5) Dower, Benjamin(1)
TCK	08:55	Goal	Coughlin, Halsey(2)	Assist(s): Helming, Andrew(2)
TCK	07:43	Goal	Helming, Andrew(6)	Assist(s): McGovern, Ryan(2)
3rd PERIOD
TCK	03:34	Goal	Carrihill, Colin(5)	Assist(s): Helming, Andrew(3)
NDQ	00:47	Goal	Marsh, Greg(5)	Assist(s): Racicot, Brian(11) Puchalik, Andrew(1)

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Game Comments:
kpark Quechee, VT Registered: Dec 2003 Posts: 723	Body Count? Nov 30th, 2010 11:24 AM Hey Tuckies, how many skaters are you going to have tonight? KP