THE

UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Tuck
Gamblers
1st
3
1
2rd
4
2
3rd
3
2
FINAL
10
5
Shots
39
26
October 18th, 2023 - 9:20PM
WABA - White River Junction, VT
Pre-Game
Recap
Box Score
Discussion
Game ID: 1446

Tuck Doubles Up Gamblers 10-5

Another season of the UVie has started 20 years after the inaugural one way back in November 2003 at Union Arena. This year’s kick off is at the Hartford rink after finally being able to move the league right into the hockey hotbed that is the Upper Valley. It has been a long time coming. I’m(Shawn "McDefense" McDermott) happy to return in my new capacity as scorekeeper after retiring from competitive hockey 9 years ago at age 43. It was great to see some old teammates and faces that I haven’t seen for almost that long. When John Turner and I co-founded the league back then we were told by many that it wouldn’t work. No one had ever had a league in this region that we the whole hockey season. Only the 60-minute run time “Mud League” existed in the scraps of ice time left over after high school hockey ended in March until Campion Rink closed its doors for the season. We had a dream… we built it… and look at it now 20 years later. There are at least 3 other leagues in the Upper Valley because we proved it could be done. Some say the highest form of flattery is imitation and I agree. My hat is off to Kelly and Will for running the league so effin’ well all these years since I stopped playing, and Kelly, my former defense partner and business partner, for even longer before I passed the torch to Will. Here’s to another great season of the best A-level hockey between Burlington and Hookset at least!
 
This was a typical first night to open a UVHL season with waivers still not signed and mismatched jerseys with taped on numbers prevalent in most lineups. It seems that not much has changed in 20 years… but that certainly did not distract from an absolute scorefest between the Gamblers and Tuck. This was a fast, clean game with only one penalty. The Gamblers hit the crossbar at 11:52 and the game remained scoreless until the floodgates eventually opened at 7:57 on the first of many from the UN-TUCKIN-BELIEVABLE line of Luke Stickel “With the Pointy End” between Aidan “Rocky” Balboni and Jonathan “Carfax” Carkeek with Stickel’s first of 4 goals from Balboni. Who do you think you are, anyways? Auston Matthews in his debut against the Senators with 4 goals in 2016? Brock Boeser with 4 against the Oilers on opening night in Vancouver this season? Stickel and Balboni played give and go on the first marker beating the goalie side to side. This line was on fire from this point on and Stickel scored again at 5:54 assisted by both linemates… at least according to them because the new refs had a hard time garnering assists until late in the game so I had to ask the players on their Tuck honor if there were any assists on the goals. To be fair, I had to do the same with the Gamblers, too, so for all intents and purposes the stats are legit. ‘Nuff said.

Tuck made it 3-0 at 4:52 by Matthew “In The Net” Ouelette from Seamus “The Dreamus” O’Niell and Mikey “Its Long” Yablong. I may continue to channel Kelly Park and his incessant use of entertaining nicknames… I may not. Whatever I choose I disclaim that its hearsay because it rhymes. Most of the time anyway. Besides, its against the rules to give yourself your own nickname. Ouelette’s goal was on a nice play and all three of Tuck’s goals were from breaking to the net. The Gamblers answered with 50 seconds left in the 1st on a nice, hardworking unassisted effort by Sean “Tom” Collins and he wasn’t really even that drunk but he did close his eyes when he shot the puck and tried not to puke lasering a beautiful high shot over Marshall Jenkin’s glove breaking all the shot glasses at the top of the shelf in one fell swoop.
 
Luke Derry cut Tuck’s lead to 4-2 on an absolute SNIPE at 13:11 of the 2nd into the top corner over the L shoulder of Marshall. We have ourselves a game, Gentlemen. The Gamblers wasted a 2-on-0 at 10:51 with no shot on goal. Again… like in the other game… you have one job! The G’s were catching up on SOG’s and it was now 14-12 in favor of Tuck at 10:05. A bad line change by the G’s allowed a 3 on-1 but Tuck could not muster a shot on the ensuing play. Do your job! Belichick would be PISSED! However, the puck remained in the zone and Stickel got the Hatty at 9:10 from his trusted helpers and linemates yet again. This line started to dominate and scored again at 7:53, this time it was Carkeek from Stickel who finally decided to be unselfish. Matt Marrazzo made a fantastic individual effort stealing the puck off the boards and going in with another snipe at 4:22 for the third impressive goal by the Gamblers. To his great credit Marshall kept out all but the very best shots by the G’s and all 3 goals were highlight reel shots. The game was still in reach for the Gamblers at this point only down 2 goals with the score 5-3 until… Balboni scored at 3:53 with assists from, guess who?, Carkeek and Stickel. This line was rolling and was having a real night for themselves. Evan Cline made a great save on Balboni at 3:05. The Gambler's Luke Webster got the only penalty of the game at 2:46 of the 2nd but the Gamblers couldn’t get a shot on goal during the ensuing power play.  Stickell potted his 4th of the game to end the period with 0:28 left leaving the score 7-3 for Tuck.
 
The first SOG of the 3rd didn’t happen until 12:29 by the Gamblers. Carkeek received a great pass from his D to the far blue line but Cline came up with yet another big save on the attempt. The G’s hit the post soon after mid-3rd period beating Marshall on the low glove side but were denied by the iron. Cline and Balboni got tangled up on a play in front but there was no harm, no foul. They hugged it out. For a little too long actually… not that there’s anything wrong with that… supposedly. There were less SOG’s during the middle stages of this final period. I saw many missed nets, blocked shots and takeaways by both teams. Was it fatigue? A comfortable lead? I dunno, but the same thing happened in the early game mid-3rd. Curious. Marrazzo scored again for the G’s from a pass across from Luke Webster with 4:41 to go breaking the trend. Again, the new refs were still getting acclimated and assists were not forthcoming so I hopped between benches to get the skinny between plays. Ouelette missed the net wide L all alone at 3:52. One job… O’Neill missed the net cutting across but then Cline made 2 great saves in succession on the very next play. Soon after O’Neill made a great pass to Karch Bachman for a breakaway that was thwarted by Cline. The final 1:22 saw three goals to finish the scorefest starting with Carkeek from “the you know who’s” only to be answered by the Gamblers at 1:06 on Raymond Nolan’s marker from Webster and Collins. Bachman was flying the last 5 minutes of the game and finally made good on his efforts at 0:49 from O’Neil. Cline made another great save with just 26 seconds left as Nicholas Sullivan made a fantastic pass to Bachman on a 2-on-1. The Gamblers made a nice passing play of their own in the final seconds between Marazzo, Meyer and Webster. Neither team gave up and this was a really exciting, fast, clean game to watch. Well done, guys!
 
MVP’s? The UN-TUCKIN-BELIEVABLE line was a force to be reckoned with garnering 19 points between them. I must give an honorable mention to both goalies in this game no matter the score. They both stopped great chances and 3 of the Gamblers’ goals were absolute ‘effin SNIPES worthy of highlight reels in any league anywhere.
 
LVP? Seeing as I was the ONLY one to go to Applebee’s post-game then all of you are ‘effin losers cuz you don’t want to stay out past your bedtimes. Going out after the game is half the fun. We need to channel those Whalers teams from the late 2000’s and early 2010’s who ALWAYS went to the bar afterwards win or lose, late game or early game. Next week, fuckers! Who’s comin’ with me?
  
McDefense aka HKYDOC

LEAGUE PICK 'EM
 0%
Tuck
0% 
Gamblers
PICKS
THREE STARS

Luke Stickel

GOALS: 4
POINTS: 7

Aidan Balboni

GOALS: 2
POINTS: 7

Jonathan Carkeek

GOALS: 1
POINTS: 5

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