UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

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UPDATED UVHL April & PLAYOFF Mud League summaries:

Whew! What a final two weeks to the UVHL Mud League's regular season! And what a final night full of drama on April 19th! (more on that later). Things have been quite busy around the McD household/office, so I've been behind on the updates the past two weeks (sorry, eh). Before we head into the final week of the hockey season and Mud playoffs, players and fans deserve to be apprised of the final 4 games of the regular spring UVHL season.

First and foremost, the Kings are undefeated in April and finished the regular season on a 6 game win streak to finish in first place with an 8-3-1 record after starting the season barely .500! The Kingers are HOT right now and have momentum going into their semi-final match-up against the Stars on Tuesday 4/24 at 7:10 PM. With Hogg and Coakley at the helm, and their core of stellar D, the Kings look to continue their incredible play into the playoffs. Potter and the Avs have fallen from grace. Potter Construction, the early season favorite, finished April with a mortal 3-3 record, falling to the Kings twice (4/3 and 4/12) and to the Stars once (4/19). Potter finishes the reg. season with a 6-5-1 record. However, their plan may be in effect as they have maintained all season that "it is better to lose a few in the regular season than go undefeated and lose in the finals". Believe me, Potter speaks from experience on that one. My pick for Mud Bowl Champs is...flip a coin between the Storm Kings and Potter - it will be a close 1-goal game. The Avs are limping into the playoffs. With the best record after 6 games mid-way through the spring regular season the Avs looked like the real-deal and a legit contender. However, after an initial win against Potter, the Avs have fallen three straight to the Hartford boys after talk of winning it all, and complete their first Mud season with a 5-7 record after a 4-2 start. Medoubts an Avalanche championship based on their recent play, but anything can happen in the playoffs! The Stars were picked by an un-named commish to win 3 games this regular spring reg. season, and they WON FOUR! YAAAAHHH! This thrown-together 4-8 team full of heart has surpassed expectations, and has been in just about every game in this very close and competitive spring league, but they are the long shot to win it all.

Okay, now the summaries for the past two weeks. On 4/10 the Kings beat the Avs 6-2 on the strength of Adam Hogg's incredible 3G, 3A game. Hogger factored-in on every Kings goal, and dominated against Dr. McSelfish and Dr. McBiceps rubbing their noses in it. Ouch! Will Meyer led Potter to a 4-3 come from behind victory over the Stars with 1G, 2A, and the Stars allowed 3 unanswered Potter goals to let the victory slip away from them late in the game. On 4/12 Nick Bayley, aka Dr. McSelfish, led the Avs to the promised land with 5G, 1A in a 7-6 win in a game that the Stars scored 3 unanswered goals in the final 8 minutes to almost force OT and complete the comeback in a weird game that saw many fluke goals at both ends. Of note: the Stars lost two close 1-goal games this week. Hogger led the Kings against Potter with 4G, 1A in their 7-5 win to complete the best and most dominant UVHL player's week and have the POW honors bestowed upon him in the absence of an official POW poll for that week (my bad, sorry eh), with honorable mentions to Bayley and Meyer.

In the final week of the reg. spring season the Kings continued their recent dominance of the UVHL. They handled the Stars 8-3 on 4/17 and Hogger had 3G, 2A in the game for a POW nod. (Coakley who? Where have you been, Sean? Are you going to let this rookie ursurp you?). Potter man-handled the Avs again in a 9-1 shellaquing (did I spell that right? shellacking?) on 4/17 in which Potter was firing on all cylinders and shut-down McSelfish and McBicep leaving the dynamic duo with a mere goal and assist between them. The Stars emerged from nowhere and upset Potter 5-3 on 4/19 with Twisted Steel, Greg Hadley, in net for the travelling JT. Stars F Mike O'Neil rightfully deserves his POW nod for the Natty Hatty to lead his team to victory in his last game of the season (O'Neil will miss the final week due to work - great season, Mikey!). Hads played well in his tune-up for a Bruins Alumni guest appearance in net this weekend with his Bruins buddies.

Okay, and now ladies and gentlemen (drum roll please), we come to the final game of the regular season in the UVHL's spring "Mud League" featuring the Storm Kings and the Avalanche at 8:30 PM this past Thursday April 19th. Oh, what a night it was, indeed. First off, both games this past Thursday had their fair share of mouthing-off to the refs, but there was only one minor unsportsmanlike penalty in the Stars-Potter game, and there were 4 unsportsmanlike minors, one 10 minute misconduct, and a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike in the Kings-Avs game. These two teams brought out the best, or worst, in each other in this match-up. My oldest daughter had the pleasure of scorekeeping the first period of this game until I came to her rescue to start the second period, and I was in the scorekeeper's box myself during the second and third periods to personally witness all the drama. To make a long story short, the Storm Kings won 6-5 in a heated battle both in the scorer's column and in the penalty column (8 Kings penalties, 9 Avs penalties - therefore a win). Too many penalties for a men's league game, and it was the fault of the players for not keeping their emotions in check or their big mouths shut. They (the players) should know better, and they know the refs and how we expect a UVHL game to be called. Veteran referee Carl Hatfield gained some HUUUUUGE ice cred with the players and Commish for returning to the game after having his feet accidentally taken out from him along the boards. Carl fell face first onto the ice and his visor smashed his nose and there was a pool of blood on the ice, and Carl went to tend to his wounds. Hurt, but no concussion, and not injured to the point of not being able to continue, he bravely returned to the game putting the game first and himself second. Referee Ed Stillson took one for the team and continued to ref the game solo until his partner returned to the ice. By this point the mouths on both benches and both sides of the ice had been spouting off for most of the game, way more than one ref should have to take. One goalie was warned to cool it or they would be sent home and the game would be effectively over, and Eddie kept his cool to allow the game to continue - once again a ref putting the game first. Players can learn from this, and should stop being so childish and put the game and your team first! Are we adults or mites/squirts? Your on and off the ice conduct affects all of us, and affects how the refs call the game and their tolerance for your bullshit!

Unfortunately, tempers elevated on all sides and it resulted with some misconducts for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Carl Hatfield was left alone to ref the remainder of the game. I'm not laying blame on anyone or taking sides. I saw mistakes on both ends, both players and refs, but so what? Whether or not you agree with the calls in a hockey game, it is irrelevant. The calls are the calls, and it is a hockey game and emotions will rise, and you have a choice how to react. Now, the comments made by "Skatemaster", obviously one of our UVHL players, who is unidentified (and whose identity is protected by law and our privacy agreement with the players, unless they choose to reveal it on their own or it is obvious in their Forum identity or posts because players/fans enter their own info when they create a Forum identity, and name, address, etc. are not required fields) in response to my FORUM post "Okay, guys, enough is enough..." has encited reaction from people as far as CT and RI who have called the USA hockey district ref about our conduct. How embarassing! This is a black eye on the UVHL, and guess whose neck is on the line? Yeah, you guessed it, not yours. Thanks alot, guys. I really appreciate it after all JT and I have sacrificed and done to create the UVHL. I would ask "Skatemaster" to come to me privately in person on Tuesday so we can discuss the Forum post I have temporarily deleted that has caused us much grief. Your identity will be kept in the strictest confidence unless I am legally forced to reveal it, or you choose to do soon your own. However, I ask all to remember that it is a public forum, and we all have free speech, but if it is libel or slander then there could be consequences. Please ready my repsonse in the Forum for yourself - there are several issues that we will address, and we need time to do so.

So, instead of playoffs this past week, we had two really fun 3 hour scrimmages with about half the UVHLers participating. It was an anti-climactic end of the season, and we have alot to sort out during the summer break. The feedback was positive regarding the Skatemaster incident, and the players realize (finally) that they need to shut their mouths, not abuse the refs, but there was much constructive criticism for our referees as well, and the UVHL Board will meet over the summer to sort it all out. As is often the case, these things can grow into a positive, and we feel that the league will be better off in the long run because of it. In fact, most players loved the scrimmages and requested that we end each season with mixed-squad scrimmages every year (but not until we actually complete our playoffs, eh). We MAY rent ice in September to officially finish our Mud season playoffs and crown a champion, but until then the Potter Construction LIGHTNING are the reigning champs (yes, they have officially been given a team nickname!), because you have to earn your titles in the UVHL, eh!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER! THANKS TO ALL FOR MAKING THE UVHL WHAT IT IS, WE COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

McD-fense OUT!

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
PTR	00:00	Goal	Meyer, Will(1)	Assist(s): none
STR	00:00	Goal	O'Neil, Michael(1)	Assist(s): Dakai, Tom(1) Johnson, Kirt(1)
STR	00:00	Goal	O'Neil, Michael(1)	Assist(s): none
STR	00:00	Goal	O'Neil, Michael(1)	Assist(s): Park, Kelly(1) Dakai, Tom(1)
PTR	00:00	Goal	Meyer, Will(1)	Assist(s): none
STR	00:00	Goal	Heavisides, Douglas(1)	Assist(s): none
PTR	00:00	Goal	Schaft, Trey(1)	Assist(s): Meyer, Will(1)
STR	00:00	Goal	Hayes, Joe(1)	Assist(s): none
STR	00:00	Penalty	Park, Kelly(1)	2 minutes for Hooking
STR	00:00	Penalty	Troy, Doug(1)	2 minutes for Interference
PTR	00:00	Penalty	Schaft, Trey(1)	2 minutes for Tripping
PTR	00:00	Penalty	Riffle, Gino(1)	2 minutes for Hooking
PTR	00:00	Penalty	Schaft, Trey(1)	2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct
STR	00:00	Penalty	Casavant, Sean(1)	2 minutes for Interference
STR	00:00	Penalty	Johnson, Kirt(1)	2 minutes for Holding
PTR	00:00	Penalty	Riffle, Gino(1)	2 minutes for Hooking
STR	00:00	Penalty	Park, Kelly(1)	2 minutes for Interference
STR	00:00	Penalty	Troy, Doug(1)	2 minutes for Holding

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