UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

ODDS:	Nordiques by 2
OVER/UNDER:	6.5 goals

Let's face it, a team can only be as good as their goaltender, and the Nordiques & Maple Leafs are riding on the shoulders of John Turner & Kenny Lallier. Lallier has been MVP worthy all season playing in front of a sub-par defensive corp. While Turner has ridden his defensive corp to a stellar 8 wins and 3.62 gaa, which in all reality is EXCELLENT in men's league hockey.

The difference maker in this game is going to be the offense of the Nordiques. The Nordiques have finally found some consistent scoring behind the tandem of Ian "The One Toothed Sniper" Coates and Roger "The Philanthropist" Phillips. The Maple Leafs were hoping that the Gattie brothers could resurrect some of their scoring, combined withe speed and agility of Joey "The Mute" Hayes and Johnny "Little Boy Wonder" Thomas, but have found that they consistently........can't score.

My prediction, Nordiques Win 4-2.

Turner Turns away 44 in 4-1 Nords win over Leafs

The Nordiques were playing host to the Maple Leafs Smurf Squadron in the late game. The Nordiques were wearing their mercenary greens while the Smurfs were sporting their standard smurf blues. The stage was set for a classic 4-2 Nordique win, but the Leafs were without MVP candidate Kenny "The Brick Wall" Lallier for the first time this season. Filling in is local target, BJ "The Goalie" Premore. Before the game the Nords' Roger "Ebert" Phillips gave the Nordiques TWO THUMBS UP!!!!

The start of the game was as usual, both teams skating hard with little to show but good goaltending and a great team effort. The Nordiques did finally break through with 8:30 remaining on a power play goal by Mikey "The Menage A Trois" O'Neil. With the Leafs Johnson in the box for holding the stick, O'Neil picked the pocket of a Leafs defender behind the net, curled to the front of the net and threw a sweet backhander top shelf glove side on Premore. Twenty seconds later, Greg "The Maniac" Marsh sent Richie "The Breakaway Challenged" McKenna in on a breakaway. McKenna went to his backhand with a quick move but Premore made the beautiful pad stop. Both netminders were excellent in the first, keeping their teams in the game. Premore was playing out of his skull turning away 17 with only one blemish. One other note would be that the captain of the smurfs Sean "Toady Smurf" Cassavant beat Turner cleanly with a wrist shot from the slop but was ultimately denied by the post, that is embarrassing for Turner because Cassavant shoots like a little girl.

END OF THE FIRST: Nordiques 1, Leafs 0
SHOTS: Nordiques 17, Leafs 14

The second period was more of the first with tons of energy, lots of shots and very low scoring. The Nords' Tao "Love the puck" Smith put the Nords up 2-0 with 6:51 left in the 2nd when he took a defender wide and let a lucky laser of a wrist shot find its way past the stick of Premore and netting just the 6th goal of the year for the captain. The Leafs weren't about to roll over and broke through on Turner just 43 seconds later when Kirt Johnson found himself all alone in the slot with a rebound that had glanced off of Turner. Turner was out of the net a good 4 feet past the top of the crease playing the shooteer agressively and gave up the bad rebound. Roger "The Philanthropist" Phillips put the Nords back up by two with 2:19 remaining when he took a a pass from Dan "Jonesin'" Jones made a couple of nifty moves into the slot and beat Premore with a shot that he calls "The Dentist Drill."

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
WHL	09:15	Penalty	Johnson, Kirt(1)	2 minutes for Holding the Stick
NDQ	08:30	Goal	O'Neil, Michael(1)	Assist(s): none
WHL	00:37	Penalty	Johnson, Kirt(2)	2 minutes for Checking
2nd PERIOD
NDQ	06:59	Goal	Smith, Tao(1)	Assist(s): Jones, Dan(1)
WHL	06:05	Goal	Johnson, Kirt(1)	Assist(s): Loomis, Jason(1) Heavisides, Douglas(2)
NDQ	05:25	Penalty	Dakai, Tom(1)	2 minutes for Holding
NDQ	02:19	Goal	Phillips, Roger(1)	Assist(s): Jones, Dan(2) Ammel, Kylie(1)
3rd PERIOD
NDQ	10:30	Penalty	Willis, David(1)	2 minutes for Interference
WHL	04:42	Penalty	Hayes, Joe(1)	2 minutes for Holding
NDQ	04:42	Penalty	Mckenna, Richie(1)	2 minutes for Roughing
NDQ	00:39	Goal	Marsh, Greg(2)	Assist(s): Coates, Ian(2)

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Game Comments:
kpark Quechee, VT Registered: Dec 2003 Posts: 724	Great Game Jan 23rd, 2008 05:50 PM That was an awesome game to watch, not nearly as much fun as playing in it, but still. The two goalies were great, especially Turner. Casavant is still a midget.
hkydoc WRJ, VT Registered: Jan 2004 Posts: 517	My head was spinnin! Jan 25th, 2008 07:33 AM It was a tough game to play in. The Leafs have so much heart and never give up. They forechecked the snot out of us, and I was exhausted (not just because I'm fat) because the Leafs never gave us any time to move the puck. There were a few times in front of our net that I didn't know who to cover. It was me and Turner and a sea of blue in front of the net. If JT didn't bring his A game this one would have been close. I think JT said that we haven't had a game with the Leafs in about 2 seasons that wasn't a 1-goal game either way before this past Tuesday. The Leafs are only 1-2 players away from being domiinant, and their goaltending has been really solid and Lallier has been playing great the past 2 seasons (he just seems to keep getting better), and their blue line is set now with 2 solid pairings led by Colin Vernon. Too bad they were missing Nalette and Spicoli on Tuesday, but I was exhausted enough as it was. Great game Leafs! Solid game, BJ, thanks for filling in! Incredible game, JT!