ODDS: | Gamblers by 2 |
OVER/UNDER: | 12 goals |
Ah, the bottom of the UVHL is pretty ugly this year. The Gamblers(0-2-1) host the pointless Tuckies (0-3-0). Both teams have struggled with their new identities. Tuck graduated a solid group of quality players and the Gamblers merged 3 different teams and added a bunch of new comers. Needless to say, both teams are trying to find an identity, and both teams would be smart to focus on their own end first.
The Gamblers are lead by Upper Valley goaltending legend J-Con, UVHL record holder for goals scored(108) Willy "Mighty Mouse" Meyer and "The Magician" Matty Marrazzo. Their defense has been suspect and needs to give Condon a little help in their own zone. Tuck is led by Ryan "The Hot Fuzz" Fitzgerald in net, who has been trying to find his form from last year, but may also be trying to do too much to make up for the departed talent from last year. Ryan "The Governer" McGovern may return to aid Fitzy on the blue line, while Adam "Preying" Mantin is lethal in the offensive zone and a little bit of space.
This should be a good one to watch, but I think the combination of Meyer-Marrazzo-Danimal will be too much for Tuck's defense to handle.
Gamblers will win this one 7-5.
Battle of the BASMENT!!!
The Battle of the Bottom of the Barrel had The "Dead Beat" Gamblers(0-2-1) hosting the Tuck Business School Swimming
Turduckens(0-3-0). Both teams have been trying to find an identity this season and thus far have been less than successful. Tuck is led by Adam "Preying" Mantin, Ryan "Yellow Bonnet" McGovern & Ryan "The Hot Fuzz" Fitzgerald in net. Willy "Mighty Mouse" Meyer made some tough calls and cut his team down from 1,275 to 15 highly skilled day laborers. Meyers renewed quite a few contracts including that of Matty "The Milkman" Marrazzo, Danny "The Animal" Ammel and the oh so huggable Scotty Fraser. Tuck on the other hand had some new jersey's that looked WICKED SHAAAHHP.
The Gamblers brought their A game to this fight and scored on their first shot of the game on Fitzgerald with a Scotty Davis goal, just 98 seconds into the game, assisted from Dan "Yellson" Clabough. The Gamblers pressed for the next 8 minutes, outshooting and outplaying the Tuckies for a large majority of that time. Tuck tied the game up with 3:07 to go, on a Ryuji "Kooch" Kikuchi to Pace "Car" Ralli. The Gamblers responded with a vengance as Tyson "The Killer From Quechee" Seeley took a Royce "Rolls" Lawrence pass and beat Fitzgerald only 8 seconds after the Tuckies tied the game up. Tuck tied the game back up exactly 2 minutes later behind a Derek Nowak goal. Tuck lost The Yellow Bonnet, Ryan McGovern to an ankle injury late in the 1st, but rumors have it that his wife was calling his blackberry all night, requesting a pretzel and a back rub, this may just be speculation.
END OF THE FIRST: Tuck 2, Gamblers 2
SAVES: Fitzgerald(TCK) 9, Condon(GMB) 6
The Gamblers came out flying in the second, as "The Milkman" delivered quality scoring chance after quality scoring chance. The only problem was that Fitzgerald was there to stuff him and several rebounds in the first 3 minutes of the period. But "The Milkman" always delivers and finally broke through with 11:27 as he stormed down the left wing boards, cut to the middle and made Fitzy bite before throwing the puck up and over his out stretched leg. Marrazzo then screamed at Fitzgerald, "YEAH, I just took you to the milk truck BYATCH, No reason to cry over spilled milk, 'Cause don't you know that the MILK MAN ALWAYS DELIVERS!?!??!?!" Ok, I made that up, but how AWESOME would it be if he berated each goalie with that line! Tuck responded with a pair of Power Play goals after the Gamblers decided that tripping was actually easier than playing defense. Adam "ManBoy" Mantin tied the game on the powerplay with a perfect one-timer pass from Nathan "Burner" Berner, followed by a Nowak goal for the 4-3 lead. Tuck took another punch to the groin after Pace Ralli went down with an undisclosed lower body injury late in the 2nd. The Gamblers tied the game with 3:32 remaining off of a perfect pass from the point as Kevin "The Guillotine" Guilbault found Jason Young "Blood" all alone at the side of the net. Tuck responded just 11 seconds later off of a "HORRIBLE TURNOVER FROM BEHIND THE NET" from Joey McIntyre. Apparently McIntyre was dreaming about his better days in NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, probably singing "You've Got the Right Stuff Baby", and accidentally coughed up the puck to Billy "The Big Red Dog" Clifford, who buried the puck right through Jered "The Condor" Condon. Danny "Danimal" Ammel then threw a horrific cheap shot at Tuck's all-star forward Adam Mantin, which later turned out to be a torn or sprained MCL. Mantin did end up manning up and finishing the game, limping the entire time, but focused on trying to keep his team in the game. The league is discussing the actions that will be taken on Ammel. The late period scoring fest wasn't over as the Gamblers netted 2 more goals before the period ended. McIntyre made up for his earlier mishap as he finished a Marrazzo pass with 2:30 to play, quickly followed by the go-ahead goal from Royce Lawrence who buried a poor rebound from Fitzgerald.
END OF THE SECOND: Tuck 5, Gamblers 6
SAVES: Fitzgerald(TCK) 23, Condon(GMB) 17
The third frame ended up getting a big chippy as guys started to take advantage of the fact that there was only one ref and he was letting the teams play. The Gamblers went up by 2 goals with 12:30 remaining off of a Willy Meyer goal assisted by "The Milkman" & "The Guillotine". Tuck carried play for a good portion of the 3rd before the hobbled Mantin brought his team back within a goal and 5:41 to go. The only problem was that the Gamblers buckled down to protect their lead and didn't make a mistake, limiting Tuck to only a few shots in the final 5 minutes before Tyson Seeley got his second of the night on an open netter with 57 seconds to play.
END OF REGULATION: Tuck 6, Gamblers 8
SAVES: Fitzgerald(TCK) 31, Condon(GMB) 26