UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

ODDS:	Gamblers by 3
OVER/UNDER:	9 goals

OOOOOOHHHH this should be a good one to watch....definitely not a good one to ref. Two physical teams will surely get heated in this one, as the Dead River Oilers face off against the undefeated Gamblers.

At 12-0-2, the Gamblers have the best start to a season in UVHL history, and don't look as though they are about to slow down. With the best record & the top 3 scorers in the UVHL, you would assume life would be good in Gambler camp, but as they say, Misery breeds company, and the ultra competitive Gamblers are just a miserable group. They will surely take offense to the physical play from Dead River who will be super cranky after losing 3-2 to the Whalers last week.

Dead River has solidified their defensive corp with superstar Rob Pattison manning the blueline, but have given up a huge chunk of offense in the meantime. They will be looking for their forwards to fill the gaping hole in order to be competitive in this one. The Gambler's attack consists of 3 minute shifts from their top line, followed by 24 second shifts from their 2nd line. Meyer, Marrazzo & Ammel are a scary trio in all 3 zones of the ice and need to be respected or Hadley is going to get mopped up like porn booth in Montreal. Hadley will have his work cut out for him, but the newest goaltending addition to the league, Greg Feiden, has put up stellar numbers (2.00 GAA in 5 games).

This one will start out slow as the two teams feel each other out. The Gamblers will start to pressure early in the 2nd and take a big lead before things get ugly.....Gamblers 6, Dead River 3.

Gamblers offense explodes. Dead River Penalties take them out of the game.

The top ranked Gamblers (12-0-2) put on another clinic, this time at the expense of Dead River's 10th loss of the season. The top ranked line of Willy "The Miserable" Meyer, Matty "The Milkman" Marrazzo & Dan "The Animal" Ammel put up an astounding 16 points (6 goals & 10 assists) on 8 team goals. One snide reporter made a claim before the game that the 'Blers games usually go like this....top line takes a 3 minute shift, quickly followed by a 20 second shift from their second line....repeat....repeat....repeat. Captain Meyer quickly pointed out to that snide reporter that his first shift was only 55 seconds long......making that said reporter happy that someone was actually reading his reports!

Things actually started out well for the Dead River Rats as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead just over 3 minutes into the game when Tommy "Agent" Scully finished off an Evan Duggan pass at 11:53. This must have infuriated the 'Blers as they walked right through the next faceoff and a quick tick-tack-toe pass ended up with Ammel putting one past Dead River's Matty "Barnacle" Barrett just 9 seconds after Scully's initial score. Jason "Reg Dunlop" Young made it 2-1 at 9:47, surprising the world as he finally scored a goal without taking a golf swing type slapshot. The goal came as Tyson Seely carried the puck down the near boards and dished a drop pass to Allison "The Hook" Malcolm at the tops of the circles. "The Hook" fired a quick snapper to the far post that Barrett stabbed with a pad, but Young crashed the net and jammed home the rebound. Reuben "On Rye" Lyons put the 'Blers up 3-1 with a slapper on the Power Play to close out scoring for the first period.

The first minute of the 2nd period saw two goals just 4 seconds apart. The first came from the stick of "Mean" Dean Cashman's stick just 39 seconds in to cut the Gambler's lead to 1 goal. You could tell from the look on Meyer's face that he was STEAMED about Cashman's goal hurting his plus minus. Meyer won the faceoff forward to his winner Marrazzo who quickly hit meyer splitting the defensemen and firing a quick shot along the ice that Barrett wasn't prepared for. FOUR FRICKIN' SECONDS OFF THE FACEOFF?!??! That has to be some sort of record. Meyer scored again on his extended first shift of the period, scoring 2:31 into the period for the 4-2 lead from his BFFs Ammel & Marrazzo. I can't really recall this one, or the last 3 seeing as they all seemed about the same, a couple quick passes and a quick shot low on Barrett. Dead River fought back, with a Richy Golden "Showers" goal from the high slot only to see Meyer erase that attempt to get his team back in the game with 1:55 to play in the period. I would have to say the highlight of the period was seasoned veteran Referee Liam "Avery" Oliver calling 2 penalties in the period on Dead River's netminder. The first for tripping Willy Meyer skating past his crease, and the second for holding the stick of an opponent late in the period. Barrett seemed to think that the calls were retaliation for a crumbling hit he put on Oliver the previous week.....could be, but I doubt it.

The 3rd period saw Dead River tighten up in their own end. Down 5-3, they tried to fix their issues from their defensive end out. This theory seemed to work as they did a nice job supporting their goaltender as well as seeing some offensive chances, but just couldn't break through on the Gambler's Greg Feiden. Meyer found Ammel with 5:43 to give the Gamblers a comfy 3 goal lead. Dead River responded with a hell of nice individual play from Bobby "Maserati" Rosati less than 1:30 later, only to find Meyer adding his 4th of the night from both of his BFFs (Best Friends Forever) with 1:15 to play. A nice note on the last goal of the game was that it was Marrazzo's 5th assist on the night, which is a nice feat for any playmaker.

The bottom line would be that the 5 penalties from Dead River combined with a short bench seems to have had a contributing factor in their loss. The Gamblers were consistent in their post game, as not a single member showed up at the local watering hole to support a great local business, Bentley's Restaurant, who stays open late on a Tuesday nights to support the UVHL with food & booze, and of course help McDermott with his diet by limiting him to only 3 plates of wings.

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
LAB	11:53	Goal	Scull, Tom(5)	Assist(s): Duggan, Evan(7)
GMB	11:44	Goal	Ammel, Robert(22)	Assist(s): Meyer, Will(22) Marrazzo, Matt(20)
GMB	09:47	Goal	Young, Jason(2)	Assist(s): Malcolm, Allison(9) Seely, Tyson(5)
LAB	06:38	Penalty	Cashman, Dean(3)	2 minutes for Hooking
GMB	05:36	Goal	Lyons, Reuben(1)	Assist(s): Gattie, Marc(7)
LAB	02:57	Penalty	Duggan, Evan(11)	2 minutes for Hooking
2nd PERIOD
LAB	14:21	Goal	Cashman, Dean(4)	Assist(s): Golden, Richard(2) Scull, Tom(4)
GMB	14:17	Goal	Meyer, Will(21)	Assist(s): Marrazzo, Matt(21)
GMB	12:29	Goal	Meyer, Will(22)	Assist(s): Ammel, Robert(11) Marrazzo, Matt(22)
LAB	11:04	Goal	Golden, Richard(3)	Assist(s): Racicot, Brian(3)
LAB	09:03	Penalty	Barrett, Matthew(2)	2 minutes for Tripping
GMB	01:55	Goal	Meyer, Will(23)	Assist(s): Ammel, Robert(12)
LAB	00:33	Penalty	Barrett, Matthew(3)	2 minutes for Holding the Stick
3rd PERIOD
GMB	10:25	Penalty	Lyons, Reuben(5)	2 minutes for Body Checking
LAB	09:04	Penalty	Scull, Tom(8)	2 minutes for Holding
GMB	05:43	Goal	Ammel, Robert(23)	Assist(s): Marrazzo, Matt(23) Meyer, Will(23)
LAB	03:51	Goal	Rosati, Robert(2)	Assist(s): Hughes, Rick(2) Duggan, Evan(8)
GMB	01:15	Goal	Meyer, Will(24)	Assist(s): Ammel, Robert(13) Marrazzo, Matt(24)

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Game Comments:
kpark Quechee, VT Registered: Dec 2003 Posts: 724	Sinking Ship... Jan 26th, 2010 10:49 AM Can Dead River right their sinking ship? They definitely have the talent, but the chemistry seems to be an issue. Thoughts?
hkydoc WRJ, VT Registered: Jan 2004 Posts: 517	HA HA HA HA! Jan 26th, 2010 03:22 PM "mopped up like a porn booth in Montreal" FUCKING BRILLIANT, Park! McD
kpark Quechee, VT Registered: Dec 2003 Posts: 724	ahhhhh Jan 26th, 2010 04:05 PM IN RESPONSE TO: BY: hkydoc "mopped up like a porn booth in Montreal" FUCKING BRILLIANT, Park! McD Thanks McD, I thought you would like that one! I wrote it with you in mind. KP
JTStally Hanover, NH Registered: Posts: 159	Size vs. Speed Jan 26th, 2010 04:24 PM It's a matchup like this where body checking will be sorely missed. DR is probably the biggest team in the league, while the Gamblers are certainly the fastest. You have to assume with Sean Avery taking over the whistle, the Oilers should be able to get away with some body work, but there's a limit and I'm sure DR will cross it tonight.
kpark Quechee, VT Registered: Dec 2003 Posts: 724	DR...they usually do Jan 26th, 2010 04:29 PM IN RESPONSE TO: BY: JTStally It's a matchup like this where body checking will be sorely missed. DR is probably the biggest team in the league, while the Gamblers are certainly the fastest. You have to assume with Sean Avery taking over the whistle, the Oilers should be able to get away with some body work, but there's a limit and I'm sure DR will cross it tonight. Yeah, I'm not really looking forward to reffing this one. This is the typical situation of "I'm damned if I do....and I'm damned if I don't" Z, do you want to stick around and ref this one?
hkydoc WRJ, VT Registered: Jan 2004 Posts: 517	Another good one! Feb 1st, 2010 06:57 PM I really did laugh out loud at the Ricky "Golden Showers" nickname! Brilliant! I bet he laughed, too. If not, you're toast. Nice one limiting me to only 3 plates of wings, and for blasting the Gamblers for not going out to Bentley's after the game. McD