UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Whalers Host Dead River to Kick off 2010-2011 Season

ODDS:	EVEN
OVER/UNDER:	9 goals

The battle of last season's basement carries over into the first game of 2010-2011 as the Whalers host Dead River. What should we expect from this one? I have no flippin' clue. Dead River completely underachieved last season as they took over the Storm Kings franchise, renamed and downgraded their team game without the wizardry and wild antics of Dan "The Crazy Frog" French. Replacing Frenchy/Hadley between the pipes is the legendary Greg "First Period" Feiden, who will be a huge upgrade from Player-Coach-Waterboy-Team Slut, Greg Hadley.

At the other end of the ice The Bad News Bears of the UVHL, the Whalers, will try to erase their moniker of the Lovable Losers and emerge as a solid talent in the UVie. Led by Kenny "La vieille moustache", 2nd year standout Jay "The Boni" Zanleoni and Scott "The General" Leger, they are poised to make things interesting this season.

Rumor has it that both teams have added some significant talent this season, so time will tell if it works out.

My prediction...Dead River takes it 5-4.

Dead River Dominates the Third Period, Down the Whale 5-3.

The bottom of the barrel from last season faced off in this season's opener. The Whalers finished last season with a 7-14-2 record, while Dead River ended with a dismal 5-17-1. Both teams have added 5 new players to their rosters, changing the face of their lineups a bit.

Dead River has been strengthened from the back by the addition of Greg "First Period" Feiden in net. Feiden took over for a goaltender by committee system that just didn't seem to work last year. Feiden was solid tonight, letting in only 1 goal in each period while turning away 28 shots. The aging wonder, Kenny "Red Light" Lallier kept his team in it, with 24 saves on 28 shots but his team picked up where they left off last season by only being able to play 30 minutes of a 45 minute game.

In all reality, Big Blue dominated most of the first 2 periods. They carried the play, outshot & outhustled the aging Dead River squad, but Dead River's patience allowed them to wait until the Whalers had tired themselves out and dropped 3 through the crease in the 3rd period.

"Mean" Dean Cashman broke a scoreless tie with 8:01 left in the first from Tommy "PIMs" Scull. The Whalers bounced right back on the next shift when Jay "Zambaloni" Zanleoi jammed home a "Captain" Kirt Johnson rebound just 29 seconds later. The Whalers had two power plays in the last 4 minutes of the first period that they couldn't capitalize on, and ultimately went 0-5 on the man advantage.....embarrassing. Team Manager/Goaltender/Coach Kenny "Le Mustache" Lallier was heard saying after the game "Our special teams were a joke, the Hartford Mites team could have put at least ONE power play goal in the net tonight."

END OF THE FIRST: Whalers 1, Dead River 1

The Second period was more of the first. The Whalers speed, youth & energy had Dead River running around a bit. DR took two more penalties that the Whalers couldn't convert on. The Whale outshot DR again and finally broke through late in the period on a goal by Scotty "Top Shelf" Shaw.

END OF THE SECOND: Whalers 2, Dead River 1

Dead River tied the game at 2 apiece in the first minute of the third on a Hadley to Ricky Golden "Showers" goal. I didn't see the goal but Golden said it was nothing less than brilliant and just short of magical. The Whalers got their last glimpse of hope when Big Chucky Gaede put them up 3-2 with 9:56 to play.

Rookie Chris Warrington tied the game on an exceptional individual play as the defenseman picked up the puck deep in his own zone, made an end to end rush up the far boards and fired a quick backhander low past Lallier from the faceoff dot to Lallier's left with 3:32 to play. Probably a save that Kenny should have made, but a beautiful goal nonetheless. From that point on it was all Dead River. Kyle "Hadley's Sherpa" Koetsier put DR up for good just 43 seconds later from who else, but the old and hobbled Hadley, only to be followed by an empty netter from Rob Pattison. The empty netter was interesting as Ricky Golden turned behind the empty Whalers net and fed Pattison who was just coming into the zone with full head of steam. Pattison one-timed the perfect pass, which ended up being about a 100 MPH slapshot dead center on the ice that echoed throughout the building as it hit the back of the net.

END OF REGULATION: Dead River survives the Whalers early to dominate the third. Feiden was solid in net.

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
LAB	08:01	Goal	Cashman, Dean(1)	Assist(s): Scull, Tom(1) Golden, Richard(1)
WHL	07:32	Goal	Zanleoni, Jay(1)	Assist(s): Johnson, Kirt(1) rouillard, jason(1)
LAB	04:09	Penalty	Pattison, Rob(1)	2 minutes for Hooking
LAB	01:00	Penalty	Ivey, David(1)	2 minutes for Tripping
2nd PERIOD
LAB	14:02	Penalty	Hadley, Gregory(1)	2 minutes for Too Many Men
LAB	06:17	Penalty	Scull, Tom(1)	2 minutes for High Sticking
WHL	02:41	Goal	Shaw, Scott(1)	Assist(s): Gaede, Chuck(1)
3rd PERIOD
LAB	14:15	Goal	Golden, Richard(1)	Assist(s): Hadley, Gregory(1) Cashman, Dean(1)
WHL	09:56	Goal	Gaede, Chuck(1)	Assist(s): Shaw, Scott(1) Zanleoni, Jay(1)
LAB	05:57	Penalty	Scull, Tom(2)	2 minutes for Tripping
LAB	03:32	Goal	Warrington, Chris(1)	Assist(s): Loomis, Jason(1)
LAB	02:49	Goal	Koetsier, Kyle(1)	Assist(s): Hadley, Gregory(2) Ivey, David(1)
WHL	00:29	Penalty	Zanleoni, Jay(1)	2 minutes for Roughing
LAB	00:10	Goal	Pattison, Rob(1)	Assist(s): Golden, Richard(2) Cashman, Dean(2)

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Game Comments:
hkydoc WRJ, VT Registered: Jan 2004 Posts: 517	Hadley! Oct 18th, 2010 09:03 PM 2 assists, Buddy? Way to go, eh! It is so good to know you're skating out there. McD