UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Unbeaten Tuck & Dead River Face Off

ODDS:	Tuck by 1 goal
OVER/UNDER:	7.5 goals

Both Tuck & Dead River started the season off with wins. Tuck beat the top rated Gamblers 4-3 with a late goal. Dead River survived the Whalers first 30 minute onslaught to win convincingly 5-3 in the 3rd period.

This game has two of the best goaltenders in the UVHL facing off in, Greg "First Period" Feiden & Dan "The Man" Yacey. Yacey missed last week but was filled in nicely with Steve "They Killed" Kenning.

Dead River is a conundrum inside a quagmire wrapped with a riddle. You don't know what you are going to get from them each weak. They have one of the most experienced and offensively talented teams...and some weeks it shows.

Tuck was missing 4 of their top players last week and still handled the Gamblers. All players should be in the lineup this week, making them a scary opponent.

Tuck should win this one, they've got youth on their side and the old men of Dead River will tire themselves out chasing them.

Tuck wins 4-3.

Goaltending, Fights & Shootout! Tuck wins 5-4.

Two of the league's best goaltenders faced off tonight as Tuck's Dan "The Man" Yacey went head to head with Dead River's Greg "Fear the Beard" Feiden. Both teams started the season with a win, but only one would leave undefeated. Tuck welcomed back Yacey tonight as well as rookie Brett "The Other Nowak" Nowak, brother of UVHL LEGEND, Derek "The First Nowak" Nowak. Nowak opened up his UVHL career in epic fashion with his first UVHL goal, a chipped tooth, fight & game ejection.

It was an interesting game, with two different methodologies. Dead River is an east to west puck control group of veterans(old guys) while the Turduckens have youth, exuberance and sheer skill driving their game plan. The two different styles had the same result in the first period as the period ended deadlocked at 0-0. Both Yacey & Feiden made some huge & timely saves to keep the game scoreless. The only blemish in the first was a tripping penalty to Tuck's Ryan "The Mayor" McGovern midway through the period that Dead River couldn't capitalize on.

END OF THE FIRST: Dead River ZERO, Tuck GOOSE EGG

The Turduckens finally lit the lamp four minutes into the second, when Brett "Not Derek" Nowak buried a feed from Josh "Dick" Cherney as he waited on the back door. Tuck smartly killed any potential momentum from the goal by following it up with back-to-back tripping infractions. The Oilmen failed to capitalize on either powerplay however, and tensions soon rose when Nowak took exception to a stick to the face from Richard "The Shower" Golden. The infraction drew blood and Nowak attempted to engage Golden, who wanted no part of it. Oilman Rob "Twilight Saga" Pattison obliged, and players from both sides stepped back to watch a rather gentlemanly helmets-off scrap.

While both combatants had the good sense to abide "the code" and fight clean, it should be clear that the two will be watching from the stands next week and won"t see action again until Week 4. Kelly "The Commish" Park reminds us that the UVie is strict when it comes to fighting, saying, "All you have to do is fake cry guys. It works. One time in college this jock said he was gonna beat me up so I rolled on the ground crying, then I started screaming "oh god no please don't hurt me", then he walked away in disgust, and then I moved to a different town and changed my name and grew a mustache, but guess what? I was faking the whole time, and that douche bought it. He's gonna feel like such a loser when he reads this."

After the long list of penalties were meted out to much vocal protest by both teams, Steve "Norman" Bates scored one of the prettiest goals in (the last two weeks of) UVie history by walking and dangling through everyone on the ice before snapping one past Feiden. Said teammate Steve "They Killed" Kenning, "It was a truly transcendent moment, like a koala bear crapped a double rainbow inside my brain."

END OF THE SECOND: Turduckens 2, Oilmen ZIP

The third period was a mirror opposite of the first, with Dead River playing textbook come-from-behind hockey and taking full advantage of Tuck"s depleted bench. They were first to the puck, won battles in the corners, and ultimately found the back of the net four times to Tuck's two. Golden contributed two to the cause, while Ricky "Anger Management" Hughes and Chris "The Wizard" Warrington each added a pair of helpers. The Steves found Colin "Carcillo" Carrihill all alone in front of the net for Tuck"s final goal of the night, which is worth mentioning only because of Carrihill"s absurdly over-the-top post-goal celebration. In the end, Tuck BLEW a 2 goal lead with 2:44 to play and Ricky Golden "Shower" looking like the smartest man in the building for not getting goaded into a fight as he scored the game tying goal with 1:25 to play and adding a huge first assist on Duggan's goal with 2:44 to play.

END OF REGULATION: Turduckens 4, Dead River 4

And in the end...the game went to a shootout. Tuck only needed two shooters while all 3 Dead River's shooters; Duggan, Warrington & Hughes were shut down by Yacey while Feiden turned away Cherney but Batesy beat him high stick side on his forehand to give tuck a 2-0-0 start to the season.

END OF SHOOTOUT: Tuck 5, Dead River 4

It was a close, well-fought game by both squads that could have just as easily tipped in Dead River"s favor. They've proven to be a deadly late-game team, scoring 8 third-period goals in their last two tilts. Chris "Wiggity" Warringto led a number of end-to-end rushes and looks to be a very smooth player, and with Hadley making the team-first choice to put Feiden between the pipes and take over more of a power forward role, the Oil projects to be in a position to be dominant in this league. Tuck has yet to dress a full roster, but has shown they can eke out wins. Both teams feature solid tendies. Tuck Vs Dead River will be games to watch in the future, mark them on your calendar, bring some popcorn and enjoy the show. As you'll see some high speed action, skill, violence, solid goaltending and definitely some drama.

Many thanks to Ryan "Tuckie for Life" McGovern for his HUGE contribution to this weeks write-up.

 

Team:	Time:	Type:	Player:	Details:
1st PERIOD
TCK	09:12	Penalty	McGovern, Ryan(1)	2 minutes for Tripping
2nd PERIOD
TCK	11:11	Goal	Nowak, James(1)	Assist(s): Cherney, Josh(1)
TCK	10:53	Penalty	Howard, Scott(1)	2 minutes for Tripping
LAB	08:11	Penalty	Pattison, Rob(2)	10 minutes for Game Misconduct
TCK	08:11	Penalty	Nowak, James(1)	10 minutes for Game Misconduct
LAB	08:11	Penalty	Pattison, Rob(2)	5 minutes for Fighting Major
TCK	08:11	Penalty	Nowak, James(1)	5 minutes for Fighting Major
LAB	08:11	Penalty	Golden, Richard(1)	5 minutes for Major High Sticking
TCK	04:19	Goal	Bates, Steve(2)	Assist(s): Johnson, Chris(4)
TCK	02:14	Penalty	Howard, Scott(2)	2 minutes for Hooking
LAB	00:25	Penalty	Duggan, Evan(1)	2 minutes for Tripping
3rd PERIOD
TCK	10:56	Goal	Cherney, Josh(2)	Assist(s): Carrihill, Colin(1) Johnson, Chris(5)
LAB	09:26	Goal	Golden, Richard(2)	Assist(s): Scull, Tom(2)
TCK	08:46	Goal	Carrihill, Colin(1)	Assist(s): Bates, Steve(2) Kenning, Steve(1)
LAB	08:13	Goal	Warrington, Chris(2)	Assist(s): Hughes, Rick(1)
LAB	02:44	Goal	Duggan, Evan(1)	Assist(s): Golden, Richard(3) Warrington, Chris(1)
LAB	01:25	Goal	Golden, Richard(3)	Assist(s): Warrington, Chris(2) Hughes, Rick(2)
SHOOTOUT
LAB	1	Duggan, Evan		SAVE BY Daniel Yacey
TCK	2	Cherney, Josh		SAVE BY Greg Feiden
LAB	3	Warrington, Chris		SAVE BY Daniel Yacey
TCK	4	Bates, Steve		GOAL Scored on Greg Feiden
LAB	5	Hughes, Rick		SAVE BY Daniel Yacey

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