Another week in the UVHL....and yet again, another loss for the Whalers. In their defense, they actually played one of their better games of the season, keeping the high-powered Labatt Blue's scoreless in the first period.
The Blues were without some of their stars; Kyle "King" Richards, Tyler "Snow" White & Tim McAuliffe were given a "maintenance" night....aka "Take the night off against a shitty team and rest up for the playoffs."
"We felt bad for the Whalers, so we told our bug guns to stay home, maybe give them a chance. I'm seriously worried about their captain Kelly Park, I think he may hurt himself." Said TJ "Mucks" Moran after the game. "I'll be working behind the bar noon to 4am every night this week at Muck's in Rutland. Come see me and with every Meal / Drink combo you buy, I'll give you a free high five."
The Whalers were also without a couple of their studs as Scotty "Too Hotty" Christian's 0(zero) goals in 10 games is extremely hard to replace. "Yeah, Scotty....was it hard to replace him? Next question please." Recalled goaltender Tucker Garrity-Hanchett after the game. "Never heard of the guy."
Overall it was a fairly even game, the difference was the Blue's Jon "Supertrooper" Hall and the fact that half the Whalers roster have a hard time lifting the puck off the ice. Hall was superberb when he needed to, turning away 27 of 30 shots in the win. The Whaler's Tucker "Big Sexy" Garrity-Hanchett was also very good, shutting the door on 30 shots.
The first period was scoreless with 9 shots on net for each team.
The Blues opened the scoring on the first shift of the second period on a goal from Brian "The Brain" Smith, who used his superior speed, skills and hockey IQ to place himself in the slot to jam home a backhander off of Colin Clark's shot to break the tie. A chess-match broke out over the next 6 minutes before Clark set up "Mad" Max Major for an absolute BOMB of a one-timer from the far face-off dot. The big boy got all of it, with intentions to "Put it in the net, through the goalie or through both." Said Major post game as he basked in the glory of his feat.
Three minutes later, the Blue's ex-Manager TJ "Mucks" Moran took a Stephen "Hamburgler" Hamilton drop pass and torched Garrity-Hanchett with a hard slap-shot along the ice. The 3-0 lead only lasted five seconds before the Whaler's Bentley "Boondog" Boonyaharn took the puck off the ensuing faceoff and went in all alone on Hall, firing the puck under his arm to put the Whaler's on the board. Little known fact that Bentley now has 4 times as many goals as his little brother Aiden "Bentley's Little Brother" Boonyaharn.
END OF THE SECOND: Blues 3, Whalers 1 - SHOTS: Blues 23, Whalers 21
One of the worst shifts in UVHL history took place to start the third period as the Whalers gave up a goal 8 seconds in and 26 seconds later. Hamilton set up Moran backdoor off the faceoff, and then picked up a loose puck to Tucker's right before absolutely sniping bar-downski on the large goaltender from a bad angle.
The Blues then sat back over the next 12 minutes, giving the Whales a couple of chances and even doing their charity work for 2023 by allowing Kelly "The Mouth" Park to score a pair of goals, including an absolute gift with 6 seconds left when their defensemen decided to hang Hall out to dry and let Park walk right in on their goaltender to ruin his GAA. "Yeah, it's f**king Hallsy. We needed to bring him down a couple notches, his head was getting to big. So we let them score a couple late in the game. Good news, he can fit through the door to the locker room now." Said one Blues defender who clearly doesn't like Hall. James "McNasty" McCormick started both sequences on Park's goals by stealing pucks in his own zone. McCormick moved the puck to Aiden Boonyaharn who hit Park back post on a 2 on 1 to make it 5-2. The latter goal came off McCormick annihilating the cross-bar with the biscuit, that flew 30 feet in the air and landed on Park's stick.
END OF THE GAME: Blues 5, Whalers 3: SHOTS: Blues 35, Whalers 30
VIDEO RECAP: