THE

UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Gamblers
Tuck
1st
0
0
2rd
2
0
3rd
0
1
FINAL
2
1
Shots
17
38
March 6th, 2024 - 9:25PM
WABA - White River Junction, VT
Pre-Game
Recap
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Discussion
Game ID: 1481

Gamblers Win Their 3rd Whalen Cup!

The championship game featured the number one seeded Gamblers and the number two seeded Tuck. Seeding however is not always an indicator of who is going to win. A good example of that being the night before when the Hartford high school boys hockey team took down the first seed Colchester to win their first state championship in 15 years, right on the heels of Hartford’s girls hockey team winning their first state title in program history. The Gamblers (11-3) were coming off a solid 3-1 win against the Lumberjacks the week before while Tuck took care of business collecting a 4-1 win over the Whalers that same night.
    Within just a couple minutes of the opening face off, the game saw its first penalty when Ryan LaCroix tripped up Seamus O'neill at center ice giving Tuck the man advantage. Aside from one excellent chance that was wasted by Luke Stickel when he fired the puck wide of the cage, Tuck struggled to produce any real scoring opportunities on their first powerplay. Through the mid way point of the first, Tuck looked to be the quicker team until a turnover sent the Gamblers in on a three on one and defenceman Matthew Oullette reached out with his stick to try and stop Sean Collins shot but instead took his legs out for a trip sending the Gamblers to a powerplay. The Gamblers powerplay much like Tuck’s was less than impressive. They could not get anything going and Tuck had possession almost as much as the Gamblers in those two minutes. Tuck continued to carry the play as Karch Bachman had almost the entire six by four net to shoot in until goaltender Evan Cline slid over to make a spectacular pad save. Just seconds later it was Bachman again with a burst of speed trying to cut to the middle but the Gambler net minder came up big once again with a poke check sending Bachman flying into the boards. Cline’s goaltending much like previous games this season would prove to be a key factor for the Gamblers tonight. Karch Bachman continued to make his mark in this first period as he drew a tripping penalty by Sean Collins with 52 seconds remaining in the first period. Tuck got a few more looks as time winded down on the first period but Cline stood tall and kept the game scoreless heading into the second.
    The second frame began the way the first one ended with Tuck constantly putting Cline to the test with four shots in the first three minutes of the period. The shots kept coming when Jonathan Carkeek walked his defender and sent a perfect feed over to Stickel who was robbed by Evan Cline using all of his six foot two inch frame to keep the score tied. 16 seconds following Cline’s big stop the Gamblers came back the other way and broke the scoreless tie as Max Woods stuffed the puck into the back of the net on a wrap-around past Matthew Betten. Despite their goal, the Gamblers could not slow down Tuck, but thankfully the man between the pipes kept them ahead by a goal. A little less than half way through the second it was Bachman again with the puck on his stick trying to sneak one past Evan Cline this time on a breakaway but couldn’t put it home on the back hand. 20 seconds later, Matt Marrazzo finished off an incredible individual effort with a backhander over the glove of Betten to widen the Gambler lead to two goals. Despite finishing the period up two to nothing, the Gamblers were heavily outplayed by Tuck who was out shooting them 23 to 12, but thanks to Cline they were now 15 minutes away from a championship. 
    The puck dropped for the third period and it looked like it was going to be another 15 minutes of Tuck just peppering the goaltender left and right, so Cline and his defense had to hold out just a bit longer if they wanted to win this game. The game remained the same until Matt Marrazzo, trying to keep up with the Tuck forward, took an interference penalty allowing Tuck a chance to climb back into the game. And that is exactly what they would do 16 seconds into their powerplay, it was Carkeek who found the back of the net with a wrist shot from the high slot past the glove of Cline. This put Tuck within just one shot of tying the game but time would run out and the buzzer sounded ending the season. The Gamblers are the 2024 Whalen Cup champions.
    The three stars of the game were Evan Cline as the first star who made 37 saves on 38 shots and finished the year with a 2.43 goals against average and a .924 save percentage. The second star was Luke Deary who tallied two assists in the game finishing the year with 7 goals 11 assists and 18 points. Finally the third star of the game goes to Matt Marrazzo who scored a goal and an assist in the championship game ending his season with 7 goals 9 assists and 16 points in just 10 games played.

LEAGUE PICK 'EM
 0%
Gamblers
0% 
Tuck
0 PICKS
THREE STARS

Evan Cline

GA: 1
SAVES: 37
SAVE%: 0.974

Luke Deary

GOALS: 0
POINTS: 2

Matt Marrazzo

GOALS: 1
POINTS: 1

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