The circumstances surrounding game three couldn’t have been more bizarre. In order for the Mariners to advance to the gold medal game they had to beat the Phoenix Polar Bears by 12 goals. On top of that the Arizona team was coach by a former Mariner for whom many of our kids had played for. I don’t think any of the parents actually thought our boys could pull off this monumental feat, but the kids believed.

            Please bear with me if I don’t get all of the scoring in the correct order. In the first period Chayce Marnell, scored a pair and Jared Turcotte put one in. It was only 3-0 after the first frame and it didn’t seem like the team was on the pace they needed to be. In the Second period, Killian Anderson notched a pair of goals and Matt Johnson got it to 6-0. Still, after two periods, the team was looking like they would come up short. Also, the sixth goal sent the game into run time making the task ever harder.

            Chayce would score two more, giving him four on the game. Mitchell Nash crashed the net and muscled one in to make the score 9-0. Unfortunately the running clock was working against the Mariners. Coach Paddy took a timeout. Everyone in the rink that didn’t understand what we had to do thought we were the biggest bunch of jerks. Coming down the stretch, it looked like the boys would get close, but not make it. Corey Pelone scored and then Danny O’Donnell put one in. We had eleven goals, but that pesky clock was almost out of time. The boys rushed back and tried to force a quick face-off. The excitement level was unbelievable. The puck dropped and the Mariners got it to the Polar Bears net. With just a few ticks left in the game, Danny popped in the twelfth goal. They had achieved the impossible. The score keeper was kind of stingy on the assists, but the following kids got credited with one helper apiece: Tom Dobrokhot, Chad DiLauro, Nick Cerezo, Killian, Jared, Danny, Kyle McNeil. Chayce got 2 assists.

            I have never seen a game quite like this one. The Polar Bears were not a bad team, but out boys played so hard and wanted it so much that there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. It wasn’t just about the scoring either. The defense played with inspiration. Tom D. made the pass of the game when he sucked in four players, then chipped a passed over their sticks. Thomas Graves, in a truly courageous effort, played his heart out despite being quite ill. Justin Janik wouldn’t allow the puck to get passed him and he countered bringing the play to the other end. Luke Tickle and Nick Guttenkunst clawed and scratched to make sure nothing got through. Goalie Dylan Levy made several nice stops to get the shutout and preserve the 12 goal differential.

            This was a magical game. Everything just kind of fell into place. You could almost hear Al Michaels asking if we believed in miracles. As parents we owe these kids a great deal of gratitude for giving us such a memorable game. I guarantee we will all be talking about this one for years.