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Game #3:For the final game of round-robin play the Killer Bees took on the Oakland Bears, an "A"
team that added some "AA" players and apparently a midget in order to compete in a "B" tournament. Pretty cool, huh? The Bears
didn't play anything that looked like hockey, they just let their studs run wild and it caught the Mariners by surprise. The
boys surrendered the first two goals and things weren't looking good. Conrado got his team on the board, but the Bears came
right back. The Mariners finished the opening frame down 3-1. The Bears were not a good team. they were laying cheap-shots,
talking mad smack, and the refs weren't calling anything. Enough was enough. The Mariners came out in the second with an attitude.
Mr. Nice Guy Josh Donovan came out pissed and started hitting like crazy. Shawn Wentzel rearranged a Bear player's DNA with
a freight train slam. Bash brothers Killian and Tyler finished their checks and everyone else's for that matter. You know
what? The Bears didn't like to get hit. Suddenly, things started swinging the Mariners way. Luke took the puck from the blue-line,
shot it through a high screen and put it over top the unaware goalie's shoulder. Minutes later, Zach found EJ Frank flying
through the neutral zone. EJ tipped it over to Shawn and they had a 2-on-1 going. Shaw drew the defenseman in, then hit EJ
back. The goalie came out to face EJ, but the puck went back to Shawn who buried it. The boys were climbing back in.
AJ
shot the puck. It hit inside the net then banked out and hit the post. It was a goal. The ref called it a goal. Then, after
a little conference, they decided it wasn't a goal. The explanation was that none of the officials saw it go in. Stay with
me on this: if he called it a goal and blew the whistle, he thought it was a goal. To overturn that call one of the linesman
has to say emphatically that the puck never went in. On top of which, the puck was loose when the whistle went and we had
three guys in the vicinity who could have easily poked it in, had they not stopped playing. Oh well, it probably wouldn't
end up being important, right? The Bears seized on their good fortune by reestablishing a one-goal lead.
In
the third, the boys continued to pound and the refs continued to ignore the rules. The Bears went up by two, but our kids
never quit. AJ cut the lead to one with a goal at the 10 minute mark. All three lines were threatening and the D figured out
how to stop the lone-man rush. With about a minute left, EJ used his magic hands to find Conrado in the circle. Sergey was
yelling at #26 to slow it down and pass to the point. Luckily Conrado didn't listen. He put a hard shot on net and it went
in to tie the game. The boys had a few more chances, but the game ended 5-5. Hey, that disallowed goal was important. Unfortunately,
this wouldn't be the worst officiating of the tournament. Brian F. was solid in net making 15 saves and giving his team a
chance at the comeback.
Semi-Finals:With 2 wins and a tie the Mariners positioned themselves as the #1 seed heading into
the semi-finals. Their opponent: the Bay Harbor Red Wings, another "A" team looking for glory in a "B" tournament. It was
Timur's start, but thanks to those horrid hotel pillows, he had a stiff neck and we weren't sure he could go. Unfortunately,
back-up Brian F was unable to take his place because his astro-physicist father left the goalie gear in the hotel lobby. Sorry,
Don I had to go there. Timur would tough it out and actually shone very brightly despite his injury. The boys were pumped
and they came out strong. It was obvious from early on the the Red Wings plan was to play some kind of BS version of hockey.
They didn't break out. Then didn't try to set up. All they did was cherry-pick a player or two in the neutral zone and throw
the puck out hard hoping for a break-away. It worked a few times but mostly they just iced the puck.
It
was also obvious that the officiating was even more horrendous than the game against the Bears. They called nothing and then
they turned nothing into penalties. Icing and off-sides were arbitrary and they wiped out our odd-man rushes all game long
for no reason. In spite of all this crap, the Mariners were dominant. Early in the second period, Tyler broke in and spotted
Killian at the net. he zipped a pass over and Killian scored. It looked like a nice bang-bang play, but Killian said the Bay
Harbor defenseman actually put the puck in his own net. I guess Killian's ninja skills are so strong he can psychically will
people to do his bidding. In any case, the boys had the lead.
Bay Harbor would score a flukey goal
at the end of the second, but they were on their heels. The Mariners were in charge. Every line generated great chances and
the defense was stifling. Tom Dobrokhot had his best game of the tournament. He didn't let anyone through to Timur and made
perfect passes out of the zone. Things were looking great until the linesman decided he was going to tilt things for the other
team. On a clear-cut icing, at the last minute was waived off. The Red Wings scored. The linesman's explanation was that one
of our defenseman yelled at him so he waived off the icing. I've checked the USA hockey rule book, but I can't find that one.
It
sucked, but our boys never quit. They pounded away and dominated every facet of the game. Even when they decided to give out
mystery penalties, we still kept coming. Killian had the puck on his stick, skating through two players and got called for
high-sticking. No problem. The boys kept fighting. At one point, Conrado, AJ, and Brian Z. swarmed the net. A Valencia Express
parent who was standing behind the net saw the puck go in, but the officials were so far out of position they never made the
call. Our inevitable come back was cut short when they handed out a roughing penalty to Conrado with 2:15 left in the game.
Yeah, Conrado for roughing. That's as likely as AJ showing up on time for dry-lands. The clock ticked down and our boys were
robbed of a trip to the finals by a prissy official.
During the handshake, the Bay Harbor coach was
livid and barked at me that one of our boys told him to "F.O." I said I'd handle it and went into the locker-room to find
out who it was. Tyler told me that one of the Red Wings said "Nice game a-hole" so he responded in kind. I took Tyler over
to the Bay Harbor locker room so he could explain and apologize to their coach, which he did with no problem. Neither, Tyler,
Sergey, or myself got an apology for the the Bay Harbor lack of sportsmanship. Not only were the Mariners the better team.
They were the classier team as well.
In Conclusion:Okay, so we got hosed. The officiating was terrible. Arizona sucks. Everyone drives
too slow. It's like living in a fascist police state with all of the cameras. There's nothing to do and you can't get a decent
meal. The whole place smells like someone cut the cheese...I'm sorry, what was my point? Oh yeah. The Mariners played hard
and I'm extremely proud of them. They had a chance to hang out and bond and I really feel this experience will help us on
the play-off run. It was also nice to finally socialize with some of you hermit crabs. I say whoever gets the most photo-tickets
mailed to them gets a Parent Of The Year trophy at our year-end party.
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