A game to be proud of….

Going up against the top penalized team with a short bench used to spell disaster for the “CuppaJoe Grinders.”  Our competitive Grind and short tempers would goad us to respond in kind.  ( poetry!)

But sound logic is rearing it’s wizened head   In the dressing room before game time the boys declared an oath to stay out of the box against this team, and simply skate away; let the refs look after the cheap shit. Guess what…it worked.  The cheap shot grinders ended up with 16 min in penalties, two game ejections and we got the 5-2 win and a free pitcher of beer!

The CuppaJoe Grinders had 10 skaters - three of them Spare and got a solid effort.  Jason Clarke opened the scoring in the first period beating the goalie on a breakaway. Yes, Jason scored on a breakaway - a feat that usually demands both speed and skill.  His 4th goal of the season….a career high?.  The other Grinders quickly replied to send it to the intermission 1-1.  Falling behind in the 2nd period we quickly responded on the power play as Goat’s rifled home a bullet from the slot fom Troy and thinchick.  The second period would end like the first, tied, this time 2-2.

Into the third, the Good Guy Grinders took over.  James Teddai moved to center for Rob and with three minutes in, corralled a breakaway stretch pass from Gord Schmidt to put them up three two and they never looked back.  Just 42 seconds later, Jeff Triggs playing stellar on the point all night, wires a shot top corner from the point.  A final talley from James on a wrap around put the game out of reach while two Bad Boy Grinders worked Gord over on front  with a pathetic display of unsportsmanship as they took penalty after penalty, including two game ejections.  In the dieing seconds, Guy was driven into the boards and responded like the proverbial bull as if channelled by a combination of Dave Tanchak and Rowdy Roddy Piper! He challenged anyone in his way, refs, or any of the two grinder teams on the ice.  So intense and out of character was his ire that upon his return to the bench the team had cowered to one end.  One team member was driven to tears…..?

All was forgotten after the game when the next calamity was realized…no beer!  To the rescue came Beer man extraordinare Dave Tanchak with a cooler at the ready in his car.

Post… haha, get it? Sorry for the delay but it felt like such a shame to bumnp the last pic down a notch, I wanted to make sure that the next image was worthy.
Playing on a Saturday evening has a much more cultural feeling to it rather than the raw energy of a late night weekday game so i thought it best that the image provided for this game reflected that feeling:

GAME SUMMARY PROVIDED BY GOATS
Once upon a time there was Grinders’ game on a Saturday afternoon. The Burgundy warriors were soon to face off against the might Shockers - a team the Grinders had bested before. Warm-up was awesome as the guys peppered Goats with shots from the hash marks and breakaways from the corner. Feeling pumped up and ready to go, the lads gathered in around the crease… 1,2,3, GRINDERS! And the games was underway.
The action was snail paced save for a player on the Shockers, whose socks were reminiscent of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty era, who danced the Grinders inside out and backwards. He ran the ice like a cat, dodging, weaving and generally making a mockery of the Grinders’ thrown together defence.The Shockers ran the first period, potting three early goals. On the first goal Houghton backed into Goats, leaving him blinded by at minimum ten yards of burgundy fabric in his direct vision. The shot went into the net without protest. Minutes later, Goats sealed a pad to the left post as a Shocker skated out from behind the net, placing a perfect pass onto the waiting stick of a completely unguarded Shocker on the right post. He placed it int the net without protest. Minutes later once again, the Grinders’ defencemen stopped skating and let a Shocker skate right past them and walk in on goal, sliding the puck under an outstretched Goats’ left pad. The puck slid into the net with only minor protest.

The second period, however, the Grinders owned the Shockers. Pressing in their end, we moved the puck well. We had myriad chances around the net, bashing, slamming, shooting from the point, but nothing. Shots hit ankles in front. Shots hit sticks at the hash marks. The Shockers’ keeper casually flung the puck aside over and again. But the Grinder’s worked hard to keep the puck in their end, and no more damage was done in their own end during the second period.In the third, the Grinders’ came out with guns blazing. Gieber, T-chak, Gordie, and Stace busted their hineys trying to pot a goal. The passing was clean and the pace was good, but not good enough.

Just as the steam came to a head, the Shockers managed to slip the d once again and hit a the open man to pot the 4th goal; the nail in the coffin for the Grinders. Not willing to give up so easily, the Grinders mounted an assault on the Shockers late in the game. T-chak raced speedily towards the goal mouth and banged in his own rebound to break the goose egg and and give the Grinders a boost. But it was not enough. The Grinders wearily played the remaining two minutes just shutting the door as best they could. Luckily the Shockers were tired too and lifted the puck into the corner of the Grinders’ end instead of charging for the net. The game ended 4-1 Shockers.

On the good side, not a single Grinder spent time in the sin bin and as a result Goats, Stace, Leng, T-chak and Guy partook in a post match free pitcher. On the bad side, we lost on account of poor skating and some early goals.

Three star picks - 1. T-chak - a goal and no penalties!; 2. Geiber - worked his ass off to keep the puck in their end; also lent Goats an undershirt; 3. Tosh - well, he wasn’t on our team, but he only got one goal; it could have been much worse.

Just Kidding: (about the pic)

In honour of Goats stepping up for two games and playing to the best of his ability as well as writing the game summary, I present to you, Grinder Goalie Girl.

Even though the 10:30pm flu struck a number of people on the team, The Grinders were still able to find 10 skaters foolish enough to come out to play. Thanks to James and Goats for steppin’ up and helping out. And even though two of the flu-sufferers happened to be both the puck-bag guy and the beer-guy, thats right; no Beer, (oh-the horror) the Grinders overcame the shock and managed a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Smokeeaters.

Their goalie had a shaky first period and the grinders took advantage with long shots, big rebounds and quick blades to hop on the loose puck. All 5 goals came in the first period. Santa gets his first goal of the year on the first goal of the night at 6:29 with an assist from Mr Leng who ended up with a 3-point night including the nights 3 rd goal. The eventual game winner came from number 44 Gordie Schmish with assists from Troy and James. And then triggs and Trainor rounded out the evening with the insurmountable 4th and 5th goals.

It’s a good thang the Grinders scored early because as the night wore on the feet got slower and we started to collapse around the net, allowing the Smokeeaters their one and only goal. Goats stopped 20 more pucks thrown at him for an overall stellar performance, but the skaters couldn’t keep the energy going around him to salvage his shutout.

Next game, Saturday the 12th at 2pm.  Goats is in net again.

Contrary to the boring score sheet with no entries under either the goals or the penalty column, this was not a boring game. In fact, it was a helluva game with mucho end-to-end action. The Grinders had 27 shots on goal, not including two or three posts and one disallowed goal (it was in). With a short bench of 10 skaters it was absolutely necessary that we took decent shift lengths, minded our partners health - Gord being with flu and Jason being child (and I thought it was Fran that was pregnant) - and forechecked like the Dickens (thats my one and only Christmas reference).

Peter played stellar in net stopping 17 saves on the night, more than a few of them on the breakaway. He has earned a well deserved 2 weeks in the Philippines. (This guy goes on more over seas tropical vacations than anyone I have ever known - must be single).

Fun hockey all around, even when their cheap bastard #2 started to get lazy and hacking, we just kept coming after them and ignored the crap. It put is on the offense more than not, it gave us the better chance to win the game. But alas, a 0-0 tie is what we have to settle for.

But as promised, with a stellar effort and clean game I present to you, a half naked Grinder Girl. May I present: Peaches.

Do I hear an “I’d hit that”?

Goats, this one is for you. You deserve the goalie-girl this week after that game. As PSP said the only D we showed tonight was “De-breakway” 50-Mission showed a helluva lot of speed up front and their seagull took the puck time and time again in for breakaway chances.

The last we time faced the 50 Mission they had neither the goaltending nor the snipers that we faced tonight. here’s an exerpt from the March 2006 game write-up, which we won.:

This is also a shout out to the team as a whole. Both Rob and PSP made comments after the game about how great it was that everyone on our team kept it positive throughout the game and didn’t start raggin’ on each other during this loss. We played hard. We moved the puck well in their offensive zone, the D got off numerous point shots, our breakout was fairly effective, the forwards covered the D on their rushes and everyone hustled, no one panicked when 50 Mission was pressuring, good communication…

The score wasn’t indicative of the game and by no means is it Goats’ burden to bear. 50 Mission had snipers and speed on the front line that are more akin to Div 6 than 16.

Good on ya Grinders.

Oh! And lets not forget Frank. Coming out to support us during the late game AND picking up a new cooler for the team. (Bob, we owe Frank $60)