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.

After a four-game losing skid the Grinders faced off against the first-place Albino Crackers and emerged victorious with 3 goals over their meager 2. The Grinders first goal came on almost the first shift of the game with Santa’s blast careening off the end boards, and then something happened, it either bounced off the back of the goalies legs or Rob tipped it in. Jury is out on that one. The second goal was a purty one. Father Williams loaded up at the point and out of shear terror Jason tipped the oncoming puck away from his rib cage and into the net.

The game winner, contrary to scoresheet, came from Gordie ho planted himself on the edge of the crease and awaiting the perfect pass from PSP. Gordie’s shot went right through the legs of the keeper for the final tally.

[GORD’s EDIT]Close….me from andy and paul. Andy headmannned it to paul who took it into the zone, circled the net and passed it in front to me for the one-timer. They actually screwed up all the goals so I have sent the changes into Dave. I had a goal and an assist and don’t think they credited me for a point!

Guy had lots of chance to break out of his lone point for the season, but had no luck again. That was a great game by us eh? Quick shifts, everyone skated hard and got back….fun to play.

For that I present to you, Snowflake… (Albino, white, snowflake… gawd my Google foo is hawsome)

<

I’m so damn excited to play tonight that I have a Grinder girl ready already, so as a post-game Grinder girl for Monday Night’s game where reports came flooding in about the 2 on 1’s and 1 and 0’s and 2-0’s that peter had to face and the outstanding saves made in those situations, and Gord’s goal coming from a hard pass off of Clarke, and our re-occurring ability to LOSE IT - couldn’t happen to a better opposition; I present to you Scarlet.

Scarlet shall also be known as the Pre-Game girl for tonights game again the Burnaby Jets, Friday 8pm at 8 Rinks. We’ve been playing against the Burnaby Jets for about 7 years now and the games are always very even - going either way depending on puck luck. Last game shots on goal were 25 to 27, but we managed to eke out a 3-1 win even with having to kill 2 penalties. We did have out ELITE spares with us as compared to tonight where we will have to rely on our own resident skill, so play hard guys, mucho shoto and victory shall be ours!

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.

Due to the untimely disappearance of our beloved beer cooler, an exhaustive search has been undertaken to find an adequate replacement. Until now, no reasonable candidates had been identified, however we believe a suitable replacement has now been found.

Please provide your feedback, as we need to ensure that we are making a responsible decision in this time of bereavement. We want to ensure that this is not simply a “rebound cooler”, but will be a worthwhile companion for the Grinders for seasons to come.