The Cuppa Joe Grinders

The CuppaJoe Grinders held the Ass-hats to only 14 shots in last night’s tilt and outscored them 3-1 to take Game 1 of the Playoffs. Although it ended as a spirited affair the game got off to a slow pace with each team playing defensive and keeping the game simple. The first period saw no goals, no penalties and no shots on net (ok I’m making that part up). But then 37 seconds into the 2nd frame its was Trainor and Frank connecting with Mr Williams making good on a lead pass, taking it hard to the net and slipping one past the Ass-hats’ goalie.

Most impressive, however, was Frank’s post goal celebration: caught on tape:

Then as Geiber sat in the sin bin for a tripping penalty it was Jay who capitalized on assists from Tidy and Troy (his second A of the night).

The third period started off a little scary as Trainor left an Ass-hat open in front of Tim to receive a pass from behind the net and bury it. But that was a quick wake-up call and the Grinders resumed their tight checking puck controlling game thereafter.  The Ass-hats started to get grumpy and cocky, getting dearly agitated from both Jay and Geiber throughout the night. The Ass-hats ended up taking 14 minutes in penalties in the third period and had 3 gentlemen ejected from the game.

The CuppaJoe Grinders took full advantage of the penalties and killed time through puck possession. PSP doing much of the work skating, controlling the puck, drawing penalties and then assisting on Ashworth’s Ass-hat Killer third period goal.

Well done boys.

See you guys next Friday April 17th at 6:45pm when we will win our second game of the playoffs.

It started bad and ended worse.
A 4-1 Loss was a likely curse.
Start the game with an empty net.
A sure way to lose, any man’s bet.
The Toques go up by a single point
Before our keeper is in the joint.
Now Tim’s arrived we have some hope
But Grinder’s goals came from just one dope.
Who’da thunk Trainor would be the son
of a bitch to tie it up one-one.
After that it was all down hill
a short bench and no will
or desire to dig deeper
except for the man that they call Geiber
he put in a solid game
each shift his position was not the same
But was not enough to stop the other
team from grabbing the puck not covered
and scoring two before we let
them get another on an empty net
That would end the 4-1 Game
3 days before St Patty’s day.

St Patty's Patties

Two games have passed since the webmaster has updated the site.  Both of them Wins!

The foist game was against the Hedgehawgs.  There are 16 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to North America; which explains why they couldn’t skate.  The ice was soft and so was the hockey.  The game was slower than it should have been as the Grinders played down to the Hawgs level. Yet the grinders controlled the puck for the better part of the game and outshot the Hawgs only 19 to 9.  That doesn’t include, of course the few posts that were hit.  Peter, although only facing 9 shots, had to make a couple of breakaway sops to ensure the Grinders’ success.   That was Peter’s first of two shutouts.

The second shutout was sugnificantly more work as he faced, and stopped 23 shots on the night against the much better 5-Point Warthogs. This particular sounder of warthog, although again not native to North America, did learn to skate quite well and put up one hell of a game.  Warthogs are powerful diggers, using both heads and feet, and they play positionally sound hockey.  A fast game with numerous chanmces on both sides to put the other team away, it came down to the final 15 seconds when Andy Chacko converted a PSP rush for the games only goal. Andy redeemed himelf after falling flat on his face when attempting a previous slapshot from the point. Unlike comrade Trainor who, with a an open net and the puck on his blade made a perfect pass into the corner, some would say, almost a clearing attempt.

Next Game : Saturday, March 14th at 12:15 pm

<Picture Coming Soon>

Saturday evening was an evening to remember as the Grinders took it to the Shockers with full force. In typical fashion the Shockers got chippy and it was the usual suspects in numbers 27 and 17 that were causing most of the problems. Nearing the end of the game it was number 17 who lost it and ended up scraping his stick along side Andy’s nose. He got a hooking call…and suspended indefinitely.   Yet on the unusual side it was acquaintances Triggsy and Tosh that had the major mix-up of the game. With accusations of being speared, Triggsy, intent on exacting retribution on the one-time Grinder spare released a series of blows to the helmet of Nishimura, and a couple to the chin. Initially both players got 5 for fighting, 2 for roughing and a 3-game suspension. But after a diplomatic phone call from Gordie to the league office the sentence has been reduced to 7 for roughing and a 1-game suspension.We still love you Tosh. You can come spare with us anytime.

The 17 PIMS that Triggsy amassed has catapulted him out in front of Gordie as team leader in PIMS with 29. Gordie, with 2 minutes for holding in that game, is still within reach of the season title with his current 24 PIMS.  With 5 games remaining and Schmidt averaging just over 1minute per game, he may well achieve it.

It was Gordie who started the scoring in this game, apparently he didn’t have a Burn game immediately following because he was putting in a full effort this night. The surprise is that he only came out with a single point from the game. Frank Williams paid his dues in full (thanks for the case) and then potted the teams second of the night with an assist from Andy.   The game winner came from Triggsy (says unassisted on the score sheet).   The fourth of the night was a gift courtesy of a Houghton blast off the back boards to a sure-sticked Trainor who hit the dead center of a wide open net as the Shocker goalie floundered out of position.   The fifth of the night was a coast-to-coast rush from Andy on the power play. Carrying the puck the length of the ice Andy released a wrist shot from the short right side and then picked up his own rebound for the goal.   And then it was Bob finishing off the trouncing with his 2nd goal of the year with a shot from the point. Gordie in front providing the screen to help seal the deal.

Get out there. Play. Have a beer. Laugh about it, whether a win or a loss. It’s all good at the average age of 40 for some of us its all we got. So when we get up against a team that has some players that are in the single digit divisional capabilities, “slumming it” so to speak to play with their buddies, then you just gotta go with the flow and give it what you got.

Jay certainly did, and at the time of this article is running away with the first star voting.  He sets up Goats on a 2 on 1 with a perfect pass that Goats made no mistake of burying. And then he pots the second goal with the support of Troy and Tidy. The game also saw the long awaited return of Brad Nickason to the line-up after missing far too many ice times, first with a concussion and then after a brief spell with the team he suffered a back sprain.  Welcome back old boy.

But alas, we were no match for The Crackers that have 3 players averaging 2pts per game. And their top player doing so by choice, limiting himself to that many lest their team get bumped up to a more competitive division and they only appear to be a mediocre team in Div 14.

And in closing I proudly announce the worst pun ever to appear in print: The team has decided to get together and buy Bob a Cyclone Taylor’s gift certificate for a new schtick.

A title like that gives promise for the Grinder Girl pic!

Grinders played 3 games and the webmaster was negligent in posting. So here’s a quick summary to get everyone up to speed.Grinders finally get Tim a win, then turn around and do the same for Pete. Scoring seems to be no longer an issue for the team with 11 goals in three games. PSP is squeaking ahead by 1 point to lead the team in scoring. Gordie is one minor penalty ahead of Ashworth for  PIMS leader…. (Gord maybe we should have a talk), Triggsy is leading the PPGA, we just need him to show up to s’more late ones.

The last game against the Grinders was a decent one. chippy at times yes, but all-in-all a good spirited affair. We were especially in good spirits when Andy’s elbow popped off that guys helmet.

This Thursday we plays against the Albino Crackers who hold the title for the longest winning streak at 9 games BUT it all came at the beginning of the season as they were in a lower division. So take it to ‘em Grinders!