With Superbowl XLVI, just around the corner it shouldn’t have been a surprise that at least one FHL team would take the immortal Vince Lombardi to heart and live out the “If winning isn’t everything, then why keep score” attitude and that’s just what the not Beary nice boys did in their 5-1 shellacking of Serenity.
With the Bear Captain using his 1-800 Ringer recruitment plan to perfection the game was over before it started as twice as many #1 players laced up their skates for the Bears who at that moment were arguably the best hockey team in all of Quesnel. The puck movement that ensued had the Serenity bowels moving erratically as they were a step and a half behind the fleet footed communicators from the get go.
When the dust cleared Gord “Poached” Salmons had scored twice and added an assist on Lee “Stormrider” Naeth’s tally, as Brody “The Tinman” Neighbour, Troy “Story” McMillan and Jimmie “Soupy” Sales had all collected a pair of points. Also scoring for a Bear side who are rocketing toward the finish line was Budd “Crash” Carter who continues to sacrifice his body while performing yeoman work in the trenches. A morale victory for the Builders was the shut-out ending tally by “BIG” Bob Merta who stuffed a rebound and the Bear tender into the net as time wound down.
The other contest had more thrills, chills and near misses than a winter drive on Hwy. 97 as Fraser River blew a big lead allowing Blue Collar to storm back in the 5 all draw. Driving the Chevy Crew forward with a well balanced attack was Brian “The Bull” Inwood who scored his second goal in 3 weeks as “Sidewinder” Seth Phillips and Chad “The Comet” Swanson both had a pair of helpers to go with singleton markers. After goals by Chris “Crown” Royle and Scott “Little Softy” Fearless the Fraser Rivermen learned the hard way what Jack Nicholson discovered when the Postmen rings more than once. With Quasimodo cowering behind the BCS net, the ringing actually woke up the Chicago alternate black clad crew with Will “The Chill” Quarry scoring a natural hat trick to give his team hope. A pair of assists by Todd “Lady Byng” Gryschuk helped set the table before “Iron” Mike Ingram who had scored earlier teamed up with Bob “Crazy Legs” Keen whose warrior like shot found the twine to give Blue Collar exactly the same record in their past 10 games as their first 10 contests.
Steve Dodge is a defensive winger with Serenity Builders and an Observer contributor.