With the barn on Barlow operating at peak efficiency, it was a Zamboni door malfunction reminiscent of Super Bowl XXXVIII that caused a unique one-game week in the FHL.
And what a game it was.
Red crashed, bashed and slashed its way to a 4-1 victory to end Green’s modest three-game winning streak.
Kevin “Kesler” Hesslegrave kept his mouth shut and let his stick do the talking as he collected a hat trick to lead all scorers.
Proving that good things come in small packages was Kerry “Lucky Charm” Fitzgerald who was the only other skater with more than one point as he scored a beauty and assisted on another.
It appeared that the only thing that could stop the White winless streak was a week off and thanks to zero Zamboni’s available on Rink 2 they were undefeated for the 13 days between games.
Ultimately they did need to lace the skates back up and, thanks to Green’s 3-1 victory, extended their streak to five in a row which means they remain winless for 2011.
The well played and civil affair was up for grabs deep into the contest until a no call on an obvious trip led to a Green rush with Scott “Gina” Davis leading the charge.
His velocity and accuracy-challenged wrister appeared to be a routine save before an overzealous White defender threw their stick in front of the vulcanized disk which sent it up and over the bewildered tender for what proved to be the winning tally.
“Gina” also earned an assist on the clinching goal by Chad “Slider” Swanson who pitched in two helpers as his brother in law “Handy” Dan Loundes also scored and earned an assist.
White actually had strong efforts from most of their depleted crew with Dale “Big Dog” Bubela having an awesome game as he was credited with a sweater matching 17 shots with one actually finding the twine for a change.
The contest between Black and Red had playoff intensity with seven penalties and five goals in Black’s 3-2 win.
Mark “Captain” Courtney was all over the score sheet as he served two penalties and scored an unassisted beauty with Budd “Crash” Carter and Seth Phillips “Screwdriver” notching the others.
Red was lead by Ian “Big Banana” Hannah who scored two goals to jettison himself into the league scoring lead.
Steve Dodge is a defensive winger on the White team and an Observer contributor.