Ho Singes Fire with 5 Goals

The Lite-Sabres won their third straight game and moved into a tie for second-place overall with a 14-5 victory over the Keane Fire Thursday night. Damien Ho had his best career game as a Sabre, scoring 5 goals and 2 assists. Ho opened and closed the scoring against a Fire team who struggled without several of their top players.

After Ho opened the scoring for the Sabres, Gian Scalet tipped home a pretty pass from Jehad Chedrawy to tie the game at one. But the Sabres took control after that, scoring the next 5 goals to open a 6-1 second period lead. It was defensive-minded Bruce Greer who broke the Sabres' streak, when he whacked home a Chedrawy rebound.

But the Fire, playing with only two subs, couldn't build on Greer's second-career goal. Instead it was the Sabres who fought back, scoring 4 consecutive goals to amass an insurmountable 10-2 third period lead. The Sabres cruised to a 14-5 victory.

Scalet and Ian Scott had two goals apiece for the Fire in defeat. The Sabres' big man with the deft touch, Dave MacKenzie, tallied four goals and 3 assists, while Chad Griffin scored 3 goals and 3 assists. With those points, Griffin becomes the league's third all-time leading scorer, and only the fourth person to ever score 200 points in his career.

It was a bittersweet night for Griffin however; as he announced that his iron-man streak of 56 consecutive games played since joining the league would come to an end when the Sabres play the Lynx on Monday night. Since joining the Sabres in the 2000B season, Griffin has led the Sabres to a formidable 38-18 record over that span. Sabres captain Chris McMaster, who selected Griffin first overall in the 2002B draft, was teary eyed after the game. "This is a great moment in the career of a great player," wept McMaster, "but for the record, I'm not crying! The sweat is causing the dye in my hair to run into my eyes, causing my eyes to water. So really, I'm not a wuss". Yes Chris, somebody who dyes their hair is definitely not a wuss.

The league's undisputed iron-man, John Price, was in action in Thursday's late game. The first-place LAN Hackers squared off against an angry last-place Keane Chill squad. The Chill welcomed back to the line-up leading scorer Tony Joyce, as well as the rejuvenated Jason Royal, who had missed several games due to a pulled knee muscle. The Hackers were playing without the services of goalie, captain, and inspirational leader John Dulong, who was scouting prospects in Newfoundland for the 2003A season.

There was nothing between the teams in the first 2 periods, in a high-scoring affair that featured the league's top two scorers in Price and Joyce. After two periods, the game was knotted at 9. But it was the first half of the third period that decided this game, as the Chill scored 4 straight to open up a 13-9 lead. The Hackers fought back, scoring the next three goals, including a Jamie Houghton goal with less than a minute left with the Hacker goalie Jason Chan pulled for an extra attacker. But Jason Royal made the Hackers pay for the open net shortly thereafter, as his goal iced the game for the Chill, giving them the 14-12 upset.

Neither of the two teams' positions in the standing changed with the outcome. With the Hackers' loss, it guarantees that the team who finishes first place overall in the regular season will have at least two losses for the first time in league history. In the league's 7 previous seasons, the first place team has either gone undefeated, or lost only a single game -- more evidence that the 2002B season may be the most competitive in league history.