Halifax Floor Hockey LeagueSo this week marked the start of the play offs for the 2010B season and the match ups were set. The early leads and some crafty veterans proved to be too the deciding factors and four teams were going home after last night...let's see who they are shall we!
Chill 9 Sabres 5
This game saw the Chill jump out with a 3 goal lead after the first and then added two more in the second to grab a 5 nothing lead en-route to a 9 - 5 besting of the Joyal-less Sabres. It wasn't until mid way through the second that the Sabres got on the board when Sabres captain and league veteran Doug Forrrest roofed a rebound into the top shelf to get his team going. The Sabres picked up another goal before the end of the period but just couldn't catch up to the Chill in this one. Pierre Joyal was the only notable MIA for this game and it left the Sabres scrambling when the had to shift things around to accommodate long time "D" man, Sheldon O'Brien move to the net. O'Brien put forth a valiant effort but the Chill snipers were just too much for him this night.
Some controversy arose in this one when in the third Jonathan McLeod grabbed hold of Tony Joyce's stick and joyce ended up getting called for 'holding". When the ever so eloquent Mr. Joyce politely expressed his displeasure with the call, he was given a 10 minute misconduct from Gill "The Magnificent" Mombo. This led to a chorus of boos from the home town fans. Gill had to be escorted by security to the Small Floor Arena to avoid the outraged Chill fans who were heard chanting, Greasy Gill, Greasy Gill. When we asked Gill his thought on everything he had this to say.
"Listen, I don't get paid enough to do this stuff and take this kind of abuse. I called a penalty because i thought it was the right call. Period. If you swear at me once you get an unsportsmanlike, if you swear at me twice we are either related or you are going to sit and think about it for a while. Unfortunately for Mr. Joyce...we aren't related."
Bottom line is the Chill advance to the semis.
Titans 7 Hackers 4
Well this was really no surprise to me. I called it in last weeks edition of the news. Again, the Titans forwards were buzzing all around the floor like a swarm of bees looking for someone to sting...and unfortunately for Dave "The Save" Blandford, he was the target this night. The Titans scored two in the first and never looked back as they showered the Hacker goalie with 47 shots. The most he faced this season. At the other end of the floor Jason Boudreau had another walk in the park as he was never really threatened by the Hackers.
Jeff "My Arms Are Some Big" Shute led his team to victory with 2 goals and 2 assists, while the Hackers were led by Roger "the Ailing" Keating, who disipte an undisclosed injury managed to pick up 2 goals in 2 periods. He didn't play the third.
I spoke with Titans captain after the game in the press room and he had this to share.
"Yea, we are like a swarm of bees man. I mean I like to call our line of Coolen, Kiley and myself the 3 B's...Big Arms, Big Head and Big Mouth...hey...that really doesn't sound that cool does it. Don't print that ok? Maybe I need to rethink that...maybe we can be the Killer B's. That's better, yea print that..."the Killer B's". Anyway, we won...look at these pipes man...just look at em'"
Titans advance.
Miracle on Gottigen Street!!!! Lynx 10 Slayers 7
A few quick goals set the pace for this game. The Lynx veteran laden team took control as long time gunner Kevin "I'm Bad" Haddad started the game with not one, not two...but yes you guessed it Three goals! A natural hat trick!!! And he wasn't done there. Haddad added 2 more as the first miracle of the night sent shock waves through out the league. The Bloomfield leading Slayers were sent packing by the Lynx who just out hustled, out mustled and capitalized on their chances. By the end of the first it was 6 - 1 for the Lynx and the Slayers just couldn't get past that lead. Point men Matt "The Bratt" Clarke and Matt "The Punk" Monk controlled their end of the floor with great hustle and ball movement which kept the Slayers at bay. "Teddy" Graham Dodge played a great game for the Lynx as well which just put some icing on the cake.
Shocker...but I called it last news edition! Lynx advance
Fire 9 Bull Dogs 3
Fire goalie Blair "The Mare" Hammond picked the right time to show up as he played his strongest game of the year turning aside 43 of 46 shots to back stop the Fire to what some call a second miracle on the first night of the playoffs. Again, the winning team scored the first goal as Fire Captain Rob Tyrrell fed Mark "Crazy Legs" Thompson a pass that started the scoring. By all accounts on the score sheet, by the end of the first the Fire had a 7-3 lead. This was not a fitting end for Bulldogs goalie Tom "My Team Couldn't" Wynn as he posted one of his strongest seasons this season. Not much more to say about this one as the Dogs just didn't have any bite tonight.
We spoke with some guy who was standing on the running track to ask him his thoughts.
" hey man, got a smoke?"
Oops, wrong interview...
We spoke with Fire Captain Rob "The _ _ _ _ " Tyrrell... (I've always wanted to do that lol) about the game.
"Burn baby burn...disco inferno, burn baby burn! Where's Billy at! How you like us now Concarney! Ok, sorry. Just a tad bit excited! So yea, we played a good game. Best game this year for us and Blair played awesome. It was a huge team effort and Yeow!!! Burn baby burn...where are my roller skates!!"
Fire scorch the Bull Dogs...
So the big question is what happened? For the first time since the current league ste up of two divisions has been in exeistance, it was a sweep. The entire Bloomers division was eliminated in one swift night. This also ensures that a new champion will be crowned at the end of this season. Will the two league "poor boys" in the Fire and the Lynx continue to make miracles happen? We'll just have to wait and see.
As we said before, one game and you're done.
Tune in next week and see how things unravelled...
This is Billy Concarney saying so long and remember women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they're sexy!
have a great week folks and be well!