Week of January 18 (Game 1) – And the championship “hangover” continues for the Shooting Stars, as they dropped to 0-2 in the spring season, with a loss to Cuckoo’s Nest, by the score of 5 – 4 in overtime. It looks like captain Jim Barber’s mantra for the team of “let’s go and have some fun out there” this season is backfiring. If they keep this pace up they may be looking to make a change in captain.
This game was played in a playoff-like atmosphere with both teams holding leads and neither team allowing the other to break away and build on their lead. The Shooting Stars opened up the scoring three minutes into the first period, as John Mastrocola scored an unassisted goal out front. Cuckoo’s Nest tied it less than a minute later as Rick Cassano’s slap shot from the left point, set up by Matty Iannello and Joe Shannon, sailed past a screened goalie. With a minute to play in the period, Dez ripped a shot off from in tight on a perfect pass from Mark Stickney, reclaiming the lead for his team.
In the second period, Cuckoo’s Nest reclaimed the lead, first tying it four minutes in, as Joe Shannon was left all alone to walk in from the point to unleash a slap shot past the goalie from close range (trust us, the goalie had NO chance to stop that rocket). With under a minute left in the period, Matty redirected a shot from the point off a pass from Angelo Deluca.
The Shooting Stars came back early in the third period as Sergio Costa poke in a rebound off a scramble out front of George Medeiros’ shot retying the game. However, with just over two minutes to play in the game, Angelo Deluca was sprung down the left wing by Matty and made a goal scorer’s move in tight across the crease to give Cuckoo’s Nest the lead. With time running down and their goalie pulled, Mike Delorey unleashed a bomb from the right point off a faceoff win by Mark Stickney to retie the game. But, the momentum swing would not last as Matty I ended it in overtime, batting the ball out of midair in tight, set up by Angelo and Joe past the goalie for the hard earned win.
Week of January 18 (Game 2) – Finally! There will be no repeat of last season for the Golden Oldies based on what we witnessed last week. In a breakout performance by the entire team, the Golden Oldies scored five goals in the first period to blowout White Lightning and win easily by the score of 8 – 2. Every forward on the team had at least one point. The goals came fast and furious. It was as if everything that they went through as a team last season and the first two games of this season, all the frustration experienced, finally reached a tipping point and exploded into an offensive barrage of goals.
Anthony Lauletta led the way, scoring four goals, Umberto Biancardi set up three goals, Mike Luise and Joe Mancinelli each scored a goal and added an assist, John Kelleher scored a goal and even John Colucciello scored in this game to get that scoring monkey off his back sooner rather than later in this season. The defense and goalie Alby Luise had little to worry about as the offense took care of everything, especially in the first period of this game.
How dominant was Golden Oldies in this game? They scored the game’s first three goals in just over a two minute span, scored four straight goals after White Lightning scored their first goal, and outshot their opponent by a 37 – 19 margin. It will be interesting to watch this team for their next couple of games to see if they are truly back and will compete for a playoff spot this season, or if this was just an aberration. For one week at least, captain Dan Broderick could relax and concentrate on playing his game rather than trying to constantly get his team motivated to compete. 