Week of January 2 (Game 1) – A third of the way through the season, Drama Queens continues to be the league favorite and showing no signs of slowing down. Undefeated after six games in regulation and averaging 5-goals scored per game and giving up just under 2-goals against. The Queens juggernaut continued to roll along by breaking open a close game in the third period to rout Shockwave by the score of 6 – 1. It should be noted that Shockwave was missing their regular goalie, their top two forwards and top defenseman in this game.
Through five games, one thing that has stood out about Drama Queens has been their consistency. In every one of their first five games, they have scored first. The fact that Shockwave was able to break that streak made little difference in the outcome. Just over three minutes into the first period, fill-in player Tony Fosco broke through the defense to score an unassisted goal.
In the second period, Drama Queens started taking control of this game. A minute and a half into the period, Mike Surette was set up out on the left point by Manny Nunes and his patented snap shot beat the goalie from long distance. On a penalty kill with under four minutes left in the period, fill in player Gary Goodwin made a heads-up hustle play to beat the defense in the corner and got the ball to Cooch behind the net for a key short-handed goal.
The third period was all Drama Queens as they scored four straight unanswered goals, in a span of six minutes, to run away with this game. And run away they did. A minute into the period saw Cooch take a long lead pass from goalie Jake Brum and score. Two minutes later, Cooch capped off his natural hat trick on a great pass from Don Maccini. Unconfirmed reports stated that a bunch of “pink hats” were tossed onto the rink for Cooch! Three minutes later, Ray Dow extended his consecutive game scoring streak to six games with a goal set up by Jamie Kehoe and Mike. Capping off the scoring deluge thirty seconds later saw big Mike score on another long snap shot from the left point set up by Jamie. Yep, another solid all-around team effort by Drama Queens.
Week of January 2 (Game 2) – Prior to this game, it was being billed as a character test for Jake-O-Lanterns as they faced off against the defending champs. With their offense finally waking up last week, could they keep that going was the big question. The answer delivered was a resounding yes as they broke open a close game in the second period to hold off Olive Pits with a convincing 6 – 3 win. It should be noted that Olive Pits was missing three defensemen including their number one in Dave Costa.
In a back and forth first period, that saw both teams generate quality scoring chances, it was Jake-O-Lanterns who broke through. Just under four minutes into the period, a rejuvenated Matty Iannello took a pass from Nick Doherty to score the game’s first goal. Three minutes later on a power play saw Pic score a goal scorers goal in close off the rebounds of shots by Nick and Cappy.
In the second period, here came Olive Pits pushing back. Thirty seconds in, Pat Pirone took a long breakout pass from goalie Dave Giusti, broke down the left wing, stickhandled around two players, cutting across the front of the net for a brilliant goal. Thirty seconds later on a defensive breakdown near the point, Jim Barber converted off the passing of Ron Aquino and Elder Lopes, tying this game. However, Jake-O-Lanterns didn’t panic and answered right back. Less than a minute later, Todd Bryson was sent down the left wing by George Medeiros to retake the lead. Two minutes later saw Nick fly down the left wing set up by Matty and Pic to extend the lead. With just over a minute left in the period, Todd took advantage of a defensive turnover to score unassisted, breaking this game open.
In the third period, Matty was set up with three minutes to play by the passing of Nick and Pic. A minute later saw fill-in player Jamie Kehoe score off a faceoff draw from Mike Luise to round out the scoring. Test passed by Jake-O-Lanterns!
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