Over 30 Hockey League

Week of February 13 (Game 1) – The string of injuries to its key players piling up and trying to patch a depleted defensive core has taken its toll on Snow White.  Top defenseman Jason Carrien recently shut down his season going onto long-term IR as he tries to recover from a lower body injury; center and versatile player Chris Ducharme has now missed five weeks dealing with his own nagging lower body injury; and top center Matt Farrell has been dealing with a lower body injury that comes and goes.  With all this going on, Snow White was simply no match for the surging Jake-O-Lanterns team as they gave up three goals in the first five minutes and got routed by the score of 5 – 1.

In the first period, it was all Jake-O-Lanterns as goalie Scott Rosato faced a barrage of shots, early and often.  Just under three minutes in, while killing a penalty, Gino Tammaro stayed hot, scoring on a brilliant individual play and shot.  A minute later, Pic was set up by Matty Iannello and Todd Bryson, increasing the lead.  A minute after that, Todd threw a knuckleball shot on net that eluded the goalie, off a pass from Pic.  Stunned by this offensive onslaught, Snow White somewhat recovered three minutes late as Nick Romano beat the goalie short side off a pass from Tony Fosco to temporarily stop the bleeding.

In the second period, Jake-O-Lanterns took complete control of this game as they threw 17 shots on net while only giving up 6.  Less than a minute into the period saw Gino set up in the right circle to one-time a pass from Angelo Deluca and Steve Medeiros.  Even with two periods remained to be played, this game was essentially over.  With three minutes to play in the period, Nick Doherty blasted a shot that cleanly beat the goalie from the wing off the passing of Pic and Matty.

The lowlight of this game, other than the shellacking Snow White took was the continuous struggles by the Former Great One to score that elusive career leading goal and set league history as its most prolific all-time scorer.  Now three weeks into this quest, the Former Great One keeps missing golden opportunities to set the record.  Witness his 8 shot attempts in this game, as teammates went out of their way to set him up, a struggling goalie taken out of his game and vulnerable, and failing to capitalize on a prime breakaway late in the game.  As one person said to this reporter “Matty sucks!”  Somewhere Joe Shannon must be smiling!

Week of February 13 (Game 2) – In a statement game that proves how one team continues to have another team’s number, Olive Pits put an end to Drama Queens three game winning streak, beat their opponent for the third time this season (all three of Drama Queens loses have been at the hands of Olive Pits), made the most of their scoring opportunities count as they were outshot 30-21, as they convincingly shut down Drama Queens by the score of 3 – 0.  One positive takeaway from this game for Drama Queens was even with the loss they clinched a playoff spot.

Playing with a short-handed team and missing their top defenseman never seemed to impact Olive Pits as they opened the first period running and attacking their opponent.  Two minutes into the period, Dave Parquette scored an unassisted goal to score the key first goal.  Never slowing down their attacking style of pressuring the opponents defense paid off as Dave did it again, five minutes later, converting a pass from Alex Leone.  That goal appeared to be more than enough for goalie Dave Giusti who was stopping everything thrown his way.

1st Star

Jon Picard

3rd Star

Dave Parquette

3-0
We have asked around and no team in the league other than Olive Pits has any interest in beating the current #1 team Drama Queens.

With 7-guys and a fill-in substitute the Olive Pits continued their dominance over the Drama Queens buy not only beating them for the 3^rd consecutive time this season… they shut them out without their top defenseman Dave Costa.

We looked at the stats and were surprised to learn that half of Drama Queens (24) Goals Against came at the hands of the Olive Pits who score (12) on them and single-handedly inflated Jake Brum’s Goals Against Average to 2.3 GAA

Goals Against

Drama Queens vs League – 1.5 GAA (8-Games – 12 GA)

Drama Queens vs Olive Pits – 4.0 GAA (3-Games – 12 GA)

Goals For

Drama Queens vs League – 4.25 GFA (8-Games – 34 GF)

Drama Queens vs Olive Pits – 1.0 GFA (3-Games – 3 GF)

Next up for the Drama Queens is Snow White and their new “Masked Defenseman”.., Statistically speaking Snow White has their work cut out for themselves as this mathematics shows Snow White losing either 4-1 or 5-2.

Insider Trading
With Olive Pits shutout over the Drama Queens… and Dave Parquette getting the #3 Star for his 2-goal performance, Dave now jumps into a tie for the top spot with Ray Nickerson.

(Wait) did we say Ray “Nickerson”… sorry we meant Ray Dow..., it’s just weird seeing Ray Dow’s name on the top of the overall leaderboard instead of the defenseman leader board.

With Dave scoring 2-goals last week and Ray pitching a perfect game (0-goals, 0-assists).., we’re left wondering if there is some insider trading (or collusion) between Jake Brum and Dave Parquette who ride together from the south shore.

Is Dave inquiring about Jake’s weak spots during the drive?  Is Jake placing his money on Dave to win the top scorer? Is Jake taking the moneyline on Olive Pits for a “Team Three-peat”?

Although there is no official investigation, the league is monitoring the situation to protect the integrity of the league.

Winning Way
Snow White Captain John Kelleher filled in for the shorthanded Olive Pits last week which he used as a recon mission to gain intelligence on how to beat the Drama Queens.

John was part of the Olive Pits 3rd straight win this season against their former championship rivals.

So what did John learn?

• You have to pressure their defense (a lot - and quickly)
• Shut down their top line of Ray Dow, Manny Nunes and Joe Carlton.
• SHOOT!! - Johnny scored a goal from the point.., so Jake is beatable. 
• Above all.., have fun and keep it positive because “Fun wins games and Championships!” 

Unsung Hero’s 
There has to be an award category for Alex Leone and Elder Lopez from Olive Pits as these two defenseman have been unsung hero’s in front of the goaltender Dave Giusti.

With Ed Nigro on sabbatical and Dave Costa on IR.., Alex and Elder are logging major minutes and playing some excellent hockey to anchor the Olive Pits defense with whichever forward drops back to defense that week.

Rumor has it that both Ed and Dave will be back for the first week in March after their BYE week.., for their final push and quest for the unprecedented “Team Three-peat” 

Magic Number
With the Jake-O-Lanterns blowing out Snow White last week.., playoff clinching has begun.

The most Snow White can get to is 16-points.., with makes 17-points a clincher (without tie breakers).  First up on the clinch list is Drama Queens with the league leading 17-points.

That means there are only (3) Golden Tickets still to find.

All Fogged Up
Last week during the 6:00 game of Drama Queens vs Olive Pits there was a guest referee to fill-in… and if you noticed there was ZERO penalties called.

We were left wondering… was it just that clean of a game?  Were the referee’s trying to get home for the Bruins vs Islanders… or was the real reason there was not calls is because of the typical “I didn’t see it” excuse.

Last week… it was a real case of “I didn’t see it”… because guest referee Bill Abcunas (literally) couldn’t see anything through his fogged up glasses.

Not once did we witness Bill wipe his glasses to get a clearer vision of the game… so this week we are starting a GoFundMe page to raise money to purchase our League Director the appropriate eyewear for those cold and foggy games