| The "Double Stuffed Turkey" Edition |
Article 458 - November 27, 2021
Game Results and Player(s) of the Week
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| Week #13 & Week #14 (Doubleheader Weekend) |
| Saturday Week #13 (11-20-21) |
| 4:30 - ReUnited vs Top Secret |
Week of November 20 (Game 1) – Needing a win to keep their playoff moving up the standings hopes alive, ReUnited handily won a convincing win over Top Secret by the lopsided score of 5 – 0. Three goals scored in the first period set the tempo of this game, as Top Secret never countered. With the win, ReUnited moved into a tie for fifth place.
For goalie Scott Rosato, who stopped all 25 shots thrown his way, he became the first goalie this season to post two shutouts. Scott was solid in net, making the initial saves while his defense cleared away the rebounds.
Matty Iannello had a statement game in his comeback season of scoring and playmaking. He factored in on every goal his team scored, with 1-goal and 4-assists. It was a vintage Matty I performance all game, controlling the ball and setting up open team mates.
Benefitting from Matty’s unsurpassed passing ability was Rich Pelletier, who scored 2-goals and added 2-assists.
As always there was Ray Nickerson setting up in his office in the left faceoff circle, scoring 1-goal and adding 1-assist.
Also keeping the spotlight on himself, saw Derrick Power, score a goal in three straight games.
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| #1 Star Matt Iannello |
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| #2 Star Scott Rosato |
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| #3 Star Ray Nickerson |
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| 5:30 - Gold Miners vs Loose Cannons |
Week of November 20 (Game 2) – Once again playing to their strength of being the league’s most consistent team, Loose Cannons overcame an early deficit, then scored with only minutes to play, putting a dagger into the heart of the Gold Miners, winning 3 – 2, in a key game for both teams.
Five minutes into the first period, on a great heads up move and set up by veteran Mike Luise behind the net freezing the defense, Joe Carlton slammed home the sweet pass for the game’s first goal. However, a minute later saw Jason Carrien answer right back on a bomb from the point.
In the second period, Nick Doherty scored the first of his two goals, three minutes into the period, set up by Don Maccini. Gold Miners flipped the script on Loose Cannons, a minute later, as Cappy was set up by Mike and Mauro Colucciello, retying this game.
Three minutes into the second period saw Loose Cannons lose goalie Jake Deehan with a lower body injury, replaced by fill in Tim Hickey. Jake’s injury had him unable to put a lot of weight on his leg and could have implications heading into the playoffs.
With the game up for grabs, with less than three minutes to play, Nick scored the game winning goal off a set up pass by Jason, earning his team a hard won two points, keeping them in first place.
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| #1 Star Nick Doherty |
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| #2 Star Joe Carlton |
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| #3 Star Jason Carrien |
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| 6:30 - Last Call vs Omerta |
Week of November 20 (Game 3) – In a battle to titans, and two of the league’s top teams, Omerta scored three straight goals late in the game to pull away from Last Call, with a decisive victory by the score of 7 – 4, into a tie for second place overall.
In a back-and-forth opening period, Last Call jumped out to a two-goal lead in a minute and a half led by John Carey’s heads up play and goal, followed by Gino Tammaro using his speed to break free and beating the goalie from the wing. Unfazed, Omerta came right back, scoring their own two goals thirty seconds later, led by Manny Nunes and Paul Sequeira. The first period was an opening statement by each team that whatever they did would be matched by the other team.
Fittingly in the second period, we saw a smaller version of what happened in the first, happen again. Once again, Last Call scored first, on Garvin Chan’s goal, that was followed up by a hard-working key first of three goals by Pedro Fontes with only four seconds to play in the period.
In the third period, we saw the depth and scoring balance stand out by Omerta as they scored four goals in the period, including a killer power play go ahead goal. After Paul scored again less than a minute into the period, Gino answered right back a minute later tying this game. Pedro, on the power play, scored a huge unassisted goal that took the wind out of Last Call’s sails halfway through the period. Both Paul and Pedro scored again completing their hat tricks for an impressive win.
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| #1 Star Paul Sequeira |
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| #2 Pedro Fontes |
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| #3 Star Gino Tammaro |
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| Sunday Week #14 (11-21-21) |
| 5:00 - Loose Cannons vs Omerta |
Week of November 21 (Game 1) – After defeating the team in second place the previous night, Omerta pulled off the daily double and knocked off the first-place team, to jump into first place and control their playoff destiny and seeding. Using the same winning formula from the previous night, Omerta, tied heading into the third period, scored three straight unanswered goals to pull ahead, winning by the score of 5 – 2.
Manny Nunes led the way, especially when it mattered in clutch time, scoring a huge insurance goal and adding 3-assists (two late in the third period). Manny’s points production helped him maintain his lead and even extend it in the leading scorer’s race.
Old man Nick Romano, playing like a youngster riding the wing of his younger line mates, had an impressive game, scoring 2-goals, including the key game winner with less than three minutes to play, while also setting up a goal.
Pic set the tempo for his team, scoring the game’s first goal only thirty-eight seconds into this game on a shot from the left point. Out on IR for most of this season, it was Pic’s first goal of the season.
After rolling his ankle in the second period early, John Kelleher returned in the third period to score a momentum inspiring huge goal for his team, getting them back into this game. Nick Doherty kept his goal scoring streak alive at three games.
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| #1 Star Nick Romano |
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| #2 Star Manny Nunes |
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| #3 Star Pedro Fontes |
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| 6:00 - ReUnited vs Gold Miners |
Week of November 21 (Game 2) – In a showdown of two teams sitting in fifth place in the standings, the winner would own the tiebreaking edge over their opponent to remain in fifth place heading into the playoffs. In a wild opening period that saw a total of 9 GOALS scored, in a shootout, Gold Miners outlasted ReUnited by the ridiculous score of 8 – 7. This should NEVER happen in the Over-30 league but it did!
Eleven different players scored at least one goal in this shootout. Shooter tutors would have been a better option for each team, as it seemed like every shot thrown on net was an adventure and had a good chance of going in. Call it Hockey Gods divine intervention, at around the five-minute mark of the second period, goalie Dave Medeiros got seriously hurt with a lower body injury which seemed to actually settle this game down.
After Joe Carlton tied this game with just over three minutes to play, Dominic Defrancisco scored the game winner fifteen seconds later, gathering the rebound in the top left faceoff circle and turning to roof a perfectly place shot top far corner for the game winner.
For the record, leading point scorers in this game were Dominic 2-2-4, Tony Medeiros 1-3-4, Matty Iannello 3-0-3, Mike Luise 2-1-3, Rich Pelletier 1-2-3, Mike Surette 1-2-3, Shawn Wyatt 1-2-3, Ray Nickerson 0-3-3, Mike Duggan 1-1-2 and Gary Goodwin 0-2-2.
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| #1 Star Dominic DeFrancisco |
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| #2 Star Tony Medeiros |
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| #3 Star Matty Iannello |
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| 7:00 - Top Secret vs Last Call |
Week of November 21 (Game 3) – With Loose Cannons losing their earlier game, Last Call was looking to rebound from a tough lose the previous night, to move into a three-way tie for first place in the standings. Scoring early in the game then scoring the game winning goal late in the game was the difference as Last Call pulled out a close 4 – 3 win over Top Secret.
Standing out in this game was the production of the Paisano line for Last Call. Doing what they have done all season long, carrying this team, the Italian Connection did it again.
Gino Tammaro scored 1-goal and added 2-assists while remaining in third place overall in the leading scorer’s race. Angelo De Luca scored 1-goal and added 1-assist, scoring 8-goals in his last six games. Rick Cassano also scored
1-goal and added 2-assists while joining his linemates with at least 20 points.
Jamie Kehoe having an impressive productive scoring season on defense, individually kept his team into this game, scoring 2-goals, each time tying up a one goal deficit.
Top Secret has been freefalling in their last six games before the playoffs, going 1 – 5 during that stretch. This is mainly due to the consistent lack of bodies each game as well as missing their top leading scorer at different times.
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| #1 Star Jamie Kehoe |
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| #2 Star Angelo De Luca |
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| #3 Star Steve Medeiros |
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Thanksgiving Thanks
As we sit around our tables eating turkey and waiting to watch the yearly tradition of Detriot Lions losing on Thanksgiving… we thought of a few players who have a little extra to be thankful for;
Angelo De Luca, Rick Cassano and Gino Tammaro are thankful that their constant begging to be reunited on a team has finally happened as they find themselves battling for first place.
Joe Shannon is thankful that Alex Leone stared the season on IR… which gave Joe enough time to prove that he is still a viable and productive player.., who wants his goals counted towards getting his title back. His teammate Doug Sedille is also thankful that he didn’t throw away his old hockey gear and is back enjoying the comradery that is “Old Time Hockey”
John Kelleher is double thankful this season as he not only was the fastest player to beat the Pink Stick Bag Challenge…and the league finally gave him a competitive team that he has a legit shot at winning a championship with.
The Gold Miners are thankful for #PaulStong.., but need a kick in the ass from Paul Correia himself for the playoffs. Their best game of the season was the Week #2 shutout win with Paul in attendance.
Jim Barber is thankful that he has Matty Iannello to publicly declare that he’s really in charge and running the team and thus taking the blame for their last place finish.
Ray Dow is thankful that the League entrusted him to hold a burning saint card in his hand to become a “made man” in the Over-30 League.., and even more thankful that Jon Picard talked Bill Abcunas into signing Paul Sequeira to a two season deal with Omerta.
Portugal is thankful that Manny Nunes, Paul Sequeira and George Medeiros did their country proud by defeating that Covid-riddled shutdown country of Italy… (Oh wait), sorry it’s not over.., there is still one more regular season game left to play. We'll call it just a formality.., but just in case you want to win a few deserts for the holiday.., Encore odds are (100) Pastéis de Nata to (1) Cannoli.., that Portugal holds on to the lead.
Bill Abncunas is thankful for making it to the 30th Anniversary Season and for all the players (and staff) who have dedicated themselves to the league. The first half of the season(s) of "wow" was a complete success (less the screwups).., but all-in-all it was a great season reflecting on our history and the honored guests that took the time to join us for the cerimonial faceoff photos.
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Shoutout
Congratulations Derek Power on your 3-game scoring streak.., to bad it had to come to an end. Your team went 2-1 while you were on your streak. The one loss came when you had 11-players (first time ever – all season) which makes ReUnited 0-1 with a full team.
Other ReUnited news; the last place team has gone 4-3-1 (on the back 9) and playing their best hockey going into the playoffs. Rob Valley is finally getting his mojo back after a long hiatus and playing like a true #1 drafted defenseman. Mike Surette continues to score weird goals.., and Mike Duggan with just (2-goals & 4-assits) promises he’ll show up when it counts (in the playoffs!)
Shutout
Scotty Rosato posted his second (and league leading) shutout of the season when he blanked Top Secret 5-0.., unfortunately he followed up that performance the very next day with a real stinker during an 8-7 loss to fellow basement dwellers the Gold Miners.
Shootout
As for mentioned Scotty Rosato coming off a shutout performance went head-to-head with Gold Miners (fill-in) goaltender Dave Medeiros in a good ole’ fashion Texas shootout with 68-shoots and 15-goals. Timekeeper Ray Dow was just 3-goals away from having to flip the scoring sheet over to continue with the goals and assists recording on the back.
Between Scotty and Dave they gave up 9-goals on 21-shots in just the 1st period alone.., which means if you were lucky enough to shoot almost every other shot would have went in.
The scoring was so frequent that during the last 3-minutes and 30-seconds it was like a Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve Countdown on the scoring sheet;
3:30…2:20…1:58…1:47…1:14…1:04…0:34… “Happy Shootout!!!”
After ReUnited took the lead 7-6 midway through the second, Dave Medeiros had sudden case of PTSD and was replaced by Sean Roach who had to “fill-in for the fill-in”… and he quickly shut ReUnited and their momentum down as the Gold Miners scored two late goals for the win.
Sorry Sean.., even though you “technically” shutout ReUnited during your period and a half of “filling-in for the fill-in”.., (and got the win) we can’t award you the shutout. But, you have one week left of the regular season to try and join the not so exclusive club.
Loosing Cannons?
Since the turn onto the back nine.., the once dominating Loose Cannons have found themselves loosing 4 out of their last 6 games. Thankfully they sprinted out of the starting block with a 6-1 start and the main reason they are still tied for 1st place.
However the bad news continues for Captain John Kelleher as his once league-leading goaltender Jake Deehan was pulled during the Week #13 3-2 win over Gold Miners. Replacement goalie Tim Hickey was on standby and came out of the Scoreboards Bullpen to preserve the win for Jake.., but sadly Jake was placed on indefinite IR shortly after the win.
Joe “Guido” Conray is being tapped to take the reins for the last game of the season and into the playoffs. We believe Joe is 2-0 on the season with a 2.00 GAA. Loose Cannons with have (1) practice game with Joe.., unfortunately for Joe is this game comes with a lot of pressure as they are playing for 1st place and the first round BYE.
The Finish Line
This is it… last week of the season.., the runners are turning left onto to Boylston and heading to the finish line and not a Kenyan in site.
Portugal’s Manny Nunes is the front runner with a 4-point lead over Matty Iannello.., but we’ve seen “The Great One” in this predicament before and he managed to pull it off during the last game of the season. However for him to accomplish this (again).., Manny would have to miss the last week of the season for Matty to even have a chance.
Player Union Boss (wannabe) Jason Carrien has a slim 3-point lead over Jamie Kehoe.., but a temper tantrum last week from the youngster earned himself a “timeout” and is not eligible to play in the last game of the season.., and Jamie had 2-goals last week.., can Jamie put up 3 or even 4 points this week and steal the Defensive scoring race?
Last but not least.., Dave “Bad Bounce” Guisti has a 0.25 GAA lead over Sandra Glista, but Dave is almost a shoe in with the edge being that Dave has played in all 15-games and his team is tied for first place.., so go ahead and take the pictures of your family off the mantel to make room for another “Best Goalie Award”.
Easy Road
Do you remember when Bill Abcunas would wait till the last few weeks of the season to see which team he would join for the playoffs?
Well Jon Picard took a page from Bill’s book “The easy road to the playoffs”… as “Pic” decided that his team looked pretty good after all and has blessed them with his return.
Originally we thought Jon was holding out for a bigger contract or demanding a trade.., but his “No Trade and No Referee" clause was preventing him from being moved to another team that was a little less “Portuguese” and little more “Shalom”.
But after weeks of watching Omerta win without him.., it was time for him to return and start bossing players around again.
Chance
Looks like the referees missed another opportunity to ring a player up for slamming his stick. Two weeks ago during their loss Todd Bryson was observed slamming his stick and neither Referee called him out on it.
Our investigating team looked into this and found out that Todd has the Referee’s in his pocket. Last week we noticed Assistant League Director and Referee Mike Naczas taking a bride in the form of a 30th Anniversary pullover from Todd.
After the game was over and Todd was not rung up from “Unsportsmanlike Conduct”.., we observed Todd handing something to Head Referee Ric Aylwin (who also has a 30th Anniversary pullover from Todd).., and managed to snap a picture of the transaction.
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Eviction Notice
Newly Elected Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has the task of evicting those undesirables that are occupying Mass and Cask Avenue. Player Union Boss (wannabe) Jason Carrien has met with Mayor Wu to express his concerns about another squatter that needs to be evicted.
Jason’s campaign office has always been at the intersection of the South Stairs and the corner of the rink (the little triangle, as he calls it)… Right where the Pisano’s set up shop and commandeered the south side bakery.
Recently Gold Miners forward Joe Carlton has been “Occupying Hockeytown” in Jason’s un-deeded locker room and he wants Mayor Wu to send Joe a “Cease and Desist” letter preventing Joe from squatting in his spot.
Forca
Going into the last week Portugal extended their lead over Italy by another point (77-70) with Manny Nunes leading the way with his 35-points.
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| Gino Tammaro (29), Rick Cassano (21) Angelo De Luca (20) |
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| Manny Nunes (35) Paul Sequeira (23), George Medeiros (19) |
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Although we can’t see his face… we’re pretty sure former Over-30 player and fellow countryman Mike Travassos was in the crowd last week cheering during the 6:30 game between Last Call vs Omerta.
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If it…
If it.., walks like a duck.., quacks like a duck.., and folds like a chair.., then it must be the current league leading (and defending) Leading Scorer Manny Nunes.
Manny has been overheard telling several people that his three-pete for a scoring title is in jeopardy as he is potentially facing surgery on his flipper after this season.
It never occurred to us until Manny said it… “Why do you think I run like a duck?”
If Manny has reconstructive flipper surgery then Pedro Fontes will be called up from Triple A to take Manny’s roster spot in Portugal vs Italy (Part 2 – The Spring Season)
If Manny doesn’t need surgery then the Italians have vowed to replace Ron Aquino and sign Jeff Gillooly to Last Call’s spring roster.., that is unless Ron knows his way around with a nightstick and isn’t afraid to do a favor for “la familia”.
The Low Road
“O ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ye”.
Taking the low road to Scotland means winning (2) playoff games if your Scottish.., and if you’re lucky enough to be one of the (3) teams looking to take the low and faster road.., this is your last chance.
Omerta, Last Call and Loose Cannons… one of those two teams is going to have to take the high road and play a 3rd playoff game to win the championship. The other two teams will take a detour to the low road with a Week #16 BYE.
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Playoff Picture
With no team mathematically eliminated the playoff picture is still a bit blurry.., but we’ll try and sort it out for you.
4:30 Omerta vs ReUnited
If… Omerta wins they clinch the top spot and a Week #16 BYE for the first round of the playoffs.
If… ReUnited can pull off an upset they will still finish in the basement.., but an Omerta will have to watch the 5:30 game and pray that there is no tie between Last Call vs Loose Cannons.
5:30 Last Call vs Loose Cannons.
If… Omerta loses.., and the 5:30 game ends in a tie… Omerta will drop to 3rd as Last Call and Loose Cannons will both earn a point and a first round BYE.
If… Omerta wins and there is a winner of the 5:30 game… that winning team will finish 2nd and earn the second BYE spot
6:30 Top Secret vs Gold Miners
If... ReUnited wins and Top Secret loses… they we could be looking at the tie breakers for to see who finishes in last and faces the 3rd seed.
If… Top Secret wins then they would play the Gold Miners (again) in the first round and ReUnited would play the the 3rd seed.
Signing off
As always.., this is the time of the season where we shut down the trash talk and let the games speak for themselves.
As the season(s) of “wow” continues into the Spring 2022 Season we look forward to new Honored Guests, more League screw-ups and a fresh start for those teams (and players) who struggled this past season.
So until then…
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