Over 30 Hockey League

Article 282 February 21, 2015

Game results and Player(s) of the Week

Week of February 14 (Game 1) – To quote Rick Pitino here, former Boston Celtics head coach, “Larry Bird’s not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through the door, they’re going to be grey and old. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and going to improve. People don’t realize that.”  Last Saturday he was right, neither Larry Bird, Kevin McHale nor Robert Parish did walk through that door for Legends Last Stand; however, after spending more than a month on the IR with a lower body injury, Anthony Lauletta DID walk through that door and DID play, as Legends Last Stand defeated Goodfellas, in overtime, by a 4 – 3 score.

In a back and forth game where each team had momentum swings, this game was played like a playoff game.  In the first period, Angelo Deluca was set up out front by John Kelleher halfway in scoring the game’s opening goal.  On a power play, with less than two minutes to play in the period, John Colucciello tied this on some down low cycling by Mauro Colucciello and Niko Vramis.

At the start of the second period, Joe Mancinelli gave his team the lead again as he was set up on the wing by Angelo and Jamie Kehoe.  Halfway through the period, in a span of thirty seconds, Legends Last Stand grabbed the lead back as Matty Iannello first scored off a feed from Anthony and Ray Nickerson, then returned the favor to set up Anthony off a pass from Ray.

In the third period, Goodfellas pressured the defense and this paid off as Joe scored his second goal of the game with only three minutes to play.  In overtime, it was the Great One, scoring his second goal of the game to give his team a well-earned victory.

Week of February 14 (Game 2) – In a game that also was played in a playoff like atmosphere, FOURget About-it used a fortuitous bounce off the leg of Jim Barber and held on in overtime to record a 2 – 2 tie against That’s a Plus.

After a scoreless first period that saw FOURget About-it carry the play, That’s a Plus broke the scoreless deadlock early in the second period as John Leite was set up by Naz and Shawn Wyatt on a two-on-one breakout to bury his shot on the left wing to give That’s a Plus the game’s first goal.  With under two minutes to play in the period, Umberto Biancardi found himself in the perfect position to bang home a rebound of a Matt Reghitto point shot set up by Tony Mastrocola.  However, only thirty seconds later, Pat Pirone found himself uncovered at the front of the net taking pass from behind the net from Bill Abcunas off a Tony Medeiros pass to put his team back into the lead.

With momentum on their side at the start of the third period and outplaying FOURget About-it, it took a fortuitous bounce off the leg of Jim Barber off a turnaround slap shot by John Desmond from out near the point to get FOURget About-it back into this game.  Jim did absolutely nothing on this goal, the ball just hit him in the shin pad, otherwise, the shot would have gone into the corner missing the net by a good 10 feet!

The game headed to overtime where FOURget About-it took a few penalties only to survive due to the play of goalie Scott Rosato (who turned aside two partial breakaways and point blank chances from Tony Medeiros) to preserve the tie.  FOURget About-it had their chance with less than thirty seconds to play going on a power play but couldn’t generate any shots on net.  For That’s a Plus, they have now gone undefeated in four straight games.

WTF?

There are some things you have to accept when playing with Matty Iannello and Ray Nickerson… you are NOT going to get aggressive back-checking… Hell, you’re NOT going to get aggressive fore-checking either… what you are going to get are (2) 1,000 points Legends that know how to pass and shoot with the best of em’.

Legends Last Stand is playing some of their best hockey… they are 1st in Standings, 1^st in Goals For, 1^st in Goals Against and yet after a thrilling 4-3 the team has some internal woes.  Shouting, arguing and a broken stick later… WTF?

Portuguese Trick Play

That’s a Plus tried to take a trick play from the Patriots Play Book by declaring an eligible forward late. 

Dominic DeFrancisco tried to psych out FOURget About-it by showing up (while unofficially on IR) and pretending to be healthy… but Dominic had to resort to donning some pom-poms and cheering from the bench.

Then late in the game, Dominic tries to make a superhero like performance by coming off the bench for a power play…  FOURget About-it was not fooled or intimidated by 1/3 of the Portuguese Power trio hobbling around.  Nice try Dom, but get some rest and heel that undisclosed “lower leg” injury.

It Over!

Call it Bulletin Board material… Team inspiration or just fighting words.  Jim Barber let Bill Abcunas and the rest of That’s a Plus know via email before last week’s tilt… “Your streak ends today... It's over!!!” – Referring to the 2-game winning streak that Dan Broderick and company “were” on.  Bill immediately took to social media and emailed his team to (as Hans and Franz would say)… “Pump you up”

Jim had to explain his guarantee to the rest of FOURget About-it (pre-game) and thanks to a total team effort did not make Jim eat his words… their 2-game win streak was and is “Over!!!”.  They are now on an “unbeaten” streak… anyone wanna step up to the plate and declare that over as well this week?  Feel free to email Bill at misterman05@hotmail.com

Nice Try… FOUR-in-a-row

It seems the referees were trying to get some bonus money in their checks (and Girl Scout Cookies) from the League Director and Assistant League Director.

Conspiracy Theorist have weighed in and expressed their opinion that by giving FOURget About-it… FOURstraight Penalties late in the 3^rd and the first one in OT that the refs were in on “the fix” (or trying to). 

FOURget About-it had kill FOURandahalf minutes in the 3^rd period (almost half the period short-handed)… and when they were successful killing off those 4.5 minutes..., the refs gave That’s a Plus another chance with yet another minute penalty (90 seconds in OT) opportunity to win the game.

When it was all said and done… FOURget About-it (whose 2^nd in Goals Against) successfully killed off 6-minutes of shorthanded play and ended That’s a Plus’ winning streak.

When Pat Pirone draws (2) Penalties instead of getting them… and Big Mike Hollingsworth gets (2) Penalties in a game… in fact every defenseman on FOURget About-it took a turn in the “Sin Bin”… something needs to be investigated, I think I saw Jon Picard eating Girl Scout Cookies and sipping his overpriced expensive tea between periods.

Perfect Positional Hockey

Some (Billy) will call Jim Barber’s game tying goal a “fortuitous bounce”… That would be the case if Jim wasn’t playing perfect positional hockey.   Sure it deflected off his shin (without a distinct kicking motion)… but more importantly Jim was not playing table-top hockey as his critics attest. 

Jim was perfectly positioned in front of the net waiting for a pass or a rebound, and the hockey gods just decided that Jim had to do nothing except stand there and get credit for a goal he earned by playing heads-up hockey… then so be it.

The following forward players might want to consider playing “perfect positional hockey” a la Jim and wait for their own “fortuitous bounce” to finally light the lamp.