Over 30 Hockey League

Article 288 April 4, 2015

Game results and Player(s) of the Week

Week of March 28 (Game 1) – Coming into this game, the odds favored Legends Last Stand over That’s a Plus, as the previous games played, Legends last Stand won 6-1 and 6-4.  Legends Last Stand was comfortably in first place, playing exceptionally well all season and had a lot of depth on their roster.  That’s a Plus has been in a dogfight all season long with two other teams just trying to qualify for the playoffs, has had some key players missing due to injuries, and has been struggling to put a winning streak together.  So what happens, of course That’s a Plus defeated Legends Last Stand by the score of 4 – 1.

As in their previous game, That’s a Plus jumped out to an early two goal lead setting the pace to this game.  Bill Abcunas hustled his way into the offense from his defensive position, just missed walking in alone off a pass from Shawn Wyatt, tracked down the ball in the corner and surprised the goalie (who was expecting a pass) by throwing a shot on net that went in late in the first period.

Early in the second period, Dominic Defrancisco used his quickness and speed taking a pass from Tony Medeiros to score in close.  Needing a momentum swing, Legends Last Stand got it in the form of a power play with less than twenty seconds.  Matty Iannello made a highlight move from about twenty-five feet out as he had a wide open shot drawing all the defenders towards him, but passed up the shot to find a wide open Anthony Lauletta down below the right circle for a wide open net.  Matty’s heads up play totally faked everyone out, reinforcing his nickname The Great One.

In the third period, holding on to a one goal lead and control of this game, That’s a Plus got a break late in the game with perhaps the highlight save of the year.  With pressure by Legends last Stand and That’s a Plus scrambling, Matty found Ray Nickerson open on the left wing in the circle who was staring at a wide open net, only to watch goalie Bill Gardynski Sr dive across the crease and somehow block the shot.  Tony Medeiros’ power play goal with two minutes to play, set up by Dominic, followed by Jason Carrien’s empty net goal preserved the win.

Week of March 28 (Game 2) – With both Goodfellas and Who Needs Superstars fighting for that final playoff spot, both teams needed a win, especially with That’s a Plus already posting a win.  Goodfellas needed it more as they were heading into their bye week having only one more game to play.  The odds would not favor them if they did not win this game.  In a gut check game, Goodfellas defeated Who Needs Superstars by the score of 1 – 0.

After a scoreless first period with Who Needs Superstars carrying the edge in play, Goodfellas scored what would be the game’s only goal late in the second period as defenseman Mario Deluca scored on a bomb from the point off a pass from Rick Cassano to give his team the key goal.

With momentum on their side in the third period, Goodfellas played desperate hockey and was outworking Who Needs Superstars.  Their fore checking and running game was wearing down Who Need Superstars and their defense was smothering any offensive attack generated by their opponent.  Meanwhile, if it wasn’t for the superb play of goalie Alby Luise of Who Needs Superstars, Goodfellas should have scored a few more goals.  Goalie Bill Gardynski Jr did Alby one better in recording his first shutout of the season. 

Goodfellas can only scoreboard watch during their bye week while Who Needs Superstars faces That’s a Plus in a winner take all game that can go a long way to determining which teams advance to the playoffs. 

That’s a “Slash”?

Dan Broderick has more lifetime goals than lifetime penalties… and we all know that Dan doesn’t score a lot of goals.  So Old Man Broderick looked dazed and confused when he was called for a “Slashing” penalty.  Dan barely has enough arm strength to butter a piece of toast, never mind slash someone. 

Dan’s dismay for the penalty left him standing on the dek with a confused look… kinda like when he gets into his car and has to distinguish between the Gas and Brake pedals, so he doesn’t follow his fellow curb-jumping Senior Citizens who turn Seven-11’s into a drive through convenient store.

Before serving his 1-minute sentence in the Sin-Bin… Referee Jon Picard had to give Dan 10-fingers to help the Senior Offender into the penalty box… it was either Jon helped Dan in… or we stop the game and wait for Dan to walk around.

Blind-Sided

Former Patriot and left tackle Matt Light made a career out of protecting Tom Brady’s “Blind-Side”… but where was Matt Light to protect Matt Iannello?  It seems the “The Great One” was “Blind-Sided” by Steve Oppedisano.

If Matty doesn’t record 10-points in his last two games to break the 40-point season mark… we could look back at this and blame Steve for Matty’s post-concussion syndrome.

Cashing a check your mouth wrote?

We’ve seen “The Great One” Matty Iannello pull off some last minute heroics time and time again.  Most recently tying Dominic DeFrancisco in a point-for-point dual during the last game of the 2014 Winter season to win another scoring title. 

Before that it was a 10-point deficit he had against Dave Curcio… As Dave was about to run away with a scoring title, Matty miraculously posted 12-points in his last few games to stripped Dave of that title.

We’re not sure “The Great One” has another miracle up his sleeve.  Not that he needs one to win another scoring title.  With a 10-point lead over John Desmond for the 2015 Spring Leading Scorer.., the glass trophy has already been etched with Matty’s name in it and it’s just waiting to be presented in 2-weeks.  The miracle Matt needs is 10-points in two games to be able to cash the check his mouth wrote… when he declared that he was going to break 40-point this year.

A ½ second…

That ding you heard last week was not a ball hitting the post… but rather Ray Nickerson’s noggin ringing the pipe… which is still technically not a shot on net.

Ray’s dive attempt at an Anthony Lauletta down-low pass had Ray sliding head first into the goal post and seeking medical attention for a gash over his right eye.  While in the office getting some butterfly stitches… Ray blamed his mishap on Anthony saying “If he gave me that pass a ½ second sooner I wouldn’t have had to dive”

When Anthony Lauletta heard of Ray’s finger-pointing… Anthony exclaimed “F@&K that... if you were a ½ second faster... you wouldn’t have had to dive”

Italian Salute

Resident heckler Matty Iannello was witnessed yelling over the glass to Mario Deluca that he was the “Worse Defenseman in the League”.  That was just a mere 10-seconds before Rick Cassano won the face back to Mario who quickly buried what turned out to be the only (and game-winning) goal for Goodfella’s 1-0 win… all right in front of Matty-I.

On his way back to the bench Mario turned towards the Great One and gave him a good ole fashion Italian Salute… with a little sign language showing Matty that words meant nothing.

Dialed in?

We heard from a reliable source that Billy Gardynski Sr was per his quote “Dialed In”… for his game against Legends Last Stand.  The question is, was he “Dialing a wrong number”… or was the number he was dialing temporarily disconnected?

Nope, seems like he called 1-800-GET-A-WIN and played some of the best goaltending he had to offer this season.  In fact both Sr and Billy Gardynski Jr must have been both using the same pay phone to make their calls… because Jr posted his first shutout of the season and with the old man only letting one goal last Saturday it was the Gardynski’s two and the rest of the league zero.