Week of December 5 (Game 1) – With Labatt Blues on their bye week, HABitual Complainers had the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the situation to clinch first place overall in the standings. With a spark right off the beginning from their second line, they did just that as they routed Broken Promises by the lopsided score of 7 – 3. HABitual Complainers used their running attacking fore checking game to perfection during this rout.
How quickly did HABitual Complainers make a statement in this game that Broken Promises had no chance? By scoring four goals in the first period as they quickly ran away with the momentum. This was mainly due to the play of the entire second line, taking the pressure of their big first line. Rookies Joe Carlton and Brian Kehoe each made a statement, scoring 2-goals apiece. In between this four goal explosion, John Colucciello jumped into the offense from the point to temporarily keep his team in this game.
In the second period, both teams matched each other for goals, with two apiece and Broken Promises made their push to get back into this game. Early in the period, Tony Medeiros scored to increase his team’s lead to five goals. However, late in the period, Broken Promises scored back-to-back goals in thirty seconds to pull within two goals and grab the momentum. But it would not last as Tony countered and grabbed the momentum back for his team, scoring an unassisted goal down the left wing with only eight seconds to play in the period. The goal deflated Broken Promises ending any thoughts of a comeback.
All that was left to do was play out the third period for HABitual Complainers as Jason Carrien scored halfway through the period to account for the final score. As previously mentioned, it was the second line of HABitual Complainers that led the offense with Joe Carlton scoring 2-goals, Brian Kehoe scoring 2-goals and 1-assist and captain Jim “Let’s have some fun out there” Barber recording 4-assists.
Week of December 5 (Game 2) – In the showcase game of the season, a winner take all game between Island of Misfit Toys and Consigliere, the winner advances to the playoffs while the loser of this game waits for the spring season to start. Missing three players did not factor into the outcome for Island of Misfit Toys as they received their offense from a surprising source and pulled out a huge 5 – 3 victory over Consigliere to clinch the fourth and final playoff seed.
In the first period, Island of Misfit Toys got the start they were looking for early as Ray Nickerson was set up on the left wing, scoring only twenty-one seconds into this game. Sticking with their game plan paid off for Consigliere as an open Mike Hollingsworth on the point scored off a slap shot to tie the game.
In the second period, this is where island of Misfit Toys grabbed the momentum and took control of this game, scoring three goals. For Island of Misfit Toys, Sergio Costa scored a natural hat trick in the period, coming out of nowhere to lead the offense for his team (where has this been the entire season?). It was the Sergio show as he ran wild on Consigliere and they simply had no answer to the question “what ya gonna do when Sergio Costa runs wild on you?”
Down two goals entering the third period, Consigliere needed to find their running game that had been missing the entire game. Unfortunately, some bad penalties late in the period did not help their cause. Gino Tammaro scored with just over two minutes to play but some bad time management and personnel decisions in crunch time allowed Matty Iannello to score into an open and seal Consigliere’s fate.
