Over 30 Hockey League

Week of April 1 (Game 1) – Coming off their best game of the season played last week, Shark Attack had reason to believe that they still controlled their destiny and could still qualify for the playoffs.  Yes, they would need help from other teams, but with 4 weeks to play, things could still work out.  And then everything came crashing down hard for Shark Attack, as once again they wasted a very strong start (again) to end up losing 6 – 3 to 11 Guys, 1 Ball.  Even with this loss, Shark Attack was still mathematically alive for qualifying for the playoffs.

Playing some of their best inspired hockey in the first period, Shark Attack completely smothered 11 Guys, 1 Ball, not letting Dominic and Tony get on track offensively while causing multiple defensive turnovers that led to an 11 – 2 shot advantage.  If not for the tremendous effort of goalie Scott Rosato keeping his team in it and not allowing a goal, Shark Attack could have been looking at a couple of goals lead.

In the second period, Shark Attack broke through as Joe Carlton scored halfway through the period patiently out-waiting the goalie at the top of the crease and roofing his goal.  Two minutes later, off a defensive turnover, Cooch scored on a bomb from just outside the white clearing line.  Momentum was clearly on the side of Shark Attack.  Needing some sort of spark, 11 Guys, 1 Ball got it with just over a minute to play as John Leite beat the defenseman who was pinching and scored down the left wing.  This was followed by Tony Medeiros throwing a shot from the top left circle that was deflected and somehow found the net tying up this game with less than thirty seconds to play in the period.

With new found momentum, 11 Guys, 1 Ball got their offensive legs going, scoring the next three goals.  At the six minute mark, Ray Dow’s slap shot from the right point was the back breaker that ignited this flurry.  Two minutes later saw Carlos Machado score from the high slot.  Twenty seconds later, Dominic scored from in close.  On the ensuing faceoff on a defensive giveaway, Captain Quint Jim Barber scored out front.  Shark Attack pressed but with Scott making the highlight save of the year and some late game penalties led to Dominic’s second goal of the game wrapping up the scoring.

Week of April 1 (Game 2) – With Shark Attack’s loss preceding them, all Sour Grapes needed to do was take care of its own business.  Angelo “Kato” Deluca made sure they didn’t wait that long and took care of business, in leading Sour grapes to a convincing 3 – 2 win over the Pylons.  This now sets up a must win game next week between Sour Grapes and Shark Attack for a winner take all ticket to the playoffs.

Leaving no doubt in the first period, Angelo scored twice late in the period, the first goal unassisted, the second goal set up by the hustle of Dave Costa.  In the process of scoring that first goal, Kato put an exclamation point on beating that Pink Stick Bag Challenge by scoring his sixth goal of the season.  Just for good measure Kato added another, turning to stare down his hecklers on the sideline in the Stadler & Waldorf luxury suite!  With less than a minute to play in the period, Tony Mastrocola followed that yellow brick road and banged home a rebound on the power play.

In the second period, Sour Grapes turned up the offense and running fore checking that paid off at the four minute mark when Gary Goodwin turned those stonehands to scorer’s hands converting a rebound, set up by Dave and Dan Broderick, giving his Sour Grapes team some breathing room and control of this game.

April Fools

Turns out there were many victims of last Saturday’s April Fool’s joke allegedly perpetrated by Lithuania Hackers.

Immediately following last week’s Sour Grapes narrow win over the Pylons, Shark Attack Captain Jim Barber was witnessed conceding the last playoff spot to Dan Broderick and Company.

Jim then delivered the bad news via text to his team… All of this erroneous news that was leaked via the Kremlin to a “Lone Wolf” Lithuania Operative whose code name is “Mr Dummass”

“Mr Dummass” coming off a loss to 10-Guys, 1-Ball didn’t do any fact checking and convinced Jim that their playoff hopes were over and sent the Captain to deliver the devastating news.

BOLO - Lithuania Hackers

If you know who the Lithuania Hackers are… you are encouraged to call the FBI and the Clinton Foundation as they are currently investigating Russian Hackers.

What to be on the lookout for;

Lithuania Hackers are similar to their cousin the Russian Hackers, except they have more freedom and their hockey skills are not quite up to Russian standards.., and they are notorious for drawing dumb penalties.

Lithuania Hackers typically take credit for other people’s work.

Lithuania Hackers are heavily influenced by the “stale” decisions of others “barely” associated with the league (instead) of trusting those closest to them with “fresh” new ideas that have kept the league exciting.

Lastly.., Lithuania Hackers hate kids and let cats make playoff predictions.

Gift Giving

Last week we witnessed two gift giving plays with opposite results.

First we witness Brien Sullivan in full panic mode try to fire the ball out of his defensive zone… except he experienced the result of the “Defensman’s Cardinal Sin” by passing the ball up the middle (and in front of his net) to a waiting opponent in Jim Barber who one-timed Brien’s “pass” and blasted Brien’s mistake past goalie Scotty Rosato.

Then just 2-minutes later we wondering what Bill Abcunas was doing at the Blue line??

Turns out… Billy had picked up the ball.., gift wrapped it.., tie a little bow on it.., and signed a little card that said “To: Joe Carlton, Congratulations on being wide open for an easy one-time goal… here comes the pass, Love Billy”

Unlike Jim’s gift from Brien… Joe opened the gift from Billy.., took out the gift receipt for “one free goal” and then misfired the pass into Scotty Rosato’s size 5 shoe.  Thus, extinguishing the Shark Attack comeback momentum for good.

That “hurts” them

While watching the Pylons lose to Sour Grapes.., the “always positive” crowd in the owners suite in the back corner was breaking down the game and discussing how missing a few key players was hurting orange.

Comments like; 

Why is Pat Pirone limping around hurt… the just “hurts” the team playing like that.

Not having Shawn Miville and Joe Mancinelli “hurts” them offensively.

Believe it or not… Not having Nick Romano and his 30-shots per game hurts them.

But the best comment came from an anonymous heckler who chimed in with… “Don’t forget having Mike Naczas on defense hurts them more”

Our Apologies

We blamed Dominic Defrancisco’s schooling or his lack of rose pedal planning when he spelled “WILL U MARRY ME” in roses on the bed.  We gave Dom grief for not using the  “Y” & “O”

Turns out… Dominic threw fellow Portuguese Power teammate Tony Medeiros under the bus saying that Tony was responsible for the rose pedals while Dom and Christine were out for a pre-proposal dinner.

Thanks to facebook we are now left to wonder if either Tony has a spelling problem because we found this grammatical error on a recent post… “These boys will be playing there championship game tomorrow morning!!”   Did you spot the error?

So was Dom’s proposal a grammatical error… Or… was Tony sending a subliminal message to Dom… by deliberately leaving the “Y” & “O” out of the proposal message.., because everyone knows you can’t spell “Tony” without the “Y” & “O” which could be interpreted to say that Dominic “U” are nothing without T”O”N”Y”

Clinching 4^th Place

There is only (1), ONE, Uno scenario left to play out this season for the final playoff spot.  There is no gray area… It’s Black & White, Cut & Dry and to the “Point”.  One point to be exact.

If.., Shark Attack wins their last 2-games of the season and Sour Grapes loses their last 3-games of the season… Shark Attack will advance to the playoffs.

If.., Sour Grapes wins or ties any of their last 3-games… they will advance to the playoffs.

Tonight’s bout @ 5:00PM of Shark Attack vs Sour Grapes could decide the 4^th playoff spot… or if could keep Shart Attacks hopes alive;

We reached out to former Shark Attack defenseman John Colucciello who had this to say;