Week of February 29 (Game 1) – In a key game affecting the league standings, Olive Pits rode a hot goalie in the first period, stopping everything thrown his way, and got timely scoring to defeat Snow White by a score of 3 – 1. With the win, Olive Pits moved into third place in the standings, closing the gap on Snow White just ahead of them.
As the first period played out, it became apparent that goalie Dave Giusti was the impact player of this game, as time after time he repeatedly denied any scoring chances by Snow White, stopping all eleven shots he faced. Taking advantage of that brick wall in net, Olive Pits broke through with the game’s first goal with thirty-three seconds to play in the period as Ron Aquino converted the passing of Alex Leone and Mauro Colucciello on a turnaround goal.
In the second period it was more of the same by Dave as he refused to allow any shots to get past him. In one sequence as he was lying on his back he stopped not one but two point blank shots looking like Gumby in the net! Two minutes into the period, Ron struck again, this time converting the rebounds of shots by Mike Luise and Dave Costa. Feeling the frustration of facing a hot goalie, Snow White needed something to get them back into this game. It came less than four minutes later as Jason Carrien was set up by Matt Farrell and beat the goalie on a slap shot. For Jason, who is futilely failing in that pink shirt/stick bag challenge, it was his 1st goal this season. After seven games played, 1 goal scored?
In the third period, Snow White kept generating shots trying to tie this game. The period went back and forth until with less than three minutes to play, Jim Barber was set up by Elder Lopes and found some long dormant magic in his Vulcan stick to round out the scoring.
Week of February 29 (Game 2) – In a de ja vu and back to the future moment, once again Jake-O-Lanterns played in another high scoring shootout game that ended with the exact identical score as the prior week. The big difference, it was Jake-O-Lanterns who came storming back from a multiple goal deficit to defeat the first place Shockwave for a 6 – 5 overtime win. The win snapped a five game losing streak by Jake-O-Lanterns, moving them into a tie for 3rd place in the standings. They were led on offense by Nick Doherty who played his best game since entering the league.
In the first period, it was all Shockwave as once again they were led by one of their supporting cast of players. Three and a half minutes into this game, Dominic Defrancisco set the tempo, scoring an unassisted goal. Four minutes later, Mike Roberto snapped a three scoring drought with a goal set up by Jason Glista and Dominic. That was followed a minute later by Mike scoring again on a delayed penalty unassisted. Not the best of starts by the Jake-O-Lantern team.
But a funny thing happened at the start of the second period. Carlos Machado stepped up and started leading this team. His actions and positive commentary was a game changing moment as Jake-O-Lanterns scored five unanswered goals. Less than thirty seconds in, Nick scored, set up by Todd Bryson and George Medeiros. This was followed by two goals scored fourteen seconds apart tying this game halfway through as Gino Tammaro was set up by Angelo Deluca and Steve Medeiros, followed by Nick set up by George and Todd. With just under two minutes in the period, George scored off the passing of Todd and Nick. With twelve seconds in the period, Nick scored his third goal set up by Carlos on the power play. Hats off to Carlos for his actions and leadership, it was an impact moment!
Stunned by this blitzkrieg offensive onslaught, Shockwave recovered four minutes into the third period as Mike completed his hat trick on the power play set up by Niko. With a minute and a half to play, the highlight goal of the year was scored by Dominic, set up by Jason, as he took two steps over the blue line near the benches and ripped a laser shot that took less than two seconds to go top corner far side past the surprised goalie. In a back and forth overtime period with Shockwave having the advantage, Nick was sent down the left wing by Steve on a breakaway taking advantage of some open space and scored two minutes in, emphatically ending the game and that losing streak!
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