Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Live or Memorex?

Is it live or is it memorex? Of course that reference is probably lost on kids these days with the advent of flash drives and iPods, but just the same, it was nice to hear Amanda's voice belting out the anthem to set the mood for another saturday matinee (11-Dec) at the shore, this time with Webster Schro-der. Funny, i thought Schro-der was a Charles Shultz character. Clearly, the section five announcers are hooked on phonics.

Seeing less than optimal chemistry in the first two outings Webby shook things up with a fresh look up front (24-9-6)(18-14-19)(21-36-15). Thunder capitalized early on the powerplay when senior captain Michael Briganti slid one by Beyo 1-hole from the top of the umbrella, assisted by Justin Simonelli and Anthony Crawford. At the other end of the rink Briganti slammed the door in Webster's face with a huge block taking away the attack lane to keep them at bay, but before the end of the period someone missed an assignment leaving Jordan Antetomaso alone in the high slot where he would rally with a shot that went post and in, assisted by Joe Schuler. McNeil hit a post but no goal. Shots were 9-6 in Thunder's favor. As Webby proceeded to give his team a bit of a tongue lashing at the period break for a lackluster first frame, one could see heads starting to bob to the musical stylings of Neil Diamond with Sweeeeet Car-o-line....good times never seemed so good... lightening things up. Even the stripes were getting into it.

Thunder let no moss grow on the rolling stones in the second as they converted at the 14.11 mark, on the PP once again. It was Tyler Grimshaw who would light the lamp 4-hole post and in this time, assisted by AC and Simmy. Shortly thereafter Thunder found themselves on the short end of a 5 on 3 situation. Joe Vyverberg showed his mettle gutting it out on the biggest kill of the game with a nice step-up on his check and several clears to neutralize Webster's attack. Midway through the period and back at even strength Webster pulled a bingo play out of their LAX bag as Nathan Schuler fed Trevor Heckathorn in the high slot coming off the bench and Heckathorn ripped a shot that hit Cumming's stacked pads but continued up over and in to tie it at 2's. Shane Callahan picked up the second helper on the Webster goal.

Now most of you are probably familiar with what a "Harry" is, right? Well, except for maybe Ron Sherry who had to have his wife explain it to him, ha! For the uninitiated, it is a badge of honor, courage, and a little stupidity, when you put your body in a shooting lane to block a shot with your shins or your chest or your neck or your purse or your face, basically whatever it takes. The term originated back in the 70's when Harry Shaw made a living blocking shots for the Rochester Amerks. One night he took a puck in the face (remember no helmets back then) and returned after the intermission all stitched up to finish the game. In addition to the Harry Shaw society, there is another camp that we don't usually speak of - the Flamingos. Now as a hockey player you don't want to be affiliated with that group, because the term Flamingo in hockey refers to when a defending player is in a shooting lane and lifts one leg to let the puck pass through so as to avoid being hit by the puck. If you find the urge to do this you must resist and then get yourself to the nearest 12-step program.

Here's something else you can't do (just ask Sam Mordenga) - you can't fire the puck after the whistle. Webster's Callahan learned this the hard way when he took a shot seconds after the play was whistled down when he was about 10 feet offsides. Off to the sin bin you go for unsportsmanlike conduct. Who knew Ganti could jump, but when the biscuit went airborne near Webster's blue line he lifted off and dang near gloved it ten feet up in an attempted keep. Webster forged ahead with a pair of goals at the end of the second to put Thunder on their heels as Jesse Caulkins hit the mark at 1.26 assisted by Antetomaso and Callahan then Conlan Keenan finished at 0.25 assisted by Callahan as well. OOOh to be a fly on the wall in the Thunder dressing room for this intermission break!

In his Freshman year, Anthony "AC" Crawford's specialty was going top shelf with authority but he had no assists. This year he has gotten his playmaker on with 7 assists through 8 and a half periods, but wait, hold the phone, this just in... AC sniped the 3-hole with a laser that had eyes, at the 6.12 mark on the powerplay, assisted by Simmy and Ganti, for his first goal of the season. A buck and a half later Simmy got his own... rebound that is... as he beat Beyo stick side for the equalizer, assisted by Eric Hostetter and Mike McNeil, to force OT.

The extra period was intense as intense chocolate milk with 4 on 4 play at the outset. eHots went in 1 on 0 with a breakaway bid that could have sealed the deal but it was simply not meant to be. Thunder took a T.O. with 14 seconds remaining and tried drawing it up with a 4v3 advantage, but it was to no avail as the horn sounded before they got set up and the game ended a 4-4 tie. Thunder outshot Webster by a narrow margin of 26-23 with Ian Cumming making 19 saves for Thunder and Brandon Beyo stopping 22 for Webster.

First Star of the game goes to Justin Simonelli with 4pts (1G-3A) and the GTG. Second Star goes to Anthony Crawford with 3pts (1G-2A). Third Star goes to Michael Briganti with 2pts (1G-1A) and an all around great performance. Ganti did what a captain has to do playing big in all 3 zones, covering for his teammates, and leaving it all out there on the ice. Ian McLellan and Pat Crowe made an appearance on D as did Brandon Hutchison at forward.

Ran into former Thunder Assistant Captain David Russell lurking around the tunnel after the game and when asked for his thoughts D-Russ offered the following: "very Thunderesque gutting it out and hoping for a bounce". Could have used a bounce but oh well, we still got out of the game with a point. All in all it was a great comeback that gave the fans their money's worth. With this tie Thunder's record is now 1-0-1-1.

Monday, December 20, 2010

JV Thunder Saves the Day

After witnessing the varsity Thunder drop their first matinee of the season on 4-Dec to Churchville with only one second remaining in OT, we packed up the vyver-van and headed south to MCC to watch Snake's brother Worm drop a snowman (8-0) on the Bud Bakewell Bruins. This of course restored a little hope that all was well in our hockey world, but somehow that Thunder loss was still sitting squarely in our craw. And so, we took our chances venturing back down to the shore later that evening to catch our first glimpse of the JV Thunder squad in action, as they faced off against Webster for a 7pm tilt.

Webster drew first blood tallying at the 11 min mark and again at the seven min mark for an early 2-0 lead. As time was ticking down in opening frame, I found myself scratching my head thinking, wait a minute, this does not look like the JV Thunder team that Wader told me had steamrolled their first two opponents coming into tonites game. Enter Codey Mazeau with a brilliant setup for Brandon Hutchison on the backdoor who would finish upstairs to instantly cut his team's deficit in half with just 8 seconds to go in the period.

Webster pushed ahead with another marker late in the second, but it was all Thunder in the third as Guyett found himself on the doorstep five minutes into the final frame and would simply not take no for an answer. He kept pounding away and managed to jam it home to help Thunder draw near at 3-2. Fast forward to the final minute of play and I was most defintely rewarded for making the pilgrimage back to the shore as I witnessed a hail mary photo finish as some unsung Thunder hero bumped the puck out to Hutchison who would lug the mail into webster territory and dish it to wingman Mazeau for the textbook 2 on 1 conversion and GTG with get this... 8 seconds to go in the contest. I usually consider a tie to be like kissing your sister, but an exciting eleventh hour tie like that feels like a win any day in the Thunder dressing room and most likey stung like a loss for Webster.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Battle of Pearl Harbor

Seven come eleven has it really been a week and a half that this report has been marinating? What can I say but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Twas not the official STORM game but rather the first meeting of this young season with our biggest rivalry, the Greece Arcadia/Olympia Lightning, on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Tell you what, I'll put our assistant coaches up against their assistant coaches any day - if you happened to see the Lightning's display case at the shore the nite of the game, then you know what I mean.

OK so Amanda was back for an encore but apparently someone in the office did not get the Section V memo about holding all announcements during the anthem... and the rocket's red glare... paula, line 4 please... in air... It was Miller time with a Dan, Karen and Michael sighting in the stands, and Dan was so pleased to see that Marty did not make the game for he then figured he just might have a shot at winning the 50/50. Much to Dan's chagrin, Marty appeared out of no-where midway through the first frame and Dan quickly realized his chances of winning had now vanished.

Ian Cumming got the nod in the nets for the Thunder and turned away 16 of the 17 shots he faced to backstop a 3-1 victory over the Lightning for Thunder's first win of the year. Lightning seemingly took a page out of Hilton's playbook with a half dozen icings in the first frame alone. Keenan Mahoney was working hard at both ends of the rink taking the body with a pair of nice hits. Thunder clearly outmatched the depleted Lightning lineup but it was not until the 225 mark that they would get their first goal. It was Mike McNeil swarming the net and picking up the trash on the powerplay assisted by Anthony Crawford and Jared Tam-Grimshaw. Witnessed a contact to the head holding penalty - never heard of that one before and i'm a ref - perhaps I was sleeping during that part of the seminar?

Lightning would counter ten minutes into the second stanza when Joe Lombardo joined the rush and put away the rebound from a shot by Kevin Forney, assisted by Caleb Spall. It was as if confetti was falling from the rafters after they scored in disbelief. There was much rejoicing in the Lightning camp, but it was short-lived as McSkillet went hard to the net 3 minutes later and buried a feed from eHots, only to find out that the net was off. I hate when that happens. A minute later Thunder found themselves back on the powerplay and this time it was Jared putting away the rebound off the wing shot by AC130, 2-1 Thunder. There were ten pens in the second period so very little even strength play and very little flow.

Andy Sherry logged a "harry" in the third and then Curran O'Brien beat Higgins short side with a one-timer fed by AC on the half-wall. It was the Andies Candies goal of the game - pretty sweet!

I'm usually a glass half-full kinda guy and tend to look on the bright side of life and I know most people say a win's a win but, as odd as it may sound, for me this was sort of a disappointing win because I know Thunder can do better. We played down to the opponent's level and there was way too much ME and not enough WE out there. The good news is we got the W and I am confident that we will figure out how to play as a team going forward.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Attitude is Everything

The Greece Athena/Odyssey Thunder Varsity Hockey Team opened their season on Saturday against Churchville Chili and after coming up short seven times prior and only ever once tying the Thunder, it was the Saints who finally went marching home with a victory this time. Not just any victory, but one that folks in both camps will remember for years to come. Thunder seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as they stood and watched Tyler MacMillan (#6 for Churchville) walk out of the corner unmolested and roof a backhander to complete his hat-trick with one second remaining in overtime. Despite dominating play for the majority of the contest and outshooting the Saints 43-19, Thunder just could not get it done. They must rededicate themselves to team defense or it will be a long season. I offer them this:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, grittiness or skill. It will make or break a company...a culture...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes." (UNH Hockey, c/o Pat Wade)

Alrighty then, let's assume losing to Churchville for the first time in program history is the 10% and the rest of the season represents how the Thundermen react to it. Any predictions on how the 90% will turn out? Will they wallow in pity and let one player from the opposition determine their destiny again, or will they come back with a renewed resolve, to never let this happen again? My money would be on the latter, but the district tends to frown on people wagering on HS sports.

After years of mispronouncing Josh Salter by calling him "Slater", among other bungles, the Section V announcer clearly outdid himself for this game, coming out with "Dial-In" Niewiemski, who happens to be the Junior Netminder for Churchville who ate 41 of the 43 biscuits he was served. It was not all bad though, at least they updated the warm-up soundtrack with a little Kesha, Eminem and of course Thunderstruck, well that just goes without sayin! Just in from the AMAs, our very own Amanda Sherry did the anthem honors. Her voice is like a fine wine, it just keeps getting better with time. And in case there was any doubt about how to conduct oneself at a Section V contest, we were reminded that there were no horns, drums, cowbells, or etcetera allowed in the stands. Now I was a band geek back in the day, a percussionist to be more precise, but I do not recall ever hearing about the "etcetera" section. OK, that was pretty lame, I admit. Time to move on.

First period was scoreless and featured just a couple of things: (1) Grims stepped up on #16 at neutral and then finished him off on the half-wall later on in his shift and (2) there was a fashionably late arrival by LS and JR at the 12:50 mark, yeah thunDerrr! KC strolled in at the 11:30 mark in the second, but the Keoughs were there right from the get go. Nice to see the alumni support peops!

MacMillan got his first for Churchville off a 2 on 1 break assisted by Sam Cammilleri and Shawn Easton just as the Thunder PP expired five mins into the second stanza. Grims delivered another nice hit to knock his check off the puck in our end in the interim, and then a few minutes later he converted on a nifty half-wall to half-wall saucer from AC, blasting it by Niewiemski 2-hole for the PPG. Three and a half later MacMillan netted his second goal of the game, assisted by Zach Fodge and Ryan Cosgrove, to regain the lead for the Saints.

Third frame was mired in penalties going both ways but neither team could get a special teams goal. It was not until 1:40 remained on the clock that Justin Simonelli would take matters into his own hands walking out from behind the Saints goal and directing a backhander at the net that would ultimately work its way up over and in for the equalizer. Anthony Crawford picked up his second assist of the evening on the goal. As they say, we are goooooooooooin to overtime, but who knew it would end just one second away from a 2-2 tie.

Stop down to the shore tonite to see how Thunder reacts to last weekend's disappointing loss, as they square off with their Storm rival for a 6:30pm tilt. Aight?