Well gang, the Hamilton Police Chief came on the air yesterday to say don’t play on the damn ice. Newsflash… we aren’t playing, SCOHA means business, it’s playoff time! You thought camping was pretty intense, this year’s post-season has proven that the regular season stats are thrown out the window. All teams have an equal chance to lift the cup, makes it great for the fans and viewers from home. Let’s zoom in on last weekend’s action..

United Division:

Flyers 11 Redwings 1: Good greef. I googled sports blowouts and apparently the 1940 Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the NFL Championship Game so this result isn’t that bad. Redwings aren’t happy and are guaranteeing their fans a way better effort this Friday against the Hawks. The Wings deserve a better fate this week, too bad their game is an amazon prime-only game so a lot of viewers will be upset they can’t watch it. I will personally venture to the rink to check this one out and have some dry-cajun wings while doing so, try and stop me. Anyways, Brent Haslam with 4 goals, Mike Haslam and Dylan McInerney both with a pair and even Dave Johnson got into the act with a snipe. For the Wings, Ross LaCasse scored the lone marker.

Bruins 4 Blackhawks 3: Despite the Hawks missing their 2 top scoring machines, they gave it their best effort against a surging Bruin hockey club who aren’t playing for fun. They want to knock off all 3 other teams and lift the trophy upstairs at the bar on April 4th. Mike Dobson scored the game winner with 8:46 left as the B’s edged the powerhouse Hawks 4-3. Duane Marzi also scored, passing Mark Messier for all-time playoff goals. Both goaltenders played great but unfortunately one had to lose.. unless they tied then well… both wouldn’t have won. At any rate, for the Hawks, Brent Ellis dropped a deuce and Kevin Scime scored in a losing cause.

Masters Division:

Blackhawks 3 Sharks 1: Even though the Blackhawks were down 5 guys, they still managed to pull off the upset, defeating the Sharks 3-1. Brock Hotrum tallied twice and newcomer Ken “are you with Bell? No… I’m with” Rogerson added another for the winners. Fill-in goalkeeper Justin Ross turned aside 19 shots for the win and put his new team atop the standings, albeit after just one game. For the Sharks, Brad Stapleton fired home the lone goal for his team. Joe “near and” DeFaria played real well between the Shark net, deserved a better outcome. Darren Corneau was absent from the Sharks lineup and it was noticeable. He has the energy of a horse running in an open field. Hopefully he returns to the lineup this weekend for a big game against the Senators.

Bruins 1 Devils 1: I had the over 5.5 on this game on my proline ticket but some fella named Bruno Santanato had other ideas. Bruno as well as Bruins Goalie Brad Ballman combined made a total of 49 saves as both teams settled for a 1-1 saw-off. Terry Raposa and Richard Forster were your goal scorers and that’s about all there is to say about this game. Some inconsiderate fan threw his popcorn on the ice at the final horn and walked out because not enough goals were scored. Lucky no one tripped over the kernels and broke their neck.

Senators 3 Penguins 3: The Sens were up 3-bagel before the fans got to their seats but in traditional Penguin fashion, they stormed back. Sens had a game for the ages from wiley veteran Henri Marfisi who had all 3 goals for the Senators while Bob “happy belated” Ballantyne, Petere Fantauzzo and who else but Steve “around the” Horner replied for the pens. Bother spare goalie Darren O’Brien for the Sens and Pens goaltender Sandro Marrone stood on their heads for most of this game (not literally).

Grand Masters Division:

Redwings 5 Flyers 3: Quite the playoff crackle in the air when the puck dropped for this one. These teams despise each other and it showed as Cable 14 was afraid to go to commercial just in case a mixup ensued. In the end, the Wings prevailed 5-3 thanks to a pair of goals from Max “dominos” Pizzingrilli and Stan “brand new car” Breznicar. For the men in orange, Frank Sergi, Mike Lubrick, and Gord “chicken fried” Bryce scored some pretty smooth goals in a losing cause. This game was the most-watched Grand Masters game ever since this division was created this year. Both teams understood the assignment. Back to Stan Breznicar for a quick second. This guy is so calm and relaxed out there. I was waiting for him to put on some slippers and a sweater and start talking about his neighbourhood.

Sharks 6 Stars 3: The Ernie Dunston train made all stops to Scohaville as he scored twice as the Sharks doubled up the Stars 6-3 in front of an announced crowd of 3. Ron Cooper also scored for the Sharks. You should put your phone down and go for a walk if you think Ron is hanging up his twirlers any time soon. The Stars played a good game but the bounces just didn’t go their way. As a long time listener and a first time caller, I believe the Stars will come to the hockey arena this weekend and give it 111%. I will fork out an extra $10 on my proline saying they will win. You heard it here first, not up for discussion.

Well folks, that’s all from this end of the ice. Great hockey being played lately and for those players that are injured and are missing the playoffs, we miss you out there and hope you are back next season. Speaking of that, registration is now open for next season. Visit the website, takes about 5 mins to sign up for the 25-26 campaign. Ask around, bring a few guys to our league, always good to have some new guys in the league.

THE PREMIUM PLUS TOOL REPAIR & PACKAGING WORKHORSES OF THE WEEK:

UNITED: Brent Haslam     MASTERS: Henri Marfisi     GRAND MASTERS: Stan Breznicar

Have a great rest of the week, see you at the rink this weekend!

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blogologist-in-Chief

What a great day for some United playoff hockey, fellas! We had Flyers Ryan and Mike Haslam on the "Pucks In Deep" Podcast last night as they gear up for their battle with the Blackhawks tonight at 8pm. Tickets are selling fast so get down to the box office this afternoon to confirm your seat but you will only need the edge of it.

Mike mentioned the challenge ahead of his Flyer team going into the playoffs after they finished in 2nd place in the regular season, somewhat of a rare occurrence since they usually finish 1st. “We just have to go out there and keep playing our brand of hockey. We will be fine. Playoffs add a bit of intensity we are accustomed to, should be fun.”

Ryan was asked about the team’s motivation to take down the Blackhawks tonight. “It’s all about the dressing room music before the game”. Turns out Ryan thought Ariana Grande was the name of a font in Microsoft Word so maybe he will pass the DJ duties off to someone else…

For appearing on the podcast, the Haslam’s will receive a gift card for the Zellers Restaurant to enjoy the Big Z Breakfast or their world-famous microwaved tomato soup and grilled cheese lunch.

Best of luck to all 4 teams kicking off their playoffs tonight. Rumour has it Bruins Nick Mol is bringing in a case of Mountain Dew for the boys to ramp up their energy and Redwing’s Yves Bisson is dusting off his Journey cassette to blast during warm-ups, what a treat.

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blog Correspondant

Well folks, Everything is back to normal in the land of Scohaville. United Division wrapped up their regular season this past weekend and now the real stuff begins this Friday night! Masters and Grand Masters were off for 2 weeks due to Super Bowl and a million feet of snow so there was a bit of rust this past Sunday on several skate blades.

Well week two is wrapped up and the weekend is just a million days away so let's recap the goings-on from Scohaville this past weekend.

Well gang, week one is under the bridge and things went as planned for some teams but a bit of a slow start for others. This guy is glad his blog contract got renewed for another year so let’s recap the goings-on from this past weekend.

Before we do that, let’s give a SCOHA stick-tap to one of the great guys in our family, John Elter, who is on our minds as the season starts. John, we miss you out on the ice badly and hope you can come see the guys soon! Cheers, buddy!