Well folks, winter is sticking around for a while longer. Groundhogs are a bunch of liars. Another storm coming this week that will bring ice all over the damn place.

United Division:

Bruins 5 Leafs 3: Jordan Campbell is quickly becoming a household name when talking about goal scoring. Jordan scored a pair as the Bruins got past the Leafs 5-3 on a busy Friday at the rink. Bruins were missing 2 key spokes in their tire but still won this one, relying on a tenacious forecheck that eventually wore down the Leafs. Besides Campbells two goals, Joe Shulist also dropped a deuce for the winning side. Leafs had a pair of snipes from Nick Grivich in a losing cause. Grivich comes to the rink each week, does his job and goes home. Never takes a shift off. I heard he even orders tea on the plane, doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Good for him.

Blackhawks 3 Flyers 3: 84 million Proline tickets were torn up after this one. Although this guy remains adamant the Hawks will be there competing for the cup, I didn’t have a tie against the Flyers on my bingo card. Hawks had goals from Chris Baliva (or not), Kyle Jackson and Dave Mercer. For the guys in orange it was Jeff “slightly warmed up pumpkin” Pye, Jack “wooden” Dowell and Andrew Howarth (got him in the pool). If you were one of the 4 that ventured out to watch this game, you went home with a newly-found appreciation for this Blackhawk team along with a ton of melted butter around your mouth from the kid behind the counter running the popcorn machine.

Masters Division:

Leafs 4 Senators 2: Leaf’s Bob “happy” Balantyne’s 2 goal performance was one for the ages. Bob seemed to find the open ice quicker than anyone else as his team doubled up the Sens 4-2 and leapfrogged them into first place. Ken Wiersma and Nick Miscione added singled for the winning side while the Senators had goals from Marc Bellhumeur and Marc Poulin is a losing cause. The Senators needed a Bayer aspirin after this game. Too many miscues as they roll into the last weekend of the regular season 1 point back of the Leafs. Doesn’t mean much but they would like to finish up top before the playoffs start.

Sharks 4 Bruins 3: Jason Hoffman and Steve Saulnier both scored twice as the Sharks took a bit out of the Bruins 4-3 with a late goal being the difference. Scott maki also chipped in with a couple hamburger helpers for the winning side. Bruins had a pair of snipes from Richard Forster and a single tally by Bill “aluminum” Foley. This game was more back and forth than a pickle ball game. Many of us up in the canteen watching thought Bruins were going to escape with at least a tie but the Sharks had other ideas.

Grand Masters:

Kraken 0 Flyers 0: Can’t remember the last time there was a scoreless tie in SCOHA. Spare goalie Bruno Santanato and wiley veteran Brand Ballman both pitched shutouts, making several 5-bell saves for their respective teams. SCOHA alumnus John Toth once again performed his rendition of Oh Canada before this game that got the fans up off their feet. Other than that, nothing much more to report so let’s move on to the next game…

Stars 3 Sharks 0: Barry Walker turned aside 22 shots for the bagel as the Stars beat the Sharks 3-goose in front of a capacity crowd of 6. Steve MacDonald had a pair of goals, passing Gilbert Perrault on the all-time goals list while Robert DiGiovanni also replied for the winners. Stars had 3 penalties but fended off the Sharks with their sticks. Stars are now just 1 point behind the Sharks in the standings as the regular season starts to wind down, should be an interesting weekend of possible juggling amongst the standings, stay tuned.

Bruins 3 Blackhawks 1: Yves “trough” Bisson scored the eventual game winning goal as the Bruins took care of the Blackhawks 3-1. Nick Polimeni and Tim Manning also replied for the winners while Dennis “from the far away planet of” Klander had the lone Hawk goal. Bruins Danny Gabrielle was held out of the lineup pending an FBI betting scheme went sideways on him. Details to follow but we are hoping Danny returns soon.

Well that’s a wrap on the week that was in Scohaville. Big games this weekend with playoff implications.

PREMIUM PLUS TOOL WORKHORSES OF THE WEEK:

UNITED: JOE SHULIST  

MASTERS: STEVE SAULNIER  

GRAND MASTERS: BARRY WALKER  

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blog Guy

I don’t know about you but Olympic hockey is at a level never seen before. Canada came out of the chute and blasted the Czechs while the Yanks are looking strong against Latvia early on in their opening match. This should bode well for the return to action of Masters and Grand Masters divisions this weekend after a pause for the snorefest we called Superbowl. Turns out Grand Masters Mike Vanderzee followed along with Bad Bunny’s lyrics pretty easily as he is fluent in downtown Spanish.

Ok, pencils down, its past 3pm, olympic trade freeze is now in effect.

United had the week off this past weekend but we will recap their Jan.23rd games and give you the run-down on Sunday’s action just for fun.

Well folks, I can’t make this stuff up. After giving some bigtime props to Gord Johnson last week for his first goal of the season, doesn’t he go out there and score again this past weekend. If anyone parlayed this on their ScohaBet app, you must’ve won some serious bucks! Great job, Gord, let’s keep this damn streak going this upcoming weekend.

Hey folks, Welcome to 2026, the year of the Fire Horse according to the Chinese horoscope. A fire horse? Ai says it signifies intense energy, enthusiasm and transformative change. Well if that holds true, the 2nd half of the SCOHA season should be one for the ages. Attendance and merchandise sales are up, we are now on all the Ontario betting sites and TSN is in the last phase of discussions to acquire our broadcasting rights from cable14 for an eyebrow raising $49 for 5 years. Details to follow.

BREAKING NEWS: As we went to press this morning, rumours were confirmed that SCOHA alumnus Paul Cleary will be making his season debut for the Grand Masters Sharks this Sunday at 7pm vs the Blackhawks. Great news, Paul! So happy you are back! Can’t wait to see you and say hi!

Well folks, better late than never. Get ready for another cold snap this weekend, good thing the heat is on at the aren… oh nevermind. Guy Shaver held a bake sale last weekend at the end of his driveway to try and help the rink fund a new heater but I guess his version of mincemeat pies didn’t sit well, especially with the British players in the neighbourhood.

Well folks, another few weeks until the big guy tries to get down your chimney. Better late than never, here’s this week’s abbreviated recap of last week’s action:

Well gang, the United Division games this past weekend were nuts, absolute nuts… I was lucky to catch the action live and meet some of the fellas up at the watering hole. Good bunch of guys, hope they can bring in a few buddies next year so we can have 6 teams. That Jordan Campbell rookie on the Bruins, skates around like that Wayne Jetski guy. Someone stop him, good grief.

I heard over the weekend that Grand Master’s veteran Ron Cooper will be inducted into the 80+ Oldtimers Hockey Hall of Fame on March 28TH, 2026 in Kitchener! This is a remarkable accomplishment and we all congratulate him on this honour. Did you know that Ron first laced up his twirlers at the ripe age 3. He then played minor hockey in Sunderland from 1945-47, in Whitby from 1948-59, various Stelco pickup leagues from 1961-2025 and has been a mainstay in SCOHA since 1997! Details of the gala evening will be posted soon. Well done, Ron! Most of us won’t even be able to bend down to tie up our skates by the time we are 60!

Well folks, Mother Nature is about to hit shuffle on her winter playlist. Good thing we have Guy Shaver on standby with his shovel ready to clear the arena parking lot in time for this weekend’s games. A few guys still haven’t noticed their new tattoos from the big Collingwood Tournament a few weeks ago but I’m sure they will figure it out eventually. This past weekend saw the intensity ramp up in all three divisions. Let’s put aside our differences and recap the action.

Well folks, looking forward to changing the clocks back in the spring, this dark at 4:30 stuff isn’t sitting well.