This Week in SCOHA – December 5th, 2022

A few teams had closed door meetings before Sunday night's games but that didn’t seem to help. Back to the drawing board as they hope to tie a few wins together like a bow before the Christmas break.

Before we get to the action, let us turn our focus to this week’s SCOHA hero spotlight brought to you by Red Bull. Master’s division veteran Mike Vanderzee is a smart, industrious forward with a strong lower base which helps him maintain puck possession and win board battles in the corners. Mike also displays a solid goal-scoring acumen which his teammates admire.

UNITED DIVISION:

BRUINS 6 FLYERS 3: the Haslam globetrotters and goalie Lino “long lineups at” Cosco still were not back from vacation so the Flyers seemed to be out of gas well before the final buzzer. The Bruins were missing 5 regulars but spare Jeff “ole, ole, ole” Nolet scored a hatty and Captain Crunch Wayne Sliwinski added a pair of beauts as they cruised to a 6-3 win. The ref must have lost the pea in his whistle or his arm was so sore he couldn’t lift it because there were no penalties called. Flyer’s fill-in Dino Laporta (Backyarda) scored on a nice dangle, so did Sean Riley and Doug “Molson Golden” Moulton. Bruins Brad Ballman kicked aside 23 shots for the victory, some in rather acrobatic fashion. Anyone see Mauris Cecca's goal? Either did I but half the bar was talking about it afterwards!

OILERS 6 CANADIENS 3: The Habs scored on their first three shots but the Oilers eventually woke up to win 6-4. Jim DaSilva (and gold) scored a couple of highlight reel goals and Duane “Gretzky” Marzi also dropped a deuce for the winners. Some Chris Marttila fella fired a rocket past Bruno Santanato upstairs where Norman Bates keeps his family, for the game winner. Canadiens got a pair of goals from Mike Leblanc in a losing cause. Habs were missing star forward Bill “Aluminum” Foley as well as captain and gm Mike Miscio.

BLACKHAWKS 6 SHARKS 0: Bill Templeman got to the rink early to meet kids in the arena lobby and to sign some copies of his new book “how I play in any division and still win all the damn time”. He then went out there, subbing in for the hawks and turned away 36 shots for the goose egg, a 6-0 white wash over the Sharks, who lost all their bite on this night. Walt Blagdon, a talented diminutive two-way player has some good upside to his game. He scored two big league goals for the winning side and Dave “Miami Vice” Johnson also tapped one home for the Hawks. Captain Paul McGraw, fresh off a big 3 assist night, told reporters he hopes to get a wood burning kit under the tree this year. He’s asked for it for 38 years in a row but feels confident about his chances this year. Stay tuned.

MASTERS DIVISION:

BRUINS 6 SHARKS 3: Apparently the Sharks have re-requested a name change after last week’s request of the Sunfish got denied. This time around, they will attempt to be rebranded the Scoha Guppies. We will update this story when the decision is announced. Anyways, Bruins won this one 6-3 as Gary Guthro and Steve “around the” Horner both scored a pair while Bill Curran lit the lamp for the Sharks.

REDWINGS 7 PENGUINS 5: Wow, 3 different Redwings scored twice and the white and reds slid by the Penguins 7-5. Kelly Rintjema, Michael “Haagandas” Hawes and Steve “mega” Watt all had a pair in the victory. Paul Opie (oid) did his part despite the loss, scoring a goal that resembled an old Bobby Orr end-to-end rush. This game was crazy, folks, could have went either way. I had the over on my Proline ticket so I was happy. Per Darren Dreger from Tsn, both teams wanted to throw out the game sheet and get back to the rink Monday and work on defensive battles.

FLAMES 4 FLYERS 2: Wow those Flames are red hot to start the year! 21-point lead on the last place Sharks! This game was close, it could’ve been the Pepto Bismol Upset of the Week but the Flames prevailed 4-2 behind 2 goals from Dave Graham (no relation to the cracker crumb). Dave Armstrong led the way for the Flyers with 2 goals who now has points in 834 straight SCOHA games. Might be a record, not sure… Anyone see Rick Estok play his robust style out there? For generations to come, we will all have a great story to tell all the youngsters what it was like to watch Rick play.

STARS 3 BLACKHAWKS 3: The hawks led 3-1 after the first half but those pesky Stars found a way to come all the way back for the tie. Hawks Vince Mercuri scored a goal that was out of this world while Andy Rossit scored a pair for the Stars. Both goalies need a round of applause next time you see them for a tremendous game between the pipes. Joe “near and” DeFaria and Scotty Johnson gained a few more fans after this game. These guys will garner some attention in the off-season when they head to free agency. Their respective teams may want to hurry up and start negotiations sooner than later but who am I to say. Stick-tap to Chris Barratto for serving the too many men on the ice penalty against the Stars. This guy will take one for the team any day of the week. He even washed the team bus Sunday morning in the cold wind before they headed to the rink. The doors froze and the team was locked out for an hour but his mind was in the right place dammit.

Well that pretty well does it for another week of SCOHA action. I am as sore as a pair of dentures after a cold buffet from taking a clapper off the back of the leg for a 2nd straight game but it’s all for the love of the game. I have a free Viceroy tatoo to prove it.

Enjoy the rest of the week, folks, see you at the rink this weekend.

Remember we are having a meet-up at the Toronto Rock vs Buffalo Bandit lacrosse game Sat.Dec.17th at Copps Coliseum (First Ontario Centre). Meet us in the Copps lobby at 5:30pm, we will get our tickets and head upstairs for a few cold ones before the game starts. Looking forward to it! I’ve never been to a lacrosse game…

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blogologist / Stat Guy