Well folks, winter is here. Enough said.

 United Division:

Bruins 6 Blackhawks 5: Braden Lapointe was on point for this game as he fired home a pair of goals as the Bruins edged the Hawks 6-5 in quite the entertaining game if you happened to be one of the fortunate ones to witness it. Legue scoring leader Jordan Campbell only had one goal and 2 assist, he better step it up next game. For the Hawks, no idea who #27 (thanks for not writing your name on the sheet) but he had a good game scoring two goals in a losing cause. Kevin Scime also had a good game with a goal and an assist.

Flyers 2 Leafs 2: This was quite the defensive battle to say the least. In the end it was both goaltenders stealing the show in a 2-2 draw, Sandro Marrone as a spare and Anthony Quaglia performed yeoman’s work between the pipes for their respective teams. For the Leafs it was Devin Freisen and Steven Ross while for the Flyers it was spare callup Dave Johnson and Ryan Haslam who found the net. I literally googled “what rhymes with Quaglia” but came up short, sorry fellas. Dave Johnson played in his 500th SCOHA game, a gold standard we all should inspire to be like. Congrats, Dave!

Masters Division:

Bruins 2 Sharks 0: Bruins were missing 6 regulars out of their lineup. Some spares were brought in to help secure the victory over the pesky sharks. Bill “aluminum” Foley and Mike “12-string acoustic” Guitard took care of the scoring while spare goalie Steve “bunny” Larocque turned aside 29 shots for the multi-grain bagel. This Shark team is a force to be reckoned with despite this loss. We played them the week before and they folded us up like a paper airplane made to resemble a Sunwing 727 airplane en route to Cayo Coco airport for a week of sun and drink.

I caught a bit of this game on Cable14 and halfway through the 2nd period I unassed my seat and stood for the remainder of it. More ups and downs than one of those stupid Hallmark movies where they had to sell Christmas trees at the church bizarre so they could keep the bookstore afloat. I should buy a lottery ticket because I predicted yes, the fella that was only supposed to be in town to do a quick roof repair ended up buying the last 8 trees and the bookstore survived! What are the damn odds.

Leafs 5 Senators 3: The Sens were aching after dealing with Ed Aitchison all damn night. That, combined with Steve Horner (aka smarty-pants Louis) had the Senators reeling from the get-go, eventually succumbing to the guys in blue by a score of 5-3. Give the Sens some props, they played the last 5 or 6 minutes pretty well but the “Ranger of the Rectangular Receptacle”, Sandro Marrone stood large in the leaf net, someone measure this guys blocker, looks like a Cougar boot box for eff sake lol. Folks, we have a long list of guests dying to get on our juggernaut of a SCOHA podcast but we would consider bumping Sandro to the top of the list, ahead of Drake. Stay tuned. Oh ya, Horner ended up with a goal and 3 hamburger helpers after the final buzzer sounded.

Did anyone see Senators Ken Hutchinson’s goal with half a second left in the 1st period? It’s like he lally-gagged the play before shooting it in before the clock hit zero. Rumour has it Ken often opens the microwave door with 1 second left to work on his timing so this isn’t something new. Even walks away leaving the timer at 1 to piss off the next one going to use it.

Grand Masters Division:

Stars 2 Flyers 1: Rick “TicToc” Estok scored the eventual game winner as the Stars snuck by the Flyers 2-1 in front of a boisterous announced crowd of 3. Bruno DiGiovanni also tallied for the winners while the lone Flyer goal came off the stick of Bob Wachnuik. Bruno is playing well this season. I want a jar of his tomatoes for my pre-game pasta and chicken, the stuff must be amazing. If you were one of the 3 on hand for this one, it was your lucky night. Stars captain and GM Chris Baratto stuck around after the final horn to sign pucks with his new Gold Sharpie. Good news is fans went home happy but the bad news is, the Stars have no pucks for warmup this week. Apparently Chris bought a hunting magazine at Shoppers and now wants to host wild game diners through the winter. We will dig into this more and get back to you next week.

Blackhawks 3 Kraken 1: The Kraken are starting to show a few cracks in their defense as the season moves along. Missing their fearless leader Terry Gudgeon is also starting to take its toll on the morale in the dressing room. When the dust settled it was the Hawks who came out on top 3-1. Steph Rioux, Dennis “from the far away land of” Klander and who else but captain Billy Kircos all scored for the winners while Jim Swick had the lone Kraken goal. Bill keeps leaving a lasting impact on this damn community that will never be replaced. His dedication to our league isn’t recognized enough and we thank him for his unwavering approach to the game on and off the ice.

Bruins 4 Sharks 3: In the wildest game of the week, it was John Bearisto scoring the game winner with 3.22 left in the game as the Bruins swam past the Sharks 4-3. This game had more back and forths than a ping-pong game, or a table tennis game, take your pick. Terry “hitman” Hughes, Danny Gabrielle and Walter Domingos also scored for the big bad Bruins while Ernie Dunston had a pair and Dave Jarvis added a goal in a losing cause.

 PREMIUM PLUS TOOL WORK HORSES OF THE WEEK:

UNITED DIVISION: BRADEN LAPOINTE

MASTERS DIVISION: ED AITCHISON

GRAND MASTERS: ERNIE DUNSTON 

Well that’s all from this end of the ice. Sorry for the delay this week, busier than a one-legged ass kicker this week at work. Looking forward to this week’s action. Masters standings are tighter than a snare drum. Have a great rest of the week. Don’t fall off the ladder (T.G.) while putting up the lights….

 Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blogologist

Well folks, here’s a fresh new SCOHA blog out of the oven. We will recap this past weekend’s action and give props to some of our SCOHA hockey heroes whether they deserve it or not.

Well folks, this fella stayed up to watch that 18 inning marathon the other night and I was in the office the next day feeling more tired than a pair of dentures after a cold buffet but you know what, it was worth it. There were some even better games this past weekend, albeit men’s beer league but it’s our world series each and every weekend and no one can take that away from seasoned veterans like Mike Vanderzee and Al Angelone who are both approaching important milestones in their careers for games played by players with cement hands...

A few games over the weekend started to get a bit salty. You almost needed a moose to lick the salt off. All in all, you can tell the action is ramping up as we approach the end of October. United teams are starting to gel and the games are getting faster. Flyers team rep Mike Haslam was spotted applying Rub A5/35 the other week but claimed it is his new hockey cologne, knees are fine. Hattrick by Faberge, available at Shoppers, 8 bucks. Speaking of hat trick, this new Jordan Campbell kid in United is lighting the lamp multiple times every Friday, reminds me of Sean Riley when he played for the Lethbridge Bonnets back in 81. Campbell is an early favourite for Rookie of the Year. We will try and get him on the Pucks in Deep Podcast soon…

Last week’s games were a complete 180 degree turn-around from the previous week, lemme tell ya. United’s Walt Blagdon was skating around like he had motors on his skates. I don’t know what this guy has for a pre-game meal but I bet it’s rich in essential minerals. At any rate, let’s dip into the weekend that was…

Well folks... cold season is in full swing at this fellas house. Throat feels like i swallowed a wool sweater but there's deadlines to meet. Let's dive into last weeks action.

Elbow’s up, fellas, it’s the season premiere of this silly blog. This year, we welcome the Grand Masters Kraken as a team. What’s a Kraken? No, it’s not the view you get when the plumber is bent over trying to unclog the kitchen sink.

A Kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway. Ya… just as I thought.