March 09, 2009 – Game Recap
Rink Dawgs – 6 Venom – 0
The game was in jeopardy of even being played last night, as the Venom had some difficulty fielding enough players to start the game. Luckily for them a 6th man showed up just before the opening face-off and then a 7th & 8th player came to round up their roster. Due to technical difficulties with the scoreboard, the teams were notified that they would be playing 3 x 20 minute running time periods instead of the usual 3 x 15 minute stop time.
The Rink Dawgs, who themselves had 3 lines and 4 defencemen, looked to jump early and often on the undermanned opposition. To their credit, the Venom played a very patient and controlled first period. They managed to burn lots of time off the clock by ragging the ball and passing it back and forth between defencemen, forcing the Rink Dawgs to chase. It took nearly 15 minutes for the Dawgs to finally get on the board, when Joe Lucas converted a pass from Bill “Big Red” Stewart. The first period was a close one, with Joe’s goal the only one for either team and the shots were 15-8 in favor of the Dawgs.
Midway through the second period, you could see that lack of players for the Venom starting to take its toll on them. The Rink Dawgs began to figure out that they needed to pressure the player with the ball to start creating turnovers. At the 10:56 mark David Silva who has been on a hot streak as of late (5G & 6A in the last 3 games)put one in, with assists going to Joe Lucas & Donny Lagos. Five minutes later #99 would strike again after Antonio Geraci and Bruce Tiam-Fook were able to send David in on a 2 on 1 and making no mistake he roofs one top shelf. The fourth goal came one minute later when Donny “Kaberle” Lagos who had been told on many occasions to shoot the ball, finally rips one from the high slot sailing over the goalie off the back glass and knocking it off the goalies ass and into the net.
Now in total control of the game, the Dawgs continued to pour shots on goal. If it wasn’t for the Venom goalie the score would have gotten out of hand. Less than five minutes into third, Ted Kolkas scored his 4th goal of the season on a feed from Tony Rowe and Donny Lagos. The scoring was rounded up on a goal from Bruce Tiam-Fook with the assists going to Joe and David, that line really stepped up combining for 10 points in the game. Eddie Mirzadeh wasn’t too busy in goal, but stopped everything that came his way to earn his first career shutout as a member of the Rink Dawgs.
The game was called to an end early by the Venom, I guess they figured it was too far out of reach and their guys surely must have been exhausted at that point. For the Rink Dawgs it was a valuable 2.5 points (1/2 point for being penalty free) in the battle for second place, as it looks the the Durham Dirty Shwas will have first place overall locked up. The Dawgs will look to finish up strong in their 2 remaining regular season games, next Wednesday March 17th @ 8:00pm and the following Wed. March 24th @ 9:15pm.
Game Stats:
Shots: Rink Dawgs 39 - Venom 17
Powerplay: none
Penaltykill: none
Player(s) of the Game:
David Silva 2G 2A
Bruce Tiam-Fook, Joe Lucas & Donny Lagos each with 1G 2A
Eddie Mirzadeh 17 saves for the shutout
