Coming up short (Ringers lose to NDA Crew 5-3)

At 9:30pm, the Ringers took the ice against the second place NDA Brew Crew with 9 skaters. The Holy Grail of exactly two lines (10 skaters) slipped from our grasp with the conspicuous disappearance of Craig Pilkington. Since Craig is betrothed but not yet wedded, we speculated that he might have felt obligated to pitch a little woo on Valentine's Day evening instead of pitching a few pucks into the Crew's net.

Not to lay on the guilt too thick, but...the weezing and gasping Ringers managed to fight back from being down 4 goals; at one point, Phil Snyder had to skip a shift to put back the lung he hacked up. I could mention how tired GM Greg Weiss looked, and how his skating started to slow down, but then, it really wasn't any different from other games.

First period was a little sloppy, and it looked like it would end scoreless, but the Crew managed to fire one goal in. Ringers had no shots on goal. During the second, they secured a few more goals, and it looked like it was headed towards a blowout. Fortunately, Captain Richie struck first blood for the Ringers off of a brilliant pass from Joey Bag O' Donuts, but that only made up for one of the four turnovers he caused playing slap-and-tickle with the puck against the wall.

Goal two was another excellent drive by Joey B O' D, and the momentum started building. Halfway through the third, Phil scored his season-first goal with another gorgeous drive.

We didn't come up short with penalties, though, with Brian Chauder, Greg, Geoff Comrie, and Joey each sitting for 2. The good news: four great penalty kills!

But speaking of coming up short, it's a damn good thing that only 10 players showed up, since Joe Saundercook brought like a 6-pack of beer! We started to wonder when he set one down between Greg and Rob with two straws. It got ugly in the locker room - the team revolted and began pelting Joe with balls of tape. I think I got him in the eye. Anyhoo - let that be a lesson to those of you who are up next on beer duty. Chauder and I alone could polish off a 12 pack...

Next game: Team Factory (with the knobby puckhandling styles of Shrek) at 8:45pm on Tuesday, Feb 21
Beer duty: Bodie

P.S. Hats off to Tennis Kenny in the stands last night supporting us. Good to see him out there!