March 17th, 2012

Our St.Patricks day special turned out not to be so special. Team Green destroyed The Throwbacks by a score of 11 to 5 to win the series.

Ryan Wiggle tallied 2 goals and 3 assists. He was matched by Marc Corbeil who also had 5 points. While Amberley and Darcy battled it out for "Super Spare" status, both recorded 4 points leaving each of them in the running.

 

The defense for Team Green was key. They shut down The Throwbacks and really limited any scoring chances. Herman also chipped in with 3 apples and a Geno. While Zyad who it seemed was playing everywhere had 2 goals and an assist as well.

Team Throwback wasn't quite able to overcome the short bench and fell victim to some sloppy line changes along with bad defensive zone coverage.

Lobo lead the team in points with 1 goal and 3 assists. Cris Cervoni found the back of the net twice and Adam Klimowicz had 1 goal and an apple.

At the end of the day Team Green just played a better all-around game. They did a tremendous job in frustrating the Throwbacks on every approach.

Tight Series!

We have another good old fashioned Hockey-Life series on our hands. It seems that no matter what the teams are, they always battle it out down the stretch.

This time around is no different. After a Game 1 blowout that saw team Green top the Throwbacks 8-3, things have evened up a little bit. Trying to avoid an early sweep the Throwbacks stormed out of the gate in Game 2 taking a 5-2 lead late into the game. If not for some last minute heroics from Ryan Wigle, the series would have gone to Game 3 tied at one a piece. Wiggs netted two late goals, one of which was the game tying goal. The Throwbacks would have to settle for a draw after out playing Team Green for most of the afternoon.

Game 3 started off with a rush from the Throwbacks that almost saw them score off the first drive. Adam Klimowicz kicked the puck up to his stick off the faceoff and walked into the zone releasing a wrist shot on net. Cris Cervoni jumped on the rebound and the two swatted away with Green jerseys draped all over them. Jordie managed to shut the door and keep the score at 0-0.

The game play was much like that of Game 2. The Throwbacks controlled possession early by keeping Team Green hemmed in their own zone. Jordie made some big saves when called upon, the prettiest had to be when Throwback D man B.Micks found himself all alone at the side of the cage with nothing but twine starring back at him. Jordie dove across the net and deflected the puck over the net with his paddle. A real beaut of a save, that left Micks cussing more than usual.

When the Green team did break out, they were being swarmed by a tight team defense from the Throwbacks. Lunnen was making all the perimeter shots look like a walk in the park, but he also made some great saves one on one with Wigle. The biggest save came late in the game when Vince MacDougall was awarded a penalty shot, Lunnen stuck out the pad and made a crucial save as Team Green was really starting to pour it on.

Following a common trend in this series The Throwbacks were starting to look a little gassed. Team Green capitalized on this as they attempted to mount another comeback. Shawn Herman had 2 assists in the game bringing his season total to a second best 38. Robbie Devries leads the league in assists at 39. Darcy Thomsen played his first game back since suffering a concussion, he had 1 goal and 3 assists putting him in first among spares with 41 points.

All this wasn't enough... Adam Klimowicz registered a Hat-trick while Chris Alpaugh had a Goal and Assist. Cervoni, Micks, Carter and Carducci all chipped in with goals, leading the Throwbacks to an 8 - 6 Victory tying the series at 1-1.

The Points race is looking to be a tight one as we finish off the season:

R.Wigle     - 62
R.Devries    - 62
C.Alpaugh    - 60
A.Klimowicz    - 57
C.Cervoni    - 56

Let's see if we can finish this off on Saturday.

Cheers

February 25th, 2012

A whole new Series

With new teams made up, the boys were back at it for Game 1 of the "throwback" series. The two teams were divided into as many original members we could find VS all the new guys.

Well ... the first game was a complete gong show. The "new guys" took it to the Throwback team pretty bad. Exposing them defensively and shutting the offense down pretty easily en route to an 8-3 Win.

Robbie Devries had 1 Goal and 4 Assists, catapulting him to first overall in the points race with 58 Total.

Ryan Wigle had 2 Goals and 3 Assists  which leaves him one point behind Robbie at 57. Wigle is still holding on to first place for Goal scoring, having found the back of the net 34 times this season.

Brad "Amberley Down" had 1 Goal and 1 Assist as a spare, which officially puts him in the lead for the "Super Spare" category with 38 Points in just 10 games.

Congratulations go out to Junior, who got his first official win this year while contributing 3 assists.

We can't forget to give Tyler a shout out, as he ended his goal drought potting 1 Goal and 2 Assists. It felt like an eternity since he had a geno beside his name. Way to go little buddy!

Marc Corbeil, who scored 2 goals and added a helper, was overheard saying that this series is going to be over fast with a repeat performance in-store for game 2 ... but he also said that the Leafs would win the Cup this year after acquiring Rick Nash.

Next game goes on Saturday, March 03, 2012. Yupp, it's already March. See everyone at the Bunker at 3:30.

February 18th, 2012

Grand Finale with special guest.

Prior to the face off for game 6, Hockey-Life was paid a surprise visit...

Local radio station personality "Taz" was in the building along with a crew from FM96.

Taz challenged the two teams to a shootout. With the winning team getting 15 tickets to go see the movie premier of the newest Hockey based comedy "Goon". A video of the shootout should be posted on the FM96 website at some point this week. Most of the shooters attempted some sort of trick shot. We saw a between the legs Marek Malik style goal, a caped mini stick attempt and the classic sliding hand pass as well. One Vince Carducci didn't seem to get the memo, he walked in and fired a shot five hole ... guess he really wanted those tickets.

At the end of the day the HockeyLife team beat the London Hussars to secure the tickets. The atmosphere on the ice was tremendous, and it really felt like an Allstar competition of sorts.

It was a real pleasure to be a part of this. Shout out to FM96 for hooking the boys up. See everyone at the show on Wednesday!


After all the excitement we still had a game to play, with both teams looking for that series clinching victory.

With league leading scorer Chris Alpaugh out of the lineup, the question was would the top line for Team Jordie be able to continue their pace. Inserted into the lineup was Brad "Amberleydown" Amberley and the line once again produced most of the teams scoring. Amberley registered 4 goals and 5 assists, Robbie DeVries had 3 goals and 5 assists while Adam Klimowicz chipped in with 2 goals and 3 assists.

Vince MacDougall once again found the scoreboard, potting another timely highlight reel snipe top cheddar. This goal was the turning point, as Team Jorge had just scored 3 unanswered at that point and were really looking like they were ready to make a comeback.

Cris Cervoni once again pulled a great celebration out of his bag of tricks. After scoring his only goal of the game, Cervoni skated out to centre ice and did a Swan-like slide on his stomach. He looked like he may have been injured on the play as he hit his chin off the ice during the slide but he was fine.

Marc Corbeil had 2 goals and 2 assists for Team Jorge, while Junior had 1 goal and 2 assists. Ryan wigle added 1 goal and 1 assist.

Team Jordie held on to take the game and series by a score of 10-6. This was one of the longest series' we have ever played at Hockey-Life and actually the first one where the goalies picked teams. Those guys seem to know what they are doing. They picked two very even teams. Also, both Jordie and Jorge played some of their best hockey, you can really see that they are in mid-season form now. That means it's only going to get tougher to score on these guys! That's scary.

See everyone at the show!

If not see the rest of you next Saturday when we start our Throwback series.

The end is in sight

It has taken 5 games for us to get 2 wins out of these teams. On February 11 2012 Jordie backstopped his team to a tight 8-7 win.

Cris Cervoni scored early in the game and showcased his new celebration by paying tribute to a young Teemu Selanne circa 1992.
In other words ... he went all "Duck Hunt" on his glove.

Cervoni was out dueled by his main competition though. Chris Alpaugh had himself a pretty good game (2g, 2a) and now sits 2 points ahead of Cervoni for the overall points lead. Alpaugh 54, Cervoni 52, Wigle 50. Cervoni, and Wigle will get a chance to leapfrog Alpaugh on Saturday as he will be out of the lineup with "family life - like symptoms"

Game 5 was a classic back and forth game again. The goalies were tremendous at both ends of the rink and didn't allow too many rebounds. The general feeling on both benches was that another tie had occurred - this was backed up by the mathematical skills of one Mr.Borek. After a recount, it was discovered that in fact Team Jordie earned their first "W" of the series.


Team Jordie was once again propelled by the first line which accounted for 4 goals and a total of 11 points. Jorge's boys were a little more balanced with all but one player registering at least a point.

All we need is one more win from either team and we can put an end to this monster of a series that has been going on for over a month now.

Some people may have a little more incentive to get a win here as the season progresses. Only one contract Hockey-Life member has yet to record a Win on the season. It's only fair to note that he hasn't played the whole season and actually only has 6 games under his belt since being called up from the rookie league but Marcin Gluchowski will be eager to get the monkey off his back this Saturday.

See ya'll at the Brookside Bunker, that glorious ice sheet awaits...

February 4th 2012

Game Four came and went ... leaving us in the same position as we were in before it started. A 7-7 tie made sure that we were still looking for either Team Jorge to win the clinching game or Team Jordie to come back and tie this up at a game apiece.

With Jorge suffering from flu like symptoms, "Crazy Joe" came to the rescue taking over at the last minute. Joe made a seamless transition and played a good game.
He was quickly welcomed back getting two shots off the mask and two more off the pebbles. Both teams watched as he rolled out of the crease ... to the hash marks ... and back again in agony.

The highlight of the day came when Vince MacDougall went end to end and decided to go even further utilizing the wrap around for the finish. A truly classy goal from an even classier player.

Not much has changed over the week. Cris Cervoni ( 24G, 26A ) and Chris Alpaugh ( 26G, 24A ) sit at the top of the league with 50 points each. They have surpassed Tyler Courtemanche whose poor form in the last couple of weeks has left him struggling to keep up with the frontrunners.


Ryan Wigle, the defending Goal Scoring Champion currently sits atop the list with 28 Goals and will be looking to continue at this pace scoring just under 3 goals a game on average.

Looking forward to Game 5 and all the drama that it will bring:
Will Shawn "Line Change" Herman finally snap? He's been boiling for a while now, maybe this is the week.
Matt "I only fight at hockey" Spence is still looking to Tango with one of his own players.
Cris Cervoni has been doing steroids all week getting ready to make his assault on the Scoring Lead and has a surprise in store for the Hockey-Life community.... good old Cervones released a quote through his agent stating he's "Got a new celebration to unveil as well". When asked to give us a sneak peak of the new celley, Cris only said "Anisimov eat your heart out".

We have a couple of milestones to announce... it's only our second season, but a couple of players are reaching noteworthy plateaus.
Ryan Wigle has 103 career points, 63 of those are goals.
Chris Alpaugh just broke the 100 point mark last game and now has 101 career points amassing 51 goals in the process. Congrats Alps!
Closing in on the mark Adam Klimowicz (47G,45A)  is 3 off from 50 Goals and 8 points away from 100.

See you all at the Brookside Bunker this Saturday at 3:30 pm Bring your game face!

January 28th, 2012

Hockey-Life regular season action resumed after a week's break for the Ice Park Tournament.

Coming into this pivotal game 3 match up, Team Jorge was ahead holding a 1-0-1 advantage, knowing a win could seal the series victory and coming off of a good showing over the weekend Jorge came in ready to play.

Jordie's Team knew they had to play better this week in order to force this series to extra games. A key to this would be putting together a full 60 minute effort, which they have been unable to do thus far in the series blowing leads in each of the previous games.

The first shift was executed with perfection as the line of Chris Alpaugh, Adam Klimowicz and Robbie Devries dominated the offensive zone. They were rewarded with a pretty goal from Robbie Devries. Who got the puck in the slot after a defensive turnover and patiently out waited the tender, leaving him with a tap in on the side of the cage.

Shortly after the first goal, Team Jorge tied it back up with a screen shot from Ryan Wigle sneaking past Jordie.

The game stayed at a stalemate for a while. Good defensive efforts backed up by great goaltending left the scoreboards lonely on the bench.

After being taunted in the locker room about how fresh he was looking, Cris Cervoni broke out of his recent funk potting 3 Genos and 2 Apples. Some classic Cervoni with hard work down low, allowed his line mates to feed off his net presence and get to loose pucks.

Not to be out done, Chris "Mr. Hat-Trick" Alpaugh also put away the trick. He must have some sort of Hockey-Life Record for most Hat-Tricks in the league by now, and then to prove he's the ultimate teammate he added an assist.

Cris Cervoni and Chris Alpaugh are now within one point of Tyler Courtemanche, who is sitting atop the standings with 48 pts. Throw the fact that Ryan Wigle (46 pts) has now taken a contract spot into the mix and we have ourselves another classic scoring race in the works.

Team Jorge got a full team effort with almost every player on the team registering points. Shawn Herman made his return with 3 Assists and one Goal. Matt "I only fight in Hockey" Spence contributed with 3 Assists. Even last minute spare Ernie Borek found the white board with 2 Assists.

Although impressive, this wasn't enough to stop the top line for Jorge's team. Devries, Klimo and Alpaugh combined for 10 points. This was aided by a coast to coast beauty of a goal from defenseman Ryan Carter. Not to be outdone, freelancing d-man Zyad "don't mess with the Zohan" Osman proved to be in fine form, sniping one home from the slot.... Top Cheddar.

You know the way these games usually end at Hockey-life. Alpaughs third goal late in the game proved to be the one that tied it up. That's right, two games in a row have now ended in a tie. So it looks like this Saturday we are going to play Game 4.

When Jorge was told that the series would have to continue, he said "Oh come on, I am taking the Tie and running".
Sorry Jorge, but someone has to win TWO games.

Just a little side note, please see either Marek or Adam if you would like play in the Summer again. I know most of you have already confirmed that you will play but to those who haven't, we only have a couple of spots left for Tuesday nights.

Also we are looking into doing a second night in the summer time, contact us if you want more info. We will release all details once it's official.

Again guys, a huge THANK YOU! goes out to all of you. People are starting to hear about what we are doing and the word is that this is one of the funnest places to play while still keeping a competitive edge. This is a testament to each and every person that has pulled that Hockey-Life jersey over their shoulders.