For those of us who braved the weather and made the pilgrimage to Lakeshore Hockey Arena on a wintry wednesday, the 30th of December, I'm sure you would all agree it was worth your while as we took a step back in time to reflect on the outstanding achievements of the 2008-2009 Greece Athena/Odyssey Thunder Hockey Team and put a final bow (barring any pending book deals or made for TV movies) on an amazing season by raising the state championship banner to the rafters in the rink we call home. For those of you who could not be in the house, the film compilation that aired at the banner raising ceremony, brought to you by Dr. Trey productions (with photo/video credits to Tom Mattle, Jay Shelofsky, and SE Video) is now available on You Tube. Go check it out, it will take you back to titanic and you'll have chills running up and down your spine, guaranteed.
Please join me in giving a big shout out to the following Thunder peops who made the banner ceremony possible:
Scott Soeffing (banner production)
Charlene McNeil (design and direction)
Dan Miller (screen launching and emcee duties)
Trey Layton (mission coordination and leadership on all things to do with Audio visual and movie production)
And a special thanks Paula & Mark at Lakeshore, for allowing us to hoist the screen and for assisting with the lift.
And a big welcome home to the following State Championship Team Alumni: Eric Gunderson, Pat Sofia, Greg Ryan, Ben McCubbin, Jordan Grills, Parker Bonis, Scotty Tam-Grimshaw, Riley Bourbonnais, Jeffrey Stenglein (Matt Lane and Mike Rotolo in absentia)
And last but not least, let's hear it for the new mascot who stole the show, Mike Briganti's little cousin Emily (sorry Stevie and Trevor) !!!
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Oh yea, and after all the hoopla and ice cut, Katie Edinger took a turn at the mic with an efficient anthem to get the show on the ice. With the league leading Gates Chili Spartans in the house, we knew we were in for a game and perhaps extra innings! Three and a half minutes in Pat Egan rallied for the Spartans on the powerplay and then a couple of minutes later Steve Castner tallied at even strength with both goals assisted by Ryan Fitzgerald. Despite giving up 2 goals, Greece was still in the game as they outshot Gates 14-9 in the first frame.
But only 28 tics into the second period, Brandon Morgan would score to widen the Spartans lead to 3-zip, leaving Thunder fans a bit dejected. Fear not my fair weather fans as we fast forward four minutes to the tail end of a Thunder kill which saw Mike McNeil busting down the right side saying enough is enough, megging a nameless/faceless spartans' defenseman and deking Matt Ryan to put Thunder on the board with a shorty and restore hope in Thunderville. Just three minutes later Brandon Cheeseman followed suit, beating Ryan glove side and raising the roof with a shorty of his own to draw within near at 3-2. Mike Briganti logged the lone assist on Cheese's roofer and then came back a minute later to bury the equalizer on the backdoor as he gathered a centering pass by McNeil that hopped over Hostetter's stick. In the wake of all this excitement, freshman Jonathan Clark found himself in a precarious position, as Vyper blew out a tire at center ice, and Gates' leading scorer was bearing down on him 1 on 1. Clark passed the test with flying colors as he stood Egan up and forced the play wide buying time for his partner's recovery.
Back from the break it was game on with several nice defensive plays on display from Cumming with the melon save to Sherry with a nice block at the point to Vyper shutting down a 3 on 1 jail break and then later coming out of nowhere with a diving superman harry from behind the net. Solid team defense down the stretch meant we were goooooooooooooing to OT. With 2 minutes to go in the extra period, Gates took a time-out as Thunder went to the box on a marginal cross-checking call (for OT anyway). Thunder gutted it out and emerged from the kill unscathed with 34 seconds remaining, but as they say, it's not over until it's over, and with only 2 seconds left in the 5 minute sudden death overtime period, Pat Egan won the game for Gates as he slipped into the slot uncontested, caught a pass from the corner and hooked it around Cumming's right pad for the winner. Ouch, that hurt.
Thunder continues their slide with this heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss, although interestingly on pointstreak they listed Thunder's record as 2-3-0-1. Seems you get a point in the standings for an OTL.... a little something for the effort, which is Niiiiiiice!
Shots were 35-32 in Gates' favor with Ian Cumming making 31 saves for Greece and Matt Ryan stopping 29 for Gates. No gordita crunch to give out as it was not a very physical contest, but we do have a few stars. First one goes to Pat Egan for 2G/1A with the winner in OT for Gates. Second star goes to Ryan Fitzgerald who assisted on 3 of the 4 Gates goals earning himself a playmaker. Third star goes to Mike Briganti with a goal and assist including the tying goal that forced OT plus a nice sliding stack the shins block in the first period.
BTW, compliments of Chris Lerch, we now have a Wes Report blogspot and I'm not really sure what the h.e. double hockey sticks that is, but apparently you can read archived "Wes Reports" all the way back to beginning of last season and post comments. Time for this author to duck and cover, I guess.
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