January 28 Game Report

For those of you reality tv junkies who risked life and limb heading south on 390 to Marketplace Mall in the middle of a blizzard thursday nite, just to catch a glimpse of the Jersey Shore cast, you missed out on all the fist-pumping action down at 123 Ling Road where the Lake Shore cast of Greece Thunder snookered the Hilton Cadets 3-2 in OT to climb into second place in the West Division. Thunder is now 6-3-1 in division play, tied for second with AQ at 13pts, although Thunder has a game in hand over AQ with 4 division games remaining against lower ranked teams, e.g. BP, CC, AQ, and IHS. Thunder's overall record is 7-5-2-1.

It's always strange being a visitor in your own building, although Thunder looked snappy in their road blacks, half expecting to hear another cadet crooner singing the anthem like last year, but it turned out to be a memorex instrumental complete with the Zildjians. Hilton outshot Greece 8-5 in a fairly boring first frame, although Thunder's D played extremely well forcing Hilton to shoot from the perimeter and allowing Cumming to see everything into the vault. Thunder enjoyed a late powerplay that bridged the first and second period, but could not get by Hilton's senior netminder on their first man advantage, perhaps due to the distraction of papa Joe's face hanging from the balcony by the office... what was that all about?

The sole marker in the second frame came 3.5 minutes in for Greece, when Curran O'Brien hooked a pass to Justin Simonelli, who then froze Hurlimann with a no-look dish to AC on the baseline for the conversion. Can I get a "Yeah ThunDerrrrrrrr"? Well of course I can cuz Laura and Clark (Christine that is) obliged, although they need to work on belting it out from the diaphragm (perhaps a few lessons with JR will do the trick). AC's tally fueled an extended flurry as Thunder pinned the Cadets in their own end for a good long while. Hots lead the charge in repeatedly thwarting Hilton's attempt to break out of captivity, McSkillet made several nifty saucers to keep Thunder on the attack, and Clark fired a shot on net that came to rest atop Hurlimann's butterflied right pad. Unfortunately, there was a quick whistle and Thunder never got the opportunity to poke it in. Greece generated numerous quality scoring chances on their rally that seemingly lasted the whole period, but the score stood still at 1-zip as Hilton drew a powerplay with a buck thirty four to go. Enter Vyper with a harry and 2 solid clears to bolster the kill and get Thunder to the break with their 1 goal lead still intact. Thunder dominated the second period with a shot margin of 12-5.

John Clark opened the third by showing Hilton's Andrew Harris to his seat for the Gordita Crunch of the Game. Poor kid must have missed the NO TRESPASSING and NO TOE DRAGGING signs posted outside the blueline. Tyler Grimshaw followed up with a textbook hip-check on the far wall to slow Hilton's attack, but this would only serve to strengthen Hilton's resolve, as they were simply not willing to wither away. Cumming was flopping around like a tuna on the deck of a commercial charter, making some brilliant pad and melon saves to keep the Cadet's at bay. But Hilton kept on coming and it eventually paid off, as Brian Hurlimann blasted a shot over Cumming's shoulder from from the top of the circle, assisted by Kolin Sawdey and Joe Palumbo, to put Hilton on the board with only 3.59 remaining in regulation. Then the unthinkable happened as Hilton came back a minute thirty later, breaking through Thunder's goal line stand with a shot by Corey Sherman, assisted by Nick Castronovo, that got deflected in by Cory Gurski for the go-ahead goal with just 2.31 left on the clock. Most teams would have folded their tent after that punch in the gut, but not Thunder, there is no other, they would not be denied. And so, they grabbed their lunch pails and went to work. Low and behold, a minute later Vypes hit Simmy with a pass coming through neutral, Simmy caught it with his skate, entered the zone, worked his way down the left side and centered it for Cheese who immediately redirected it upstairs for the GTG to force OT. Hilton controlled the play for the majority of the third, with a 14-9 shot margin, but the momentum was clearly Thunder's going into the five minute overtime.

Hearts were pounding with everyone biting their nails to the quick as the extra period was waning and Hilton took a time-out with 36 seconds left on the clock, leaving little time for either team to mount a charge. But having lost to Gates with only 1 second on the clock in OT earlier in the season, Thunder knew the importance of playing until the final horn and this time the tables were turned as the puck bounced out to the stick of Thunder Captain Brandon Cheeseman and he sniped the winner top-shelf where webby hides the cookies at his new house!

Shots overall were 29-24 Thunder, with Ian Cumming turning away 22 of the 24 he faced and Dan Hurlimann making 26 saves for Hilton. First star goes to the man with the C for netting the GTG to force OT and then coming back and claiming the GWG that set Thunder free, Brandon "the big cheese" Cheeseman. Second star goes to Justin Simonelli for distributing so well throughout the game and book-ending regulation with setups on Thunder's first two tallies. Third star goes to Tyler Grimshaw for a solid effort on the backend with several nice rushes to boot, a rather inspired effort given the broken hand. Honorable mention goes to Eric Hostetter for his gritty performance. Had he not been tackled in front Hilton's net (with no-call) he just may have lit the lamp! Can you believe only 1 penalty a side in that contest? Hats off to Hilton for a great battle for 49 minutes and 51 seconds of play. Happy Birthday to Mike Briganti was echoing from the stands. Happy Housewarming goes out to Webby from all the Thunder fans!