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Intense is the word that comes to mind if you were to think about tonight's
game. The rink had been resurfaced, there was a big turnout, and GHL all-star Zach Myron returned to the GHL lineup,
after his basketball season ended in Regionals. Although we're sure Z would have rather been playing basketball tonight,
Zach's heart at least seemed to be into playing hockey. As usual, his defense was no less than stellar, but he played the
role of setup man extremely well, making smart passes and having great ice vision in an effort to contribute to
the scoring side of things. Zach M., along with Kelly, Jason, Collin, and Nich formed the Shnerts. Nich threw on the
goalie pads, due to the absence of Zach R., for the second game in a row, and focused on at least giving the
Shnerts a chance. He did more than that though. The Shnerts gained a 3-0 lead in the first game through hard work and
persistancy. Nich actually played well in goal and made a lot of saves through this first stretch of the game, however some
were very lucky, and at times, Nich played more goalie out of the goal than in. But he was getting the job done.
At 3-0 Kelly decided to interview Nich. He asked, "How does it feel to be having a shutout?" "I don't know," Nich mumbled.
"The net must seem pretty small for you tonight, huh?"
" I guess."
What Kelly didn't know was that the net was about to grow. After the Shmucks 3-0 deficit, Andrew,
Matt, Wayne, and Jamyn were tired, but they were still determined. The 3 goals scored on Travis were not soft. They
figured Nich was sure to brake some time, and all they could do was throw more quality shots at him. It paid off. Nich
Riveland, the stud goalie, working a shutout, transformed to Nich Sieveland, the dud goalie, working desperately to pull out
with a win. The Shmucks scored 4 goals in a relatively brief period of time to the Shnerts 1 goal and tied the
game up 4-4. Momentum had definitely shifted. But the Shnerts were not about to hand over the game to the Shmucks, even
though Nich's net was being flooded with pucks. "We are a team that dwells in the future, not the past, let's get a goal and
a win," Kelly shared in a team huddle. The team responded with a goal by Zach Myron, but Travis, personifying a
typical goalie, fought the goal. "The shot was taken beyong the red line!" cried Travis, "You're team was inside the blue
line." So it was a question of offsides. The goal was disallowed. Another Shnerts goal was disallowed when Travis claimed
he had covered up the puck before it had found the net. The Shnerts, though, finally did sneak a goal past Travis who had
stopped as many pucks as there are stars in a clear midnight sky. They took the game 5-4 in what was probably the longest
game of the season. After the game, Zach Myron commented, "The GHL seems to be at a higher level of play."
It was decided that the goalies would switch teams for the second game.
The Shnerts scored 3 soft goals on Nich before he could settle in. Over the course of the night, many pucks had flown
out of the rink and when the last puck handy flew out, the game was called with a final score of Shnerts 3, Shmucks 0.
Other Notes: Travis broke a second goalie stick in three weeks.
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