Bonus Vicis Hockey Somnium

The truncated opening night leaps-off with no downtime, once again. Some teams made appearances at the tournament in Farmer's Branch, in particular the Blue Devils. The Devils have added some potent members to their offensive lines and came away with a shoot-out victory after a three all tie to an Oklahoma City band of flyboys in the novice division. I know their were more than three games on but can't find the records for any of them. I only played the first period of the Patriots/Stickmen game, but I was told by a reliable source that the game was one by my Pats two to nothin'. Look up Wil Dobson (who seems to be popping-up all over the web) to find out what became of the Komet game, and which ever opponent they faced.

This session marks the beginning of the Saturday night D-league, and the downsized true I-league. Here's the best I can do. . . no additional commentary needed from the likes of you.

Saturday night D-league

Spiders (6-6-1) 4
Brewzers (3-10-0) 2

Bill Wessel shows-up in the season opener as a one man hockey machine, he scores the first two goals, unassisted, for an early Spider's lead. Steven Collyard tries to rally the Brew-crew with some aggressive play but finds himself in the box watching the Spiders hit the net again with a Wessel assisted Mike Ginnard goal. The Spiders build a four goal mountain when Arvin Manalo carries the puck down from the point and tucks the game piece behind the overwhelmed Mike Moore. After a rabid tongue-lashing from the net minder, the Brewzers come to life in the third. Steve Daniels takes the reigns and scores the first Brewzer goal. The second Brewzer goal comes from Dennis Sutton, unfortunately it's the last one. If the Spiders are trying to improve on last sessions final win total you wouldn't know it to look at the bench.

Real I-league

Puckers (5-4-2) 2
Shockers (5-6-0) 1

The Puckers welcome back their storied, franchise goaltender, Patrick Donaghue. Is this a permanent roster move or just a publicity stunt by the team that failed to live-up to their post season expectations? Jason Arias is the first Pucker to pay tribute to his goalie, in the form of a late opening frame goal. The Shockers counter with the tying shot from Matt Russell. Pucker offense really picks it up, throwing shots at a better than two for one toward the Skocker net and Joey Otsuka does fall once more, giving the game winner to Steve Niekamp. The Shockers were unhappy with the level of play in the so-called I-league last session, though they made a strong finish, what will they say after this manhandling?

Warriors (6-4-1) 2
Mutineers (4-7-0) 4

The Warriors are a shadow of the team they once were. The Mutes control the first two periods limiting the Warriors offense to three shots. For their part, a goal from Nathan Hamilton and a rare goal from Chris Kirton. In the closing frame the Warriors finally make their presence felt, Phil Brown cuts the Mutineer lead in half, but Hamilton gets it back. The Warriors get another goal from Brown leaving only one goal for the tie. . . Ryan Lewis drains the feed from Kirton to make an easy win for the Mutinerds. Ryan gets the win but a terrible save percentage allowing two goals on seven shots, hey, it's opening night.

Sidenote: it must suck to be a Sharks fan

Is this one of the most disturbing commercials currently on television?