Game 20-Primetime, 10-0 WIN (by forefit)
Game 19-Pikeys, 29-19 LOSSSpectrum was coming off a heart-breaking loss to Rico-Heat the previous week, without a goalie and only loosing by 3, the troops where looking forward to see how they’d match up vs. The Pikeys. Unfortunatly, Spectrum knew they were going to be missing their star player David Bordeaux, and Rookie sensation “The Germanator”, so call-ups were needed.
Two Venom players were called up for this game; LB Simon “The Nut” Pistachio, and P-Ryan “Wishbone” Wishnowski. Unfortunately, there were also a number of MIA’s for this one as well as Cisco Munilla and P, Wachs did not show.
Basically, Spectrum was going into this game in a bit of trouble, with 4 players who were all playing B at the beginning of the season, it was kind of a half Spectrum half Venom team, playing the powerhouse Pikeys.
The Pikeys brought their A game scoring 15 times in he first frame, the shining bright spot for Spectrum was Norman “Bates” Taylor who had 6 of Spectrums 8 of the half and highlighted by his 5 in a row.
The second half was much of the same as The Pikeys mostly laid off the gas and cruised, but tried to pull off a cheesy flop in the last 5 minutes a number of times ala Spartak (disappointing). But there were flashes of brilliance as Norm Taylor set up his favorite target (Ward Hrabi) a few times for some spectacular goals.
On the other side of the ball, Jeremy “Chopper” Chopek scored a game high 8 goals, “ Chopper played well (although he traveled on 5 of his 8 goals), that is something those refs are going to have to watch in the post season, I’m gonna make sure of that”. said captain Kaufmann.
”Look, Kaufmann can Bitch and moan all he wants, we beat them fair and square! As for me, He better get used to it, I dominated in High school, I dominated in B, I killed at Jr. Nationals, and with the Canadian Jr. Team, so it should be no suprize that I’m cutting up Spectrum and their Half A /Half B Team. Next year I’ll probably go back to Newfoundland with Dre and rip up that Newfie pro League before I do the same when I get picked up by some team in Europe…so, EAT!” said a confident Chopek
”The bench was looking pretty lean, and Venom had just finished loosing to Wolfpac, so I asked Chris Blanford if he wouldn’t mind throwing on The Spectrum white and green, and of course he said yes!” said coach Kauf.
Not only that The Pikeys had just added a ringer Andre Auger, former WTHL MVP who was playing Handball in the pro leagues in Newfoundland for the St. John’s Gapers, to help them through an injury situation which occurred when their team bus flipped outside of Saskatoon on their last road trip of the season. Spectrum knew this game was over before it started, out manned and out gunned!
It was like I was on one of those Vintage Phoenix teams of yesteryear, wow! Just like when I watched it as a kid”, said an astonished Mike Gauthier.
Game 18-RicoHeat, 30-27 LOSS This was going to be a good game for Spectrum as it was going to be CB- Norm Taylor's return to Handball after a 4 month break, but the game was over shadowed by 2 missing players, LW-Cisco Munilla, and moreover G-Sean Ashton.
Rico called a timely time-out about halfway through the Half to address and adjust to an equally surprised Spectrum team. It must of worked, because after the TO Rico decided to utilize their strengths and attack Spectrum's weakness in net by having Wild Bill "The Colt" Coulter shoot from 9...10...11 and 12m on a over matched Ward Hrabi.
The second half started with more of the same, a penalty shot scored by Chris Kaufmann, a tonne more goals scored by "The Colt", on this night Rico ended up playing a great final 3 quarters, and that was enough for the win. Bill Coulter had 12 goals and was the dream killer for Spectrum. On the other hand Spectrum's scoring was more evenly spread out with Bordeaux scoring 6 and Bill Chartrand scoring a season high 5, looking exceptionally on, he wins player of the game, with honorable mention going to acting goalie Ward Hrabi.
Once again, P-Ward Hrabi had to suit-up in net taking him off the court against a very physical RicoHeat team, that showed up with 4 subs, while Spectrum only had 2.
Thus Chris Kaufmann had to play the full game at Pivot, which he hasn't had to do since last year when he was 55 LBS bigger.
The game started off suprizingly with Spectrum jumping out to a 8-1 lead, with everyone on Spectrum seeming to raise their game to the next level, every shot was a good shot.
At the end of the half thanks to a TO by Spectrum after Rico scored a late goal with 11 secs. left and down 16-14, Philly "P-Wo" Wachs drew a 2min penalty and a penalty shot with no seconds on the clock. The Penalty shot was successfully shot by The Kauf, as he has been on fire in that aspect for the past 2 weeks, making the score at the half 16-15.
Game 17- Spartak, 23-21 WIN After a month and a half off, Spectrum was in tough against Big Brother, Spartak. Spectrum was going to be a bit rusty for sure, but the night before coach Kaufmann learned that three players where going to be MIA, P. Wachs in Calgary at a funeral, Cisco- breaking the team snow sport ban, and Wesley "Big Guns" Barker. Along with Ben in Calgary, and Ward Hrabi coaching in Regina.
When Spectrum arrived at RRCC they were informed that Spartak's self professed leading scorer would not be attending the game, CB/LB- Aedan McCarron partied a little too Hardy on Sat. night, so Spartak who was already playing without LB-Jade Young (who is in Calgary working, would be playing with 5 court players to Spectrum's 6 (with 2 subs on the bench).
The Game got off to a fast paced start with both Teams showing a little bit of nervousness. Spectrum's defence capitalized well off the bat, but with 3-4 turnovers b the newer players on the team, followed by a bunch of bad line calls on the wings, and a lack of rebounds recovered by Spectrum as G-Sean Ashton made save after save. Chalk all of this up to the inexperience of these few players, plus the unfamiliarity of the Team and "The Germanator" Julian Pfugmelder, or maybe the rust of a month and a half off of Handball, who knows! The score at Half was 11-10 for Spectrum.
The Second half, the team began to settle down a bit, and Spectrum began to pull ahead, then the penalties began to come and they came like a waterfall
with "Germanator" taking 4 mins, Bordeaux-4 mins, Gauthier 2 mins, Pistachio- 2 mins, for a grand total of 12 mins or about a quarter of the game.
"Boys, we really have to start to try and curb this trend, it's killing us!", said Coach Kauf during the Time-out and reiterated after the game.
Spectrum was ahead by 2 with 3 mins left, when coach Kauf called a Time-out and told the boys who where playing into Spartak's hands by speeding up the game even more, while the game needed to be slowed down and possession was the name of the game. Then after a quick Spartak shot flew 4 bricks past the net by usually steadfast player Kris Kendall, who really can't do it all, Spectrum slowly moved down the court and the Call-up Simon Pistachio scored the final goal of the game winning it for The Green and white.
player of the game: Sean Ashton, excellent in net, but still throwing away too many balls!
Coach Kauf called up two players from Venom, who had the weekend off, P-Ryan "Wishbone" Wishnowski, and B-Simon "I'm not a nut" Pistachio to bolster the team that would be playing without any subs without the help.
In Defence of Spectrum, they where playing the game with 3 players who started the year off in the B division with Venom.
Game 16- Spartak, 10-0 WIN (by forefit)
Game 15-Pikeys, 32-18 LOSS A big game for Spectrum who has played these boys well for the past 3 games. Spectrum had a 3-man bench while The Pikey’s had none. This was the First game for the newly acquired lefty and RB-Julian Pflugfelder, who although is only seventeen looks to be a great pick-up for Spectrum’s playoff run.
”Hey, we all know that this team is lacking in the scoring department, especially from the right side, don’t get me wrong, I love Bill Chartrand, but for the amount of minutes he plays, his output is lacking.
The game started off on a disappointing note with birthday goalie and resident drunk, Sean “Scotty” Ashton not showing up again. Sean told the Kauf that he’d be there and not to bother calling up Al Lagasse…..MISTAKE!
In the second half opened with a controversy with team rep Chris Kaufmann not putting pivot Chris Kaufmann on the game sheet and receiving 2 2minutes penalties for that, it was all down hill from there with The Pikeys adjusting to the play of Spectrum’s newly found balanced attack. Blocking David Bordeaux at least 5 times, disheartening him to stop shooting. The Pikeys outscored and embarrassed Spectrum 18-7 in the second half, with Matt Rayner scoring 5 of his 6 goals in the half.
He (Bill) is able to play at this level, maybe he just needs some time off the court to take a breath and re-adjust, and see some things from the bench. I think Julian will take a bit of pressure off Billy, score some goals and light a fire under Bill, we’ll see.” Said manager Chris Kaufmann.
Chris Kaufmann started off the game in net, not doing so well, and then replaced by Pivot Ward Hrabi. Spectrum got off to an expected bad start, with not having a goalie and all, being down 9-2 after the 1st quarter, by the end of the half Spectrum battled back to only be down 14-11 at the buzzard, thanks to some timely goals (4) by the newly acquired German Juvenile, Julian Pflugfelder.
Offensively Spectrum was snake bitten hard by the outstanding play of Pikeys goalie Tadou Harikawa. Who stopped 3 of 3 penalty shots and many other shots from all over the court, while The Pikeys were able to pick the corners on the inexperienced Ward Hrabi.
Player of the Game: Julian “The Germanator” Pflugfelder, who showed flashes of his scoring brilliance with his team co-leading 4 goals.
Game 14-Rico- Heat, 24-20 LOSSWith B-mo back in town things were looking up for Spectrum. Also, this was going to be the first game for RB-Jullian Pflugerlder who moved from PQ on a High school exchange from Germany, but due to paperwork was unable to play in the first game of the weekend.
Spectrum's bench was unusually big with 3 bodies on the bench to Rico’s 2 bench bodies, thing looked in favor of the white and green. The Half started off well for the boys, they decided to walk-off big man Tom Miko. Chris Kaufmann, who started at Pivot got open on the line 3 times but failed to score on the hot goaltending of Rolly Perrault who played a strong game for the Heat. Spectrum ‘s scoring in the first half was capped off with David Bordeaux scoring 6 in the half. The boys found themselves only down by 1 in the half 10-9.
The second half was truly a goalie’s gem with both goalies playing extremely well, while scoring was a bit harder to come by for Spectrum, defensively with walking off Giant, Tom Miko by Chris Kaufmann, held Tom to no goals the other guys broke down in the second half and began to cheat and come off the 6m line and that was subsequently exploited by a not so dangerous player usually, Pivot- James “Scooter” Senebald scored all 6 of his goals in the second half. That ultimately was the downfall of the game. Spectrum lost the close fought game against the second place team 24-20. So close and yet so far away!
Player of the game: Birthday boy and goalie, Sean Ashton! Who only threw the ball away twice, and made the saves he needed to make plus a few extra. Happy Birthday buddy!
Game 13-Primetime, 25-20 WIN This games started off on a bad note, P-wo, Jamma, Big Guns where all MIA, while Ward Hrabi was still serving the final of his two game red card.
”I had to make a couple call-ups, Primetime had 2 Subs and have much younger legs than us, although they only had one of their 4 new guys “The Abyss Imports” Eli Vieira, they still were going to be tough. So I looked at the Venom bench, and I could have called up any of those guys, but I knew 2 would be enough, as the subs would see limited time. These two guys have the size, and although it is their first year each in the W.T.H.L., and they both only have one year of High school experience! Both have been having amazing seasons in the minors.”, said coach Kauf.
Spectrum started off the game a bit slow, but picked up the pace by the second quarter, tying it up at 10 before the half. Kauf gave his “New half, 0-0, let’s win the half!” speech.
Luckily for Spectrum the schedule was kind to them as Venom had a double header sandwiched around Spectrum’s games, so Kauf called up Pivot- Ryan “Whishbone” Wishnowski, and Back- Simon “The Nut” Pistachio.
The boys came out flying in the second half, lead by scrappy Smurf who ran the floor like a dog, scoring 5 of his 6 goals in the half. Everyone else played well too, really picking up their offensively and playing great defensively” Spectrum won the Half and subsequently the game, 25-20 putting a little more room between them and Primetime for that last playoff spot.
Player of the game: Smurf, for co-leading the team with 6 goals and stepping it up when we needed you to.
Game 12-Spartak,33-22 LOSS Once again a bunch of no shows, this time goalie Sean Ashton and CB-Wes Barker had a work commitments, Cisco Munilla-MIA, Jamma Gullet-MIA. Phillip Wachs showed up, and Pat Stanley, who just happened to be at the gym with his shoes as he was coaching Gambit, thus would be PhoenixII 's first call-up of the season. Mike Gautier was also forced to play in this game as well. Spectrum called up Superstar B Goalie, and former A goalie Al Lagasse to play against his former club, Spartak.
Once again, Spectrum got off to a poor start getting down 15-9 at the half. Kaufmann gave his speech (see halftime in games 10&11).
The second half was pretty poor as well even though Kris Kendall sprained his ankle. Neither team played defence too well, Wachs had 7 at the end of the game showing some old school form, while Bordeaux and Kaufmann had 5 a piece. On the other side of the ball the unlikely heroes were Keith Ginther, and Carlisle Wright with 7 apiece, while Young and Curtaz had 6, ouch. It was a score fest for Spartak. Who said these guys have lost a step.
Player of the Game: Philly Motown Wachs who looked great offensively, wow!
Game 11-Pikeys,25-20 LOSS This game started off on a bad note, with a few players M.I.A. Jamma Gullet, Wes Barker, and Cisco Munilla without notice, while Phil Wachs and Chris Greenhaulgh phoned The Kauf earlier in the week to let him and the team know they wouldn't be there.
So as the game was about to start Spectrum only had 5 players available Bill Chartrand, David Bordeaux, Ward Hrabi, Scotty Ashton and Chris Kaufmann. Things were looking a bit tough as Spectrum found itself going up against the first place team, The Pikeys. Luckily for Spectrum Mike Gauthier, who was on the IR list and wasn't planning on playing, but was forced to play. Also, resident gym-rat and Venom Team Captain, "The Chad" Klassen was also in the Gym and agreed to suit up for his third game for the Parent squad.
Once again, Spectrum got out of the gates very slowly and the half started off with Mike Gauthier getting a warning and subsequently 2X2 min penalties for not being on the game sheet, so Spectrum was down two men for 2 mins, the score at the half was 14-7. Kauf gave his patented speech about "only being down by 7 and it's a new half,blah, blah, blah," Isn't this speech getting a little tired boys!?
The second half started with a bang, with Spectrum pulling to within 2 of the first place team and then Ward "Paco" Hrabi, who has complained about Pikeys pivot Ray Timlick's dirty play in the past, was given a two min penalty by the officials, Ward who was visibly upset turned around and told Ray,
"Hey Ray, If you want to play like that I'm gonna pound you, I'm gonna smack you so hard in the face you're not gonna get up! IT'S HAMMER TIME!"
Ward was Red Carded right after that for "uttering threats", once again putting Spectrum down 2 for another 2 minutes and missing it's star Pivot for the remainder of the game and the subsequent 2 games. After that Spectrum held in there but because of lack of legs, due to no subs or the fact that the team played down 2 men twice in one game, Spectrum gave up 3 unanswered goals at the end of the game to loose 25-20.
Speaking about the game, a disheartened coach Kauf said,
Finally, Norm Taylor who hasn't suited up since Nov. 30 and happened to be reffing the game before saw Spectrum's dilemma and whom we were playing and agreed to take a break from his hiatus. So spectrum went into the game with 8 players on its roster.
"Hey, what can I say, we are doing it to ourselves, we had no subs, where is everyone? We also take way too many penalties, so far this season we have something like 50+ minutes in penalties (that's a whole game, or 5 minutes per game)that we play with a man down, we are doing it to ourselves. We really need to smarten up, we played these guys well, we always have. I'm tired of serving games up to those three teams! Something has got to give!"
Player of the game: Norm Taylor, for scoring 5 in his 2-month absence. Thanks Norm.
Game 10-Rico-heat, 32-23 LOSS.This evening's game was huge in the fact that if Rico won, they'd be in second place and if Spectrum won they'd be in 3rd place! The league was a close-knit affair.
Spectrum coach Chris Kaufmann spoke to the boys at the half and said,
The team made some adjustments and began to play pretty well, especially on the right side, where Chris Kaufmann who replaced an injured starter and lefty Mike Gauthier on the wing. The Kauf. who spoke to Rt. Back, Bill Chartrand and told him how to beat the guys from Rico playing defence on that side, the boys began to implement their adjustments and "The Kauf" scored 5 goals on 5 passes from Bill Chartrand, almost in a row. The fifth goal and the play of the game was capped off by Kauf shouting at his defender,U of W basketball superstar,
Spectrum won the half 16-13, but lost the game 32-23.Player of the game, Bill Chartrand who had his regular 2 goals but showed the Kauf and the rest of the team how coach-able he is, without bitching!
In the first half Rico came out and played much harder than Spectrum, winning the first half 19-7, with Tom Miko and "Wild" Bill Coulter scoring 5 a piece, conversely Spectrum's leading scorer was Bill Chartrand with 2.
"Boys, the first half is over, put it out of your minds! New half, new game, 0-0 starting right now! Play some D, Score some goals and have some fun!".
"Hey Rhett, you got a pencil?"
"No." Replied Rhett
"Well you better get one, so you can start taking notes!" quipped "The Kauf"
Game 9-Primetime, 26-21 WIN.This game was huge to get the squad back up to .500 after a devastating loss to Spartak the night before. This game was also the season debut of Philly (Motown) Wachs, due to the departure of Woody from the team possibly for the remainder of the regular season.
The game started off on a bad note with goalie Sean Ashton not showing up to the game, and Chris Kaufmann(who started one game last year between the pipes, and almost won, vs. Spartak who won the league) hitting the pipes, and only one sub on the bench. The Kauf got shelled making a few saves, but the defence certainly didn't make it any easier on him. Primetime broke out with 4 fast break goals in the first 6 minutes, when Ward Hrabi who has played many games in net for PhoenixII and Phoenix when they were still in the League, called The Kauf out of the pipes and went in and had a much better game. At this point of the game the score was 10-3 for Primetime.
Spectrum tightened things up on Defence after this point, and perhaps Primetime, who was playing without their Abyss players began to feel that they did enough to win and shut their offence down. Spectrum battled back to only be down 14-7 when the Kauf called "time out". In the Time out he gave an emotional speech, to tell the boys to play defence for Ward, that we were only down by 7 with 2 mins left to play, when we get back on the floor, run a screen for David to score on the insueing 9m, play one hard defence with not allowing Primetime a good shot on net, go back down the court and run some clock down, and score another. Every thing was excited except Spectrum didn't score, and the ball was turned over, a scramble insued with a bad shot on Ward from Primetime Goalie Jaret "Verbal" McLaughlin from centre, which Ward easily caught off a bounce off the back wall and lobbed into the oppositions net. 14-9 at half for Primetime.
After the half it was more of the same for Spectrum as it was in the 2nd quarter of the game, Spectrum showed their poise and experience, scoring 17 goals in the second half to Primetime's 7 goals. David Bordeaux finished the game with an outstanding 11 goals.
David responded to questions about his game with "Hey, it was an early morning game, I Love early morning games!"
Player of the game: Ward Hrabi, who was stellar in net and looked like a pro.
Speaking about David's 11 goal game coach Kaufmann said "Yeah, he was amazing, That screen that we run for him is working well lately, they know its coming and the defence and the goalie just can't stop it, but these kids had a first half and we sucked, c'mon 14-9 in the first half, our team for whatever reason just doesn't play too well in the 1st half as of late and we have to do something about that!"
Game 8-Spartak, 35-21 LOSS. Spectrum defiantly did not start off the 2004 year where 2003 left off, the got spanked by Spartak loosing by 14 points, 35-21. Spartak came out flying in the first half scoring 15 in it, Spectrum had 10. Spectrum had a pretty bad second half as well only scoring 11 to Spartak's 20.
"The Major problem with this team is that we are resting on our Laurels and depending too much on our first half. This was a huge game it was for third place, had we won we would have been 3 pts up on them (Spartak)and we could have had a bit of breathing room, but now instead we are a point back, and in 4th place.", said coach Kaufmann.
Spectrum's scoring was pretty evenly distributed with everyone with a goal, even Chris Greenhaulgh who was sitting in for a semi-injured Mike Gauthier. The call-up didn't look out of place scoring 3 and drawing a penalty shot.
Rob Wood informed The Kauf that this might be his last game with the club this year, as he "isn't enjoying the game, anymore!"
"Chris "Smurf" Greenhaulgh scored some goals but really brought his game which is a speed game to the A Div. and didn't look too out of place, he works hard and that translates into his success.", said the Kauf.
On the other side of the ball Spartak had 5 players with over 6 goals.
player of the game: Chris "Smurf" Greenhaulgh
Game 7-Pikeys, 24-24 tie.
Spectrum’s last game of the 2003 year, The Second place Spectrum THC (3-3) was playing against the second place team, The Pikeys (5-1). This was going to be a big game due to a few League standing scenarios:
A- Spectrum wins, and they retain 3rd place.
Big in the fact that Primetime will be newly renovated in the New Year and WILL start to win games, and WILL compete for that last playoff spot. So while, Spectrum and Spartak are defiantly looking up to catch Rico and The Pikeys, they have to keep an eye on rear view mirror, so not to get caught!
The game was going to be a tough one, in the fact that GM Kaufmann received two calls on Sat. One from ‘Cisco, who informed The Kauf that he injured his shoulder snowboarding the day before and would not be able to suit up. The other, from Robbie Joe Wood who was heading out of town “Last minute”, and “couldn’t make the game”.
The game was further complicated when two players showed up late, by 3 minutes. Goalie, Sean Ashton and LW- Wes Barker showed up just as the game was starting. Coach Kaufmann (who was in the pipes again this season), told both players that,
Defensively, Kaufmann and Barker decided to pinch their wing to prevent Jeremy Chopeck (who burned Spectrum last game for nine goals) from getting the ball on the move from the wing that combined with the great defence of David Bordeaux and the great game that Sean (Scotty) Ashton put together, helped Spectrum hold Chopper only 5 goals. At the half Spectrum was dominant and was up on the Pikeys 12-9.
Spectrum started off the half blowing the lead in less than 5 minutes, falling behind by 3 with seven minutes left, but showed a little grit fighting back tying it up with a minute left. The Pikeys missed the net on the subsequent shot, but blew enough time of the clock, so that Spectrum couldn’t put anything together offensively. The game ended 24-24.
Of the game, one Spectator said,
Player of the game: Cowboy, nice game!
B- Spectrum Looses, and Spartak beats Primetime; Spectrum and Spartak tied for 3rd, Pikeys tie for 1st (depending on the outcome of Rico vs. Primetime next week), and the gap between 1st and 3rd widen!
C- Spectrum Looses, Primetime wins; Spectrum retains 3rd (3-4), Spartak 4th (2-4) and Primetime brings up the rear (1-6).
When Kauf got home he burned up the phone lines and keyboard to try to make sure that we had enough legs to make the whole game. Finally he reached B Div. Rookie sensation and 2003 W.H.S.T.H.L. All-star Joel (Lody) Lodewyks. The Kauf talked to Joel three weeks ago and told him to be ready for “the call” after the “Red Card Debacle” vs. the same Pikeys team, but didn’t need to use him in the last 2 games, due to the signing of ‘Cisco Munilla and the fact that Ben Moore was able to stay in town for the past two weeks. The team would have two substitutes for the game.
“They wouldn’t be starting, and to sit on the bench!”, as he wanted to set an example to the boys on the team, who he thinks that aren’t taking the game, team and their teammates seriously enough. The Kauf stayed in net for two shots, not allowing a goal, and then subbed Sean into the game, and subbed Barker into the game, just to make a point. This seemed to be a great move, as the boys came out flying! Scoring fast and scoring often, with 5 players “bending the twine”, on a very balanced attack, Jamma had a pretty good first half with 2, Kauf with 3, Bordeaux with 3, The Gautch with 2, all lead the way!
“yeah, it was a good game, but you get the feeling that both these teams play well against each other, just enough to make it interesting. Sooner or later one of these teams won’t show up to play and it’s gonna be ugly,
U-G-L-Y.
You ain’t got no alibi,
You Ugly!
You Ugly!”
Game 6-Rico-Heat, 23-19 win. Spectrum's first game at Lipsett Hall this season was against the undefeated Rico-Heat team (4-0), at the dreaded 8:30 am time slot. Traditionally this time spot has not worked out too well for the Spectrum squad, due to a few reasons such as Rye, Beer and Gin!
The game got started with Rico going up on a bit of a lead, 12-6 with about 7 mins left in the half, when Captain Chris Kaufmann called a time out, to settle down the troops and to go to a 5-1 deny on Tom Miko who had 5 goals already. This seemed to settle down the troops and Miko didn't have a goal for the rest of the half. Spectrum went on a bit of a scoring run towards the end of the half and scored 4 goals to their 1 and the half ended at 13-10 for Rico-Heat.
The second half was the David Bordeaux Show with David scoring 7 much-needed goals in the half. The team went away from the 5-1 Deny, and Miko still didn't score throughout the second half. Stand in goalie from our B affiliate, Venom, had a great second half. In fact Rico only managed to score 6 in the second. Spectrum drove the net quite well all game creating 5 penalty shots (doubling the season total), of which the team converted 4/5 (vs. A Division ledged) Rolly Perreaux.
"That might have been the biggest win of our (Spectrum's) brief history! We beat Rico and those guys were undefeated.", quipped CB-Ben Moore who may have only had 2 goals but was instrumental in this and all wins this season.
"Yeah, we played a great game. We did a lot of things well, it was a little sketchy there in the beginning, but we adjusted and came out on top!
Fortunately, the night before the boys were able to keep these demons in check (maybe due to our expanding age?), and everyone who was expected to be there was there, with 3 subs.
Spectrum won the half 13-6, and subsequently the game 23-19.
I think the fact that we had a few more subs than them 3-1, was a big factor, they just died, the subs were big, we had a lot of fresh legs and we did a good job of subbing people in and out. The 5-1 worked well!", said coach Chris Kaufmann."Hey, we are .500 with one game remaining vs. the Pikeys. That's gonna be a huge game (especially with Primetime signing Pan am Games National Team players: RB-T. Nott and LW-Ryan Biggs and adding CB-Roy Duquette and P-Eliah Vierra), it could give us some more breathing room at worst, and keeps us in the hunt for second place.
Who on this team doesn't want to go into the Christmas break on a 3 game win streak, with a win percentage over .500, and being the hottest team in the A Div. (beating the top two teams in the Division), wow!
It could be an early Christmas for Spectrum"
Game 5-Primetime, 38-28 win.
This game was set up to be a very interesting game, with 3 players red carded (G-Ashton, LB-Bordeaux, and CB-Norm Taylor), and 2 players answering the call of the team and coming out to help Spectrum out!
The team also replaced Sean Ashton (red carded) with their emergency back-up goaltender and goalie from last season, Al Lagasse. Considering that Al had only played one game this season, and that it had been a month since he had seen any game action. How would Al do against some “A” caliber shots? This would be a big game for both Al and the team.
The game started out as expected when you play the young “A” upstarts, strictly run and gun with a fast paced tempo, but Spectrum come out firing from the start with Rob Wood, who has been shooting well all season, scoring with a glorious shot from 9m over the defence of Primetime, after that Spectrum went on a 5-0 run with Al making saves on the Primetime shooters left, right and centre, “He defiantly brought his A Game.”, said Spectrum red carded goalie who through out the game could be heard yelling in astonishment at Al’s saves, Al played a wonderful game.
Spectrum played exceptionally well offensively in the first half with steals, blocks and some great shots. Winger, Mike “The Gauth” Gauthier came out flying in the first half having his best half of the season, scoring 3 goals. Highlight of the half was a two part play when winger, Chris Kaufmann anticipated an errand pass by Primetime, stole it and went coast to coast uncontested to the net, jumped in at the 6 and blew it passed Primetime’s back-up goalie (as Verbal was also red carded last week), but missed the net from 4m. “I am guilty of thinking too much”, said Chris Kaufmann of that shot “I had got through, but as I was shooting, it didn’t occur to me that he (Karam) wasn’t their regular goalie, and I tried to squeeze it short post on him, maybe I tied a little too much, I defiantly got too fancy, I wish I could take that one back!”. The team jeered The Kauf. on the way back to their 6m, as well they should.
Spectrum had a huge lead going into the second half for the first time in 3 years, since they ran the gauntlet in “B”, so the mood was rather light and that was a nice feeling, with jokes flying at halftime.
After the half, Spectrum decided to go their 5-1 defence, walking off young phenom #33 Eric “A.A. Jr.” Sjoberg, as he seems to be emerging as Primetime’s trigger man (3 goals in 1st half). Spectrum scored 20 in the second half but once again ran into some penalty trouble with Ben Moore, who lipped off at the ref (we got to stop doing this guys), and Mike “The Gauth” Gauthier grabbed at the ball as one of the Primetime played got through and shot at the 6m, got a 2 min. penalty within a 30 seconds of Ben’s Penalty.
”I think that was the outcome that we needed. I think that game is going to go a long way to help erase the pain of the past two games and all the red cards that we got, and lets be honest, It’s always nice to win big!”, said coach Chris Kaufmann. “It’ll be a different situation next week when we play Rico-heat next week, it’s going to be like going from feast to famine!”
Player of the game was a tough decision this week, with Mike Gauthier putting the ball in on a regular basis, or Gjaba who looked like he was starting to feel a little more comfortable with the “Canadian Game”, Ward Hrabi also was very strong on the line with 6 goals.
play of the game was Ward Hrabi’s goal in the second half, as he pulled a Kaufmann, and stole the ball on defence, rushed up the court, with two Primetimers chasing him from behind, ward got turned around facing Spectrum’s net, with 2 players draped all over him, he pulled a Kypers and backhanded it into the net for the best goal of the game.
Ben Moore decided to stay in town and not go back to work in Calgary and to play for the team for an extra weekend in light of the team’s personnel problems (red cards) that the team encountered, and long time player ‘Cisco Munilla decided to re-join the team after sorting out some “personal issues” and renegotiating his contract for the season.
On one of the next plays, Ckauf4 stole the ball again on a bad pass, and dribbled through 3 Primetime players, switching hands, crossovers, totally NBA like, brought the ball to the 6m line, jumped in and blew this one past the back-up goalie, Khan.
After a well timed “time out” with 35 seconds left in half, Spectrum scored on a designed play, to finish off the half with a 18-12 lead.
Primetime then went to a man on man defence which really pressured the 4 spectrum players on the court, and Spectrum turned the ball over 3 times for 3 more goals before the half , making the half a lot closer than it was 20-16. Spectrum won the game 38-28.
But the player of the game award goes to back-up goalie Alan Lagasse, who looked as great as he ever has in net, ever.
Game 4-Pikeys, 25-18 loss.
"So, I went to the comedy club on Saturday night, and a Handball game broke out."
The story of Spectrum vs. Pikeys 11/08/03 8:00pm at RRC 18-25 loss.
The first half of this match was actually quality enough to convince Francisco " 'Cisco" Munilla to attempt a comeback to the sport, and the second half was enough to force Norm Taylor to quit.
Unfortunately, rather than just leave the gym, Ashton opted to offer to wipe the cat-that-ate-the-canary smirks off of some Pikey faces, and things darn near turned full scale riot. The referees announced they were calling the game off; at a 0-0 tie; the players were yelling; there was pushing and shoving; the gym was threatening to erupt; and in the midst of all this the referees RENEGGED their decision to call the game and decided to let play continue.
TSN turning point right there. Calling the game off would have been the LAST good call these two men made for the rest of the night.
Spectrum appeared unshaken, despite losing their goaltender, bringing in Venom Star Chad Klassen to mind the net, picking up and starting over. They even looked like they might pull it off with sheer force of will... Ben Moore stepped up to lead Spectrum's scoring with 7 big ones ,and the wily Ward Hrabi (this viewer's "player of the game" for class and effort) bagged 6 all by himself. Their spirits were high; they were determined and ready to work for it. Under normal circumstances, it would have been enough to best the Pikeys, even with Jeremy Chopeck scoring 9 goals....
Normal it was not. There were more bad calls than I will waste bits mentioning. Spectrum's 16 penalty minutes compared to the Pikeys' 4 minutes make it look like the boys in green beat these kids up, but that wasn't the case at all. The game disintegrated into nothing short of a joke. It wasn't just the penalties; it was allowing play to start before the whistle; it was moving the ball from one end of the gym to another for reasons no one could guess; it was asking a Spectrum player to escort Sean Ashton from the gym, and then whistling for play to begin without allowing that player to return to the court after performing said task.
I think they were filming a "how not to referee" video. The Ref’s gave David Bordeaux 3 two min. penalties, and Norm Taylor, frustrated, told one of the refs he was a "shitty referee", and was also red carded.
The final score was25-18 Pikeys.
Kudos to ALL the players on both teams for staying as cool as you did. The Pikeys can't be proud of that joke masquerading as a win on their record; the Spectrum boys sure wouldn't be. What should've happened? When the ref calls the game, he needs to have the stones to CALL THE GAME, and not be bullied by fans and players. And players: when a game is out of control like that....forfeit. Have some respect for yourselves, your opponents, and your sport. This game was a mockery.
At least the spectators had some laughs, I guess.
Article by an "anonymous fan".
Both teams looked tight and well matched, despite Spectrum missing half its bench ( where DO these guys go? Woody? Chartrand? Jamma? Seabass? thanks for comin' out, guys). All spectators on hand were pumped for more of the same solid action they'd been treated to in the first 25. More big shots, more taut succession from both teams; more of the Pikey's unreal speed; more of Spectrum's control and experience....the score at the half: Spectrum 10- Pikeys 9
Yeah. Good thing 'Ciso left at half time. I wish I had.
With the score still 10-9, shortly into half two, Spectrum goaltender Sean Ashton abandons the net in a valiant effort to control a stray ball. The combat for said ball was an out-of-control scramble of arms and legs and bounces...pretty sloppy shit, with the result of the melee being the ball smacked out of play and the bodies piled on the ground with Sean lying face down on the boards at the bottom of the stack after having been trampled down from behind and both sides.
Penalties galore, one would think. Should have been whistled down long before things GOT that far, one might think.
The Referee handed a red card out to Sean Ashton, saying he deliberately elbowed an opposing player, there was a bit of a melee after the call between Sean and a few Pikeys players, Sean had to be escorted out of the gym. The crowd was in stitches at the pure comedy of the call....
Game 3-Spartak, 22-21 loss.
The Second half was just as entertaining, with both teams putting on a scoring spectacle scoring 25 goals in the second half.
So close, but so far away!
"It was a Highly entertaining game, best of the year by far! I thought you guys were going to pull it off, and you almost did!", said Spectrum Super fan Tara Kozak.
Player of the Game - Ben Moore, who was dominate out there scoring 4 goals at much needed times.
The Third game of the season was against "Big Brother", Spartak. The team, as usual was pumped up for this one as we play friends, ex teammates, enemies, etc.
The game was back and forth, back and forth, the whole game, Spartak scoring a few, then Spectrum scoring a few. The Score at the Half was Spatak 10, to Spectrum 8, but the Spectrum boys had just fought to fire in a couple last moment goals.
The game went down to the wire, to the very end, spectrum won the half 13-12, but it wasn't enough to win the game, Spartak scored with about a min. left to go up by 2,Spectrum replied with calling their time-out, after the time-out they scored a goal with 45 seconds left to get to within one, and played Man on man, hopping that they could force a turnover, and score to tie it up, but Spartak scored on the Man on man to pull ahead by 2 again. With 10 seconds left on the clock the whistle went after the goal, Spectrum flew down the court, got the ball to a streaking Pivot on the line (Chris Kaufmann) with 1 second left on the clock, put the ball past Spartak's goalie Paul Courchaine, to fall to Spartak by only 1 goal.
Game 2-Rico-Heat, 28-20 loss.
The second game of the season got off to a bad note when 4 players were "No Shows"; Spectrum only had one man on the bench.
The team started off playing fairly tight, and Rico took advantage of it, putting in 4 goals before Spectrum finally got on the board, but not through not trying, Spectrum dropped or threw away 6 of their first ten shots, with no goals.
Spectrum finally were able to bring the game closer with the help of B-Robbie-Joe Wood who was magic on this day, all of his first 4 shots beat Rocco-heat goalie "Crazy" Clint Enabled, this helped to give the team a burst of confidence and by the end of the 1st half Spectrum found itself only down by 2.
The second half started out great, with both teams trading blows at a pretty even pace, but Spectrum pulled to within one goal, but in the 4th quarter the team ran out of gas and it was pretty evident, poor passes, a lot of shots over top, and no one hustling back on Defense. Shut Down!
Rico-heat's top scorer was Bill "The Colt" Coulter who tallied 11 goals, Spectrum was lead by Woody who bent the twine 6 times, what is going to happen when this guy shakes the "rust" off.
Player of the game: Rob Wood (see above)
Game 1-Primetime. 21-19 win.
Spectrum played its first game vs. Primetime at Primetime (7:30 at RRCC). Spectrum started out a bit flat against the B Div. Champs, falling into a 5-0 deficit due to many dropped passes and intercepted passes and poor flow, but Spectrum let it's experience take over against the younger, faster, but smaller team, and by the half it took the lead and never looked back.
Spectrum's bench was huge with B-Mo, Sea bass, and Norm Taylor all in the game, there were Backs Galore. The turning point of the game seemed to happen when Spectrum employed it's patented 5-1 Defence, concentrating on either Simon or Mike (centre back),
Young Eric Sjoberg of Primetime looked pretty good, the young man (who is heralded as "The Next Andre Auger") will probably become quite a force in the A. Div, and even the Federation once he gets used to the physicality, skill and speed of the A Div.
On the other side of the ball, Sean Ashton made a big impact on the game with a goal and 4-5 fast break passes. Coach Chris Kaufmann said, "Sean, defiantly adds a new dimension to our game, and hopefully our corvettes can run on all cylinders to adjust to it. Sean is the best passing goalies (and goalies) in the league,...now if only we could get his mouth to stop running on the court, we/he'd be deadly!".
Player of the Game: Chris Kaufmann for running like a madman, having a good defensive game and scoring a team leading 5 goals, his best game in years!
