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The 96/97 Winter Playoffs | |
 Opponent: Black Ice 5-0 Win | Our first playoff win came in the form of a shutout victory over the Black Ice by a score of 5-0. We were definitely outplayed in the first period, and a combination of good bounces and solid play between the pipes by Darryl, kept the score 0-0. In the second period, inspired by Sid's physical play and the roughing penalty he picked up, our offense finally got going. Richard DeMarquez scored two goals, while Gary, and Phil each had one. Our final goal came in the third as Gary scored his second of the night on a pass from Sid. We managed to keep the shutout intact despite being down two men at one point in the third period. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 5-1 Loss | Our second playoff game resulted in a 5-1 loss to the Gold Rush. We fell behind in the first period after they scored one of their patented fluke goals from the outside. We tied it up in the second period when Jason jammed home a rebound off a shot by Steve McFarland. It was then a hard-fought, physical game the rest of the way. With 9:35 left in the game, another fluke goal put us behind 2-1, this time on a shot from the blue line. Then Gold Rush really poured it on with 3 minutes left, and they buried us 5-1. No fluke goals in the final 3, as they certainly had more stamina than we did and they made us pay. |
 Opponent: Black Ice 3-0 Win | Best wishes to IceHawk Kristine Kopp for a speedy recovery from her broken ankle. She will be out of action for the rest of the playoffs and next season. The result of our rematch with Black Ice was a 3-0 shutout. Darryl played well in net, but he only faced 10 shots in the game. The defense was solid most of the way, allowing no break-aways. All three of our goals were scored by the same line - one goal each for Steve Arsenault, Hank, and Scott. Now it's back to face Gold Rush on Sunday, and they have a 4-2 record against us this season. We won the first two, and they've won the last four. If we are going to break their streak, it's now or never. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 3-2 Win/OT | What a difference 32.6 seconds can make. With 1:21 left in the game Gold Rush scored to take a 2-1 lead. At that point we used our only time-out and pulled the goalie to make a last ditched effort at salvaging the season. Gold Rush almost put it away twice at mid-ice with shots on our empty net, but both were blocked by the defense. We regained control of the puck with about 20 seconds left and re-entered the offensive zone. After a tussle in the corner, the puck squirted out to the top of the slot. Our defense rushed the puck and put a shot on net that their goalie blocked, but Bruce jammed home the rebound for his second goal of the game with only 9.6 seconds left! It then took us only 23 seconds of overtime to win it, with Scott scoring the game winning goal on a pass from Hank. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 4-2 Loss | Best wishes to Jason for a speedy recovery - he wrist was broken in our previous playoff game. He came down to lend his support for our final playoff game, but it wasn't enough. We started out extremely strong, and Bruce scored the first goal of the game when he banked a shot off of a defenseman's skate and into the net. We dominated in the first period, but then the tide turned. The game was tied 1-1 after two periods, and our entire season came down to just one period. We were outscored 3-1 in that period, with only Craig managing a goal when we needed them most. It was a good season, we just came up a little short. |
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The 96/97 Winter Season | |
 Opponent: Black Ice 2-0 Win | Our first game ever in the San Jose Arena resulted in a shutout against Black Ice. Our defense played well, keeping us in the game despite having to endure a 5 on 3 shorthanded situation in the first period. Steve McFarland and Scott each scored their first goals as members of the Ice Hawks, which was enough for Darryl in net, who was always there for us when we needed him. |
 Opponent: Blizzard 7-0 Win | Our biggest margin of victory ever, but certainly not our best played game ever. Playing against a team with less experience than us, we took a lot of chances, as everyone wanted to get in on the scoring. This made Darryl work a little harder in net, which he did to notch his second consecutive shutout of the young season. Roger scored two goals in his first game as an Ice Hawk, and we outshot the Blizzard 33 to 17. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 4-0 Win | Our third consecutive shutout! The defense was solid most of the time, and when it wasn't, Darryl was brilliant yet again in net. Steve Arsenault notched two goals, while Craig and Bruce each added one. This game featured our first ever player ejection - Hank Ross. Hank had some bad Strawberry Kiwi Gatorade before the game and it seemed to put him in a bad mood - which resulted in an ejection for fighting. |
 Opponent: Black Ice 3-0 Win | Our shutout streak has now reached four games, as we shut out the Black Ice for the second time this season - outshooting them 33 to 14. The defense was outstanding, making Darryl's life in net a little easier for a change. Steve Arsenault, Craig, and Scott each scored a goal in a physical game where the refs called only blatant penalties. Hank had to watch this one, as he was serving his suspension for fighting in the previous game. Hank thought that he saw Steve Arsenault do something wrong in the game, but Steve graciously explained after the game, that Hank was mistaken. |
 Opponent: Stingrays 13-4 Win | Our shutout streak ended on the Stingrays' first shot of the game, which allowed us to try some things that paid off. Our offensive onslaught was led by Phil, who netted his first hat trick, and four other players that had two goals each. Hank also landed his first hat trick - of offside penalties. It was an injury plagued game that started with Roger's ankle acting up, scratching him before it started. It then moved on to Craig, who had his bare hand stepped on by a skate. It finished with Jason being dumped by a well executed shoulder throw with only two minutes left, but I'm sure SHE didn't mean to hurt Jason's elbow on the play. |
 Opponent: Blizzard 8-1 Win | We broke in our new jerseys with an 8-1 victory over the Blizzard to raise our record to 6-0. Our offensive production was led by Gary and Phil with two goals each. This was a physical game, with a lot of penalties. Five of our goals were scored while we had a man advantage, and one of them was scored while we were short-handed. The defense scored four of our goals, and there was also a significant defensive accomplishment tonight - Roy ran into, and knocked over, a player on the other team tonight. Up until now, he has only knocked over referees and players on his own team. |
 Opponent: Black Ice 3-3 Tie | Our winning streak came to an end after 6 consecutive wins to start the season. We were out-hustled for the first 30 minutes of the game, and found ourselves 3 goals behind. Our power play got us on the board midway through the second period, then Roy scored his first goal of the season in the third to close the gap to one goal. The game was tied on a beautiful play when Craig hustled to get to a loose puck and dished it to Steve Arsenault in front of the net for a one-timer. All the momentum was on our side at the end, but we ran out of time. No overtime was played because the game started late due to the referees' late arrival, and we had 1.5 minutes of power play left. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 2-1 Win | We escaped a game ruled by chaos with a 2-1 victory for our seventh win. This game will be remembered as the Chin Strap Game, as four of our players could not start the game due to illegal chin straps on their helmets. This prevented us from getting our normal lines together until the second period. Both Craig and Steve Arsenault were obviously inspired by their new chin straps, as they netted our two goals after returning to the ice. We survived this game despite numerous bad clearing passes in our own zone that resulted in quite a few scoring chances for the Gold Rush. Steve McFarland preserved the win by diving in front of a shot on our open net late in the third period. |
 Opponent: Blizzard 5-3 Win | Our new purple jerseys made their debut tonight in a 5-3 win over the Blizzard. Just like our last meeting with the Blizzard, there were a lot of penalties in this one, with Craig and Richard DeMarquez winding up in the box twice each. Hank wore his lucky pajamas under his uniform and tallied two goals and an assist. Roger also had a goal and an assist. Steve Arsenault and Phil rounded out the scoring with a goal each. Bad passes in our own zone continued to happen, but we managed to win in spite of ourselves. We outshot the Blizzard 25-16. |
 Opponent: Stingrays 3-1 Win | Once again we got off to a slow start, managing only 4 shots on goal in the first period. We escaped the first period with no score, despite being down two men while Phil and Richard DeMarquez discussed holiday recipes in the penalty box. Craig then managed to squeak a couple of pucks into the net to give us a two goal lead. The second goal came on a nice pass from Jason while on a two-on-one break. Steve Arsenault iced the game with a nice wrist shot for our final goal. |
 Opponent: Blizzard 7-5 Win | An alarming habit continued tonight, as we allowed a goal on the other team's first shot of the game again. We were down 2-0 at the end of the first period, and both of their goals were the direct results of our own mistakes. The offense turned it up in the second period as we outscored the Blizzard 6-0 in the second period. Then it was back to sloppy play in the third period, where we were outscored 3-1. The offense was led by Jason and Richard DeMarquez with two goals each, while Craig, Scott, and Hank each had one. Richard was denied a hat trick by Hank, who was in the crease when Richard put the puck in the net in the first period, and the goal was disallowed. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 2-0 Loss | Our poor play finally caught up with us, as Gold Rush handed us our first loss of the season. It ended our eleven game unbeaten streak, and dropped our record to 10-1-1. The game was a physical one, with 13 penalties being called (7 of them on us.) Both of their goals came after our defense gave up the puck, resulting in a 2-on-1 and a breakaway. Our offense never really got going, as we managed only 16 shots in the entire game. About the only positive note was that we only allowed them 13 shots against us. The "wake up call" has been issued, let's see if we respond... |
 Opponent: Black Ice 2-1 Loss/OT | Another game of uninspired play, and our second loss in a row. This one came at the hands of Black Ice, as they scored the game winner with 4.2 seconds left in overtime. Both of their goals were directly attributed to miscues on our side. Their first goal came in the second period when Darryl mishandled the puck in front of the net, and they took advantage. The final heartbreak occurred when our defense turned into the Benny Hill show and collided by our own net. Darryl came out of net to knock the puck away from one person, but it bounced right to another in front of the empty net. Again, we didn't allow many shots against us - only 15 in regulation, and 17 total. Unfortunately, our offense continued to sputter, with Jason scoring our lone goal in the first period. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 2-1 Loss | Thud! Did you hear that? That was the sound of the Ice Hawks falling into second place. Our losing streak has reached three games, as we fell to Gold Rush 2-1. Once again, our offense stuttered, and mistakes on our part led to two fluke goals. The first was scored on a shot from outside the blue line, that hopped over Darryl's stick and into the net. Their second goal came when Darryl was unable to clear the puck after coming way out of the net to get to a lose puck. He was on his own on the clearing attempt as our defense get caught pinching in. We lost Steve McFarland in the second period after he was ejected for fighting, and for the third time this season, we had a goal over-turned because one of our players was illegaly in the crease. Jason scored our lone goal again, and he has scored the only two goals we have during this three game losing streak. |
 Opponent: Stingrays 7-0 Win | Hats off to Jason, who continued to lead our offensive production with his first hat trick - all three goals assisted by Gary. Jason's new buzz cut clearly had something to do with his success, as Steve Arsenault rubbed Jason's head for luck and netted two goals himself. Phil and Richard DeMarquez rounded out the scoring with one goal each. We got off to a slow start, managing only 6 shots in the first period, but finished with 31 shots total. Darryl played a strong game in net, denying two break aways, one with 12 seconds left in the game. Our fifth shutout of the season ended our losing streak, and we're hoping for more team members to bring "buzz cuts" of their own to our next game. |
 Opponent: Blizzard 2-1 Win | Once again we started out slow, getting outshot 7-6 in a scoreless first period. We fell behind 1-0 in the second period before rallying to score 2 third period goals. Steve McFarland tallied our first goal with a shot from the point to tie the game 1-1 in the third period. Then our defense kept us in the game by handling a 5-on-3 situation while Richard DeMarquez and Hank discussed their favorite "Oprah" episodes in the penalty box. Hank was serving Darryl's first penalty of the season - tripping. After we were back to even strength, Scott backhanded a pass from Steve Arsenault into the net to put us ahead for good. Each team had 6 penalties in the game, but neither team managed to score a power play goal. |
 Opponent: Black Ice 3-2 Win | This game was controlled by both defenses, as there were only 27 shots in the whole game. We managed to outshoot Black Ice 15-12, and our defense allowed only 3 shots in each of the first two periods. We fell behind right away 1-0, but then Craig scored on passes from Leslie and Richard DeMarquez to tie up the game. Hank also scored in the first period to give us a 2-1 lead. After a scoreless second period, Black Ice tied it on a botched face off in our end. Steve Arsenault then put home the game winner with two minutes left in the third period. Overall, it was a solid game, except for our lone power play opportunity, which was abyssmal. |
 Opponent: Gold Rush 3-2 Loss | Both teams came into this one with identical 13-2-2 records, and a head-to-head record of 2-2. This game was "winner take all" for first place in our league, and we wound up on the wrong end of a 3-2 score. We were outshot 27-24, and all of the goals we gave up came as a direct result of missed assignments on our part. This was the second game in a row where a botched face off led to a goal against us. Our two goals were netted by Steve Arsenault and Phil. We now have two games left to get it into high gear for the playoffs. |
 Opponent: Stingrays 7-1 Win | In our first tune-up game for the playoffs, we played rather well. Outshooting our opponent 39-16, we notched a 7-1 victory. Our offense and defense worked quite well together, making some key passes in the offensive zone. Richard DeMarquez led our scoring by notching his first hat trick of the season. Brian, Roger, Jason, and Hank each added a goal as well. On the down side, we made a few "keystone cop" line changes that either resulted in too many men on the ice, or too few. We definitely need to work out some of those kinks in our next game. |
 Opponent: Stingrays 9-2 Win | We will be heading into the playoffs after playing one of our most dominant games ever. We outshot the Stingrays 51-13, and Steve Arsenault set a team record by scoring 5 goals in the game. Our other goals were added by Hank, Richard DeMarquez, Richard Crosthwaite, and Kristine. Kristine followed through on her pre-game promise to score a goal and get an assist, and was a key part of this 9-2 victory. We finished the seasonwith a 15-3-2 record, and we scored 56 more goals than we allowed. |