BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS!!
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!.......Finally!!

Has beer ever tasted so good?!?!! I think NOT!!! It doesn't get any better than having a come from behind, sudden death win in the championship game. This was a long time in coming for a lot of the veterans of the Ice Hawks as we have never prevailed in the playoffs and just as sweet, I am sure, for the newbies to the roster. We can now hang a banner in the halls of our imaginations because the Ice Hawks have finally won a Championship by defeating the Red Leafs 2-1 in OT. High fives and accolades abound, this was a great season, gang, and a fitting swan song as we go into hiatus.........

During the season we faced the Red Leafs 3 times and we were 1-1-1 with them. It was inevitable that this was going to be a close game because we were so evenly matched and the Hockey Gods love drama, to which we provided them with plenty of it. The Leafs surged ahead with a first period break away goal. It was a pretty move and a nice goal but that was their only highlight of the game. Later in the period we caught them in a bad change. They got it to one of their players just outside their zone and he was supposed to dump the puck so they could finish the change but the puck got stuck in his feet and a forechecking 22 Arsenault poked it free and broke into the zone with the puck for a two on none break away. 22 Arsenault froze the goalie to the right post and dished off a last second pass to a hard crashing 53 Dvorak who ripped a wrist shot in for the game tying goal. The rest of the game was a hard fought stalemate. There were penalties on both sides that no one was able to capitalized on, more importantly we didn't allow them to capitalized on one of our power plays, a specialty of ours this season. G Bart made some great saves but only after he was conked on the noggin and had his face mask spun around his head. 10 Lagemann and 70 Walter and the lot of you played flat out stifling defense and so it went until the final buzzer. Then it was OVERTIME........

We started the OT on the penalty kill. Not what you want to happen, but such is life. We killed the last of the penalty with a lot of hustle and stacking them up at the blue line and then came 44 Young. Phil took matters into his own hands as we went to even strength. We gained the zone and Phil took the puck down to the left corner and craftily worked his way towards their net. Phil sees the five hole and lets go a little wrist shot. His shot deflects off the goalies stick and creepy crawls up the goalie's arm and over his shoulder. The puck is still flip floppin' when it hits the ice short of the goal line and finally flips flops over the line for the game winner!! It seemed like an eternity for the shot to go in as it hung in the air what seemed like forever and slowly danced across the line. I told you, the Hockey Gods like drama!! No matter how it looked on a scale of 1 to 10, any shot that goes in for a sudden death game winner in a championship game is the most beautiful shot there is. Phil is my hero!!

Notable Notes: There was a three way tie for Most Valuable Player for the season with 44 Young, 22 Arsenault and G Bart each garnering an equal number of votes (sort of, there was the issue of the double vote that no one owned up to, .....Phil????). On a philosophical note, I think what the vote showed was that hockey is the ultimate team sport and that you need outstanding efforts on offense, defense and in goal for a team to succeed and we had that this season. So, I am glad that Brian took home the award, first because he did an banner job in goal as he stoned our opponents all season when he WASN'T and secondly, what may pass for dust collecting decor in his home would certainly be banned from mine.......unless of course I stuck a $20 aromatherapy candle in it and told my girl friend that I bought it at an antique store......women!!!

Roy, good politicking there for MVP.... I imagine that in Chicago, a garbage bag full of ice cold brews usually sways the vote.

Temper, temper now, Jenny!! Punching people will never get you anywhere in life unless of course you have aspirations joining the ranks of the increasingly popular womens' boxing circuit as a Paper Weight.

I said that the Hockey Gods love drama,.....well the are pretty high on irony as well. Phil has taken pride in blasting shots from the point. He has even been down to Hockey Workout recently working to hone that skill so he can start getting the puck in the same zip code as the net. And throughout the game he had numerous chances from the point to blast a slapper in and he pretty much put them all in the goalie's belly. So for him to score on little wrister is .....well....like Nolan Ryan ending a game by throwing a 3-2 Knuckleball. Ironic, huh?

Golf Towels?? What the....?

Hank unselfishly sat for two penalty kills in a row.... just so you all know....

Scotty, it is like riding bike, ain't it?

Karen, if you are going to cut that much hair off, I would have gone for the Dorothy Hamill look and I KNOW Phil would agree with me. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Thank you Mike (16 M. Lachtanski) for dealing with all the shit that one has to deal with while doing the thankless job that you do. You did an admirable job and everyone knows they couldn't have done it better and more than likely would have done worse...

Great season people!! I thought that the collective personality of this team was the most enjoyable one the Ice Hawks has ever had and before you think it is the euphoria of winning it all talking, I said this half way through the season. I look forward to reuniting later in the year and giving it another go. YEAH FOR US!!!