The general consensus around the hockey world this past week was that Team Trailside was going to easily dispose of the Red Army, and then face either the Easton Fections or Prestige Worldwide in the championship series. Talking heads on radio and TV sports shows commended the Soviets for a winning season, but ultimately agreed that despite a great finish to their season, it would end December 11th at the hands of Trailside.
Apparently, nobody told Mother Russia’s favorite sons this.
The Soviets exploded for eight goals, four of which came in the opening period, en route to an absolutely dominating victory over Trailside, 8-4.
“I am cised right now,” Jamie Simek said. Simek, who played the role of bench-boss for the game after a skate of his broke, talked about what he saw and what he was telling his troops.
“It was a fast tempo game, so I made sure to keep telling the guys to skate hard and keep the shifts short. I also made sure to tweet at least once a shift.”
A quick audit of Simek’s twitter account shows that the defender-turned-coach did in fact tweet 34 times during the contest, including such gems as, “Oh hey borderline call on Ryan”, and, “Last night was a show”.
The Soviet’s top line opened the scoring on their second shift of the game. Mark Hendricks fanned on a mini-breakaway attempt, but retrieved the puck in the corner and fired a pass out to Jason White at the point. White fired a low slap shot that Trailside goaltender Chris Celenski blocked, but Pat King corralled the rebound and tucked a backhander just inside the post.
“I saw the puck come out to the top of the crease so I just made a quick more and slid the puck in,” King said. “[Hendricks] and I had talked about establishing a net presence, and we really wanted to accomplish that. That first goal was the direct result of everyone doing their job perfectly. The goal itself wasn’t one of my patented top-shelfers, but in the playoffs, you don’t get the pretty ones. You ditch the dangles for the grinding. After all, we don’t aspire to drink Petrone after it’s all said and done. We want Ch-Ch, the grimiest, filthiest grain alcohol on Earth. It’s the worst-tasting drink a team has ever worked so hard to sip.”
The top line would strike again on their next shift in near identical fashion. King won a puck battle in the far boards and set up White at the point. White fired a low wrister that Celenski reacted late to, and kicked the puck back out into the slot. Hendricks had slipped down low into the slot and one-timed the puck upstairs past the unsuspecting goalie to push the lead to 2-0.
“I really couldn’t have imagined a better start,” Hendricks said. “Maybe if the water bottle had come off on that shot, cause that would have been pretty cool. Or if the old Nassau Colliseum’s foghorn had been installed prior to gametime, and that baby roared, that too, would have been awesome. But a 2-0 lead early on against Trailside I’ll take any which way it comes.”
Though the top line may have been providing the heroics, the real work was being done by the defensive corps and the second line. Mike D’Ignazio had been given the unenviable task of stopping Trailside’s biggest threat Craig Desjarlais, and the Soviet’s leading scorer showed he was up to the task, hounding Desjarlais in every area of the rink and not allowing the two-time MVP and one-time ECHL’er to get uncontested shots off from the point.
“Defense wins championships,” D’Ignazio said. “We’re a good defensive team with some guys who can put the puck in the net, but it’s always about taking care of your own end first. That’s why teams from Pittsburgh are always so-“
D’Ignazio was then interrupted by linemate Steve Hand who said, “Pittsburgh, more like Stinks-like-armpits-purgh.”
“I think there was a better joke to make there,” Simek told Hand. “It rhymes with ‘pit’. Stinks like… sh… It stinks like sh…”
“Stop shushing me Simek, we’re not in a library,” Hand said, before going to the front desk of the Plex and returning his paperback copy of “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. “It’s a good book,” Hand said, “Lot’s of sexy violence.”
As D’Ignazio alluded to, defense can lead to offense, and with five minutes remaining in the first, after a turnover, D’Ignazio raced up the rink and unleashed a low slap shot that found its way past Celenski to extend the lead to 3-0.
Moments later, after Hendricks drew a penalty, the much-maligned Soviet power-play went to work and scored it’s first goal in over five games. White helped to keep the puck along the boards, and found Hendricks down low. Hendricks fired a pass through a steam for Pete Collis, who had activated from his point, and the defender picked a corner on Celenski to give the Comrades an unthinkable 4-0 lead.
“When I took that pass from Mark, I had a lot of space,” Collis said. “As everyone knows, I am a space explorer, so I felt very comfortable in my surroundings. I simply made 394 quick equations in my head regarding how and when to shoot the puck, as well as what would be the best celebration, and then executed the plan. Houston was pleased.”
During the first intermission, the mood on the bench was unfiltered excitement and enthusiasm, but grizzled veteran Ryan Odell knew there was more work to be done.
“It would have been easy to go to the bench after that first period and commend everyone and say all nice things and say that we were going to win,” Odell said. “But we were task-oriented. We talked about how we were lucky a few times, and how we did have a few lapses. So we wanted to stay loose, but stay tight. It… it makes sense.”
As expected, Trailside came out strong in the second period, hemming the Soviets deep inside their zone for extended shifts. They finally did strike when Desjarlais broke free and was able to fire a wrist shot five-hole on Red Army goaltender Kevin Durkin.
“That was my assignment, and I dropped it,” Hendricks said, showing remorse for a dropped defensive assignment for the first time in his hockey career. “At the time, I thought they might start to dictate the play and that their first goal would give them more life.”
Hendricks’ concerns were put to rest when on the following shift, D’Ignazio stripped Desjarlais of the puck, came in along the wing in the offensive zone and fired a blast five-hole on Celenski to restore the four goal bulge. Moments later, after another defensive zone turnover by Trailside, D’Ignazio called his own number to complete his hat trick, as he fired a high wrist shot top shelf past Celenski.
Can ya D’Ig it.
With the score 6-1 and time winding down in the middle frame, the Comrades delivered another blow to the comeback hopes of the reigning champions. Hendricks blocked a shot near his own blue line, then picked up the loose puck for a breakaway. Hendricks faked backhand before firing a fade-away wrist shot into the top corner of the net past the outstretched Celenski.
“Holy crap my foot hurts,” Hendricks said… on Tuesday afternoon.
The Soviets continued to pressure the Trailside players, limiting time and space, as D’Ignazio and King continued to be a thorn in the collective side of every Trailside breakout.
The Comrades struck again on the power play to start the third, as Odell redirected a point shot from Collis, for the eight strike of the game. That goal pushed Odell’s goal streak to eight straight games, tying Mike Green for a hockey record.
“I was taking a beating down low, but I kept battling,” Odell said. “Pete’s shot was low and I got a piece of it. Happy birthday, mom.”
Continued Odell, “Also, let me tell you more about my future brother-in-law, he is so mild mannered…”
Trailside began to threaten late, and scored three goals five minutes apart to make the score 8-4, but with less than two minutes remaining, the clock not stopping, and Durkin covering every puck, both Soviet fans in attendance began to sense the victory, as they gave the Comrades a standing ovation for the final 90 seconds.
“To hear those fans roaring like that was great,” White said. “Gave me goosebumps.”
The clock wound down to three seconds, then two, and then one, and as the horn sounded, the most important, and impressive victory for the Red Army in the calendar year of 2011 was in the books.
“It was a huge game for us, a huge win, “Captain Hand said after the game. “But we didn’t win anything. We have two more left to win. So let’s win ‘em.”
THREE STARS:
3: Ryan Odell
2: Mike D’Ignazio
1: Jason White
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