Prestige Worldwide 5 (and 1), Red Army 2 (and 0)

For two weeks now, the Soviets have prided themselves on playing "Red Army hockey". A brand of in-your-face hockey that cashes in on opportunities, plays stingy defense, and pressures every loose puck. Last night, in game one of the best-of-three championship series for the Jenkins Cup, the Soviets looked far from the team that landed them a spot in the finals.

"I don't know," Mark Hendricks said after the game. "It's certainly frustrating. We knew [Prestige Worldwide] likes to play a possession game, but we were too frantic. We were running around out there and chasing. They exploited us. The discipline, or lack of discipline I should say, really killed us. Even I took a penalty, and yeah, obviously I have some things I'd say about that call that I'd probably get fined over, but ya know what, I can't even give the ref a chance to make that call. I'll be better next game. We'll be better."

The lack of discipline that Hendricks spoke of afforded the vaunted Prestigious power play six attempts, including a lengthy two-man advantage, and PW was able to strike three times.

"It was the difference in the game," Mike D'Ignazio said. We lost by three, and they scored three goals on the power play. We need to stay out of the box. That's the thing we need to change most."

PW jumped out to a 5-0 lead near the end of the second period. A late penalty-shot goal by Hendricks to cut the lead to 5-1 entering the 3rd period did little to ease tensions on the bench.

"We were getting into it there," Captain Steve Hand said. "Obviously we're all competitive guys, so when things aren't going well, we're going to be a little vocal. I think the difference was in the third period we started playing for each other, being smarter. We didn't give up a goal and we scored one."

Added Hand, "You build off of that."

Ryan Odell, who scored the aforementioned third period goal, agreed with the Captain.

"With about five or six minutes left, you start to realize the comeback ain't happening," Odell said. "So you play for game two. You send a message, maybe a hit or goal, something to let them that we're still coming, we're still here. They won the first battle, but we're not done. We're not done by a long shot."