Chill vs Fire

Our first game saw the Chill rolling into town to face off against the Fire. Sean Fitzgerald is looking to finally crawl out of that fourth place spot that he has held onto so dearly season after season. New captain Trevor Mcguigan was looking to show that he drafted a competitive team that will challenge for the top spot this season. Let’s see what happened.

Well, ball drops to start the first game of the new season and it wasn’t long for new guys Rickie “I’m Tricky” Miller to make his mark as he fed a nice pass to Trevor Mcguigan for the nights first goal. He then followed up with an unassisted goal and just like that the Chill were off to the races with a quick two goal lead. But the Fire answered right back when up from the ashes rose returning forward Wes Cook who scored his first of the season off. Agreed from sort of rookie Tony Casella. Geoff Briggs then added a tally to the score sheet off a feed from Adam Healy and this one was all tied at 2. But not for long as Anil Snook showed that his offensive out burst from last season was not a fluke as he scored his first of the season off a pass from lone time league scoring record holder Rob “The Rhyno” Tyrrell and afternoon the first, the Chill had a 3-2 lead.

The second saw the Fire come out strong and they were rewarded with a quick goal by Geoff Briggs who was set up by Tony Casella, but we won’t go there...oops, too late ??. But The tandem of Miller and Mcguigan were not done and they connected once again to take the lead back. The Fire kept coming though and Matt Mitchell notched his first of the season on a beautiful pass from Tony Casella to even things up again. But Rickie Miller pulled another rabbit out of his hat and he took the lead back when he snapped a nice shot past Boudreau off a pass from Liam MacLeod. After the second, the Chill were up by a score of 5-4

The third saw Mcguigan grab two quick goals on passes from Miller and the Fire were starting to watch this one slip away. Wes Cook grabbed his second of the night to stay within one, but Wayne Hardy scored quickly and gave the Chill that three goal lead once more. Geoff Briggs capped off his Hat Trick adding a late period tally, but not enough time is this one. The Chill win this one by a score of 8-6. Worth noting that Jason “Boom Boom” Boudreau faced 52 shots in this one.

Looks like new guy Miller and Chill captain Trevor Mcguigan have some great chemistry. Miller recorded 3 goals and three assists to put him on top of the scoring race after game one.

Slayers vs Lynx

This one saw the reigning league champions Slayers facing off against the Lynx. Alex Gale is looking to lead his Slayers to a second consecutive league championship while Griffith-Allwood was hoping that his combination of players in the draft would prove to be the right mix to finally get his franchise a cup. 

The scoring in this one came fast and furious...unfortunately for the Slayers, it was all Lynx.

Sam Halliburton scored the first goal of the game when he buried an Alex Murphy pass to give the Lynx the first goal of the game. Jordan Castilloux added a tally from Joe Murphy followed by two unassisted marks from team captain James Griffith-Allwood and the Lynx has an early 4 zip lead. The Slayers kept hanging around though as Chris Sampson scored his first goal of the year from Eric gale. 4-1 Lynx after the first.

The second saw the Lynx capitalize on some suspect defensive play as they scored 7 goals on 13 shots to no fault of Highmore. The Slayers did manage to add a goal late in the frame but this is how it went...

Lynx, Halliburton from Joe Murphy, Joe Murphy, Halliburton from Castilloux, Joe Murphy, Jos Murphy from Halliburton, Alex Murphy from Castilloux, Halliburton from Joe Murphy and Alex Gale from Shane Erb. Too many to do play by play folks...but you get the picture. 11-2 Lynx after the second.

The third was won by the Slayers as they sent a barrage of shots at Kane, 22 to be exact and as a result they were awarded three times. Alex Gale scored on a feed from Andrew O’Keefe, followed by Aaron J Brown from Sampson and finally Alex Gale got his third of the night on a pass from brother Eric Gale. 

Lynx win this contest 11-5

Hackers vs Sabres

This one was a treat to watch as both teams had full benches and on paper looked pretty evenly matched.

The scoring in this one was started by The Hackers when Scott Cross grabbed a rebound at the side of the net off a Dan “Boomer” Cavanaugh shot and slipped it between the legs of Burgoyne. The Sabres answered when team speedster Mike Gelinas shook off some preverbal rust and recorded his first of the season off a Mike DeAdder pass, just like he “drew” it up! The Hackers answered back with Hinson picking up his first on a feed from Cooper. But Myles Raymond ripped a slap shot top shelf assisted by new guy Derek Jones and this was all square at two after the first.

The second saw 5he Sabres dominate and they scored three unanswered to take a commanding 5-2 lead.

But we all know what Cooper does when his teams back is against the wall. 

The third saw Cross grab his second of the game followed by Darcy Edwards first of his young HFHL career. It was 5-4 and late in the period as the Hackers pulled their goalie and tried to even it up, but the Sabres held on and won this game 5-4.

So that’s how it looked from here. Should be a great season.

This is Billy Concarney saying so long and be well folks!