Monday night we played 2 more games in our playoff round robin and just when you think you know everything something else happens.  Early match almost bankrupted Las Vegas.  The rested #1 seed Islanders opened their playoff round robin against the #5 seed Habs who lost their opening tilt with the Flyers 6-1 the first week.  Habs open the scoring at 9:57 then the Islanders score twice to take the lead but Habs tie it up late in the first.  2-2 after one.  Habs with a lot of jump in their step score twice in the early part of the 2nd but the top seeded Islanders get 2 late to tie it up at 4’s after 2 periods.  The final frame was a battle as Habs Barry Ervin and Islanders Bobby Ide looked very sharp.  With under 4 minutes to go in this tied match a mistake in the Islander zone found the puck right on rookie Rinaldo’s stick and he buries his first goal of the season and his Oldtimer career giving his Habs a 5-4 lead.  One more late goal for the Habs and les habitant end their 8 game losing streak with a major upset win, whattttt?????  Yes it is true.  Many heroes in this one for the Habs, Barry played awesome, Dupal was relentless on the forecheck and rookie Rinaldo scored the biggest goal of his career.  But their player of the Game went to Eddie Kuzniewski.  Pre game we took Eddies head and put it on Peacocks body and viola the new and improved Eddie the Pollock!  That was the secret.

The Islanders go 1-1 on the PP and Habs go 1-3.  Habs get 2 goals from Rukavina and singles from Dupal, Robin Chantaj, Rinaldo and Peacock.  Islanders get 2 goals from McKean and singles from Tygesen and Kidd.  Islanders player of the game goes to Paul Harty.  An exciting game.

Late game between the #2 Flyers and the #4 Bruins.  This one was a barn burner.  No goals in the opening frame as Gordie and Scottie shut out all shooters.  Flyers score twice in the 2nd and Bruins get 1 for a 2-1 Flyer lead after 2 periods.  Flyers make it 3-1 early in the 3rd.  Bruins get their 2nd goal at 3:50 and press hard after pulling their goalie.  With the sound of the final buzzer this one ends with the Flyers winning their 2nd in a row and Bruins losing their 2nd.  Flyers go 1-1 on the PP and Bruins go 0-0.  Flyers Marcelo Diluzio with 2 goals and his 2nd game winner in the playoffs gets the Player of the Game.  The Doctor Joel May gets the other Flyer goal.  Bruins have Cummings, a beauty apparently, and Annan score.  Gordie Ide was a clear cut unanimous choice as their Player of the Game.

Little bit of good old Canadian playoff hockey ooffing and poofing at the end of this one.  Lets all remember it is never just one way, it always takes 2 to tango.  Sometimes it is a lot of one guy and a bit of another but it is never all one guy or one thing.  So don’t be that one guy and remind yourself we are a D level old-timers league just looking for a bit of friendly competition but more importantly a little bit of male bonding pre and post game where we can park all of our daily strains on the shelf for a few hours, not take them out on each other.  We all have enough of that outside the arena to deal with day in day out.  Accidents will happen but if you are intentionallly trying to hurt someone we do not want you in our league.

OK enough ranting  we are back on the ice this Friday, April 1 (I’m not fooling) at Port Credit arena.  Early game starts at 8:15 pm as the Islanders look to bounce back against the Bruins.  Late game is scheduled for 9:30 pm with the 2 and 0 Flyers and the 1 and 0 Oilers, big games this week.

Habs are back at the Ballet for some poutine and a bit of white board strategy meetings.

See you all on the ice!!