Ice Demons end season with 6-2 loss to defending champion Crunch

The Ice Demons skated admirably against the former champs in the conference championship game, and were evening leading 1-0 after Andy Conrad blasted a nice low slapper past Todd Iaeger midway through the first period; unfortunately, the Crunch turned it up a notch more than the short-benched Ice Demons could handle, taking a 4-2 lead after two, and then going on to win 6-2.

Gorman and Walker blasted at least 3 past Bip, who despite the 6 goals allowed, played great as usual. Rookie Greg Carder pumped in the 2nd goal for the Ice Demons. The Ice Demons were missing several players, including Sanford, Zimmerman, Daniels, Dancona, and Dierwechter. Babs, Joe, and Jessie played defense while Zeke, Andy, Greg, Nate, and Blankey played offense. It's a shame that we didn't have all of our players for that final game, but that's the way life goes.

Joe O'Neill announced he's going part-time next year afterwards. Most likely, Joe will split the season with Doc this coming Fall.

There are some players who intend to play in the summer pick up. I know Zimmy is interested, and I might play a couple. Fortunately, it sounds like a "pick up" kind of thing that doesn't require a full financial committment, and so that works for me.

I'd like to close by saying that it's been another fun season, for me. It was a much different season in some ways, as I think I amassed more penalties this season that my last 7 seasons combined, but fortunately the things that were probably throwing me off my game are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Still, I had a very fun time, and I hope you guys did too. I'm glad to be in the MDL, as I believe it's still accurate to say that it's the best league we've ever been in, and I look forward to coming back again next season.

Off-season parties WILL be held this year. Jack has offered in the past and so has Fred; Nate said he'd do it; I'm volunteering to have a party during a good playoff game night where we can have pizza, wings, and beer while enjoying a game (and of course EA Sports Hockey between periods!) and I think Zimmy said he'd pick up the tab for all of them (haha!).

It was great playing with you guys...see you at the party this off-season!
--Babs

Ice Demons season continues into Round 2 of playoffs

It started out terrible for the Ice Demons, as the Pythons marched right down and scored hardly 7 seconds into the game. Had I not seen the black jerseys on the ice, I would have thought it was a penalty shot! And to make matters worse, the Pythons again marched right down the ice on the following faceoff, only to be stopped by Sean "Jack" Daniels who was forced to take a penalty to prevent us being down 2-0 within 15 seconds of the opening faceoff!

The game continued to be dominated by the Pythons, who out-skated the Ice Demons greatly for a majority of the first 2 periods. I recall talking to one of the Pythons when it was 2-0 telling him "wow, you guys are fast and furious today...but can you keep it up for 3 periods?" Thankfully for the Ice Demons, they couldn't.

Joe O'Neill launched a nice low shot on goal from the right point in the 2nd period and Fred Sanford pounded home the rebound to break the goose egg. Shortly after, the Ice Demons scored again to tie it up (Zimmy?). Then in the 3rd, the Ice Demons took the lead for good (Jesse Snyder, from Blankey and Babs), with Greg Carder putting the nail in the coffin with an empty-netter to seal the victory, 4-2.

As one fan (my own personal fan, as a matter of fact!) noted, it was a much more physical, exciting game than last week's loss to the Phantoms.

We're scheduled to play the defending champions (Crunch) next week for the West division championship at 10:45am this Saturday, with that winner to go onto the finals to face the winner of the East division the following week.

Hats off to Steve "Zimmy" Zimmerman for pulling out a little better than .500 season and keeping the tradition going of the Ice Demons finishing in the top 3 teams in the entire league. This season's team finishes for the top 3 were the same as last year (Crunch, Pugs, Ice Demons).

Great seats are still available, so come out and support the Ice Demons this coming weekend!!

See you at the rink,
--Babs

Demons give away shutout and game in 3rd period

Well, we played 2 good periods and were shutting them out 3-0 as the third period starting, but, as many teams have found, when you rest on a lead, sit back, and sag in, you open the doorway to trouble and give the other team the opportunity they'd been waiting for. 4 of them, in fact.

The Ice Demons were unable to hold the shutout and let the Phantoms score 4 unanswered goals in the 3rd period, losing the final regular season game, 4-3.

True, there were some controversial points, especially the 4th goal, but the SINGLE REF did the best he could, and, well, that's all a guy can do, especially at his experience level.

Which leads to another point I'd like the league to address in the off-season: what happened to our refs being Level 3 or 4 certified? Surely this crew we've seen for most of the season is NOT at that level. Not only that, but the league doesn't have some of the major assholes that they used to have--like the ex-Pugs dooschbags who were kicked out. Why can't we get a decent, consistent ref corp? If we were paying less, I guess I'd say "well, you get what you pay for" -- but, iirc, we're paying a premium rate (what is it...$50/game?). C'mon, refs...step up and deliver on the paycheck already.

Still, the Ice Demons blew a good lead and had no one to blame but themselves for the game ending in a L.

Let's hope the 1st game of the playoffs next week is different. We need to take it to them for ALL 3 PERIODS instead of just the first two; otherwise, we'll be golfing in no time.


--Babs