| Opponent: Nitro Result: Lost 3 - 7
This game pitted us
against the no-show Nitros - the team that "didn't
show up for our first game - so we won with a forfeit! We
were a little cocky at the start of the game, and when
Gerry Krause of the "Salsa Line" put in a nice
wrist shot from the blue line 5 minutes into the game we
went into "repeat celebration mode"! Heck, why
not?!?!! Steve Benninger hadn't even showed up yet (tardy!)
and we were up 1-0! Within a minute Steve had come by the
bench to pick up the lockeroom key and we knew we'd be
"Ready to rumble once our leading scorer came out!
But as soon as Steve
entered the locker room he heard a big cheer and peered
out to see that Nitro had tied it up 1-1 at 9:02. It had
taken Nitro 58 seconds to get back in the game - Steve
slipped into his socks and pads and picked up the
pace of his preparation with a little bit of anxiety in
the back of his mind. He was lacing up his skates when he
heard the cheers again and again peeked out to see that
48 seconds had elapsed and Nitro was up 2-1. Steve really
kicked up his pre-game routine to the "next level"
and got his shoulder pads and jersey on ... but before he
could get to the door he heard the crowd "crow"
for a third time - and although he was afraid to
look - he just KNEW what had happened ... in just 32 more
seconds Nitro had scored yet again. Three goals in
1 minute and 18 seconds! The Knights were down and never
fully recovered.
Steve did eventually score
on a pass from PJ Macaskill to narrow the score to 3-2
... but it was too little too late. Nitro came back with
a goal almost right away and although the production line
(McDonald to Mike Macaskill) contributed one Nitro just
kept on sneaking the puck into the net. The Game
ended 7-3 with a little excitement as Steve Benninger
ended up on the wrong end of a late hit and decided that
he'd show the dumb defenseman what a "wresting
hockey player" did to someone who hit him late.
Stevie spun the guy around and dropped him down on the
ice. When the refs came in to slow things down, assistant
coach McDonald put his big mouth to use, and chewed the
refs a new one. This earned him a game misconduct
and basically ended the game as time ran out. Steve
Benninger, meanwhile escaped without so much as a
roughing penalty and skated quietly (and satisfied having
dumped their high scorer!) to the bench.
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