FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2004 • HNA BEGINNER
LEAGUE
PHANTOMS vs. COBRAS
Phantoms 3 – Cobras 4
WILMETTE, IL – The pre-game mood in the Phantoms’
locker room was upbeat, as they applied freshly printed stickers
to their helmets and visualized strategies for revenge against
the Cobras. During the skate around, one of the referees (who
has a thing for a certain Mary-Jo Rolnick) even volunteered
to take a few action shots of her husband out on the ice.
The game got ugly early when Phantoms’ goalie, AJ “Codename:
Lancelot” Brandt, came out of the crease to clear a puck
up ice. The Cobras’ charging right wing was able to smack
the puck down out of the air, and tried to launch a shot on
net while Brandt scrambled to get back into position. Although
the attempt went wide, a scrum quickly broke out in front of
the crease, and just when it looked like the Phantoms would
regain control, the biscuit unfortunately ended up in the basket.
The rest of the period saw penalties on both sides, but no more
goals.
During the second period, the Phantoms decided to take control
of the game. Deep in the Cobras’ zone, the puck was passed
around until it ended up on the stick of defenseman Dan Phillips
(possessor of the most potent Phantoms slapshot). The blur of
vulcanized rubber was in the back of the net faster than Rush
Limbaugh ingesting a fistful of OxyContin, and caused the same
sense of elation all along the Phantoms’ bench.
Minutes later, the Phantoms began circling the Cobras’
zone. Right wing, Greg “Kool Moe G” Rolnick ended
up on the left side of the net along the boards, stick handling
the puck and looking for an opening. Deciding to try and create
a rebound, he threw a shot towards the front of the crease that
ended up ricocheting off of a Cobras defenseman and into the
back of the net for his second goal of the season.
Towards the end of the second period, perplexed Phantoms fans
watched Brandt move out of the way of an oncoming shot like
an experienced matador. While the Cobras began celebrating what
they thought was the tying goal, Brandt confirmed with the referees
that the shooter was indeed offsides. As both the shot and the
goal were nullified, the Phantoms managed to keep the Cobras
from recording a single shot on goal during the second period.
Heading into the third with a 2-1 lead, the Phantoms were feeling
optimistic and maybe a tad bit over-confident. This was swiftly
erased when the Cobras tied the game with a quick shot off of
a faceoff in the Phantoms’ zone, and then pulled ahead
again with a slapshot from the point that bounced in off of
Brandt’s toe.
A few plays later, Rolnick put the puck between the legs of
a Cobras defenseman in the Phantoms’ zone and took off
like a rocket for the opposite goal. Pushing the puck ahead
of him, Rolnick was a good three or four strides in front of
the nearest player and began to formulate in his head how he
would shake down the Cobras’ goalie. In a moment of horrendous
hockey horror, he began to over skate the puck. An attempt to
kick it back in front of him with his left foot failed, and
Rolnick screamed something that rhymed with “duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck”
while curling back to see the puck head the wrong way across
the red line.
The Phantoms continued to fall apart during a five on three
power play advantage, when a misplayed pass was taken in for
a Cobras shorthanded goal, putting them down 4-2.
With a minute to go in the game, and Brandt pulled for an extra
attacker, Rolnick managed to slip a backhanded shot under the
Cobras’ goalie and pull the Phantoms within one. Unfortunately,
the blown breakaway would come back to haunt Rolnick as time
ran out and the Phantoms came up empty.
The post-game press conference was exceptionally brief, as the
Phantoms refused to talk to the assembled members of the media
and instead began preparing themselves for the last part of
the season.
Next Game: Thursday, May 6 @ 10:30pm in Addison vs. the Icemen
GAME NOTES: With two games left in the regular season, the Phantoms
need to win both in order to finish with a .500 record…The
Greg Rolnick Bobblehead Night promotion was cancelled due to
a batch of defective dolls who declined to bobble…Thursday’s
game against the Icemen is life-size AJ Brandt Kids Poster Night
(“Hey kids, grow up to be as big as AJ!”). |