Our 34th season has come to an end and last week we showcased our very best. The early game was our famous ‘Kiss Your Sister’ Bronze medal match between the regular season #1 seed Scotland and the cinderella #5 seed Italia. Italy upset the Scottish in the playoff round robin game as Scotland looked prime to get back at the Italians for that miscue as they won their last 2 games easily. Both squads were missing key players. The opening frame was all Azzurri as they scored the only 2 goals. The Italians won the 2nd period 2-1 and held a 4-1 lead with a period to go. The Scots scored early in the 3rd and then got a late goal with just under 3 minutes to go and trailing 4-3. Italy took a penalty with 1:45 left on the clock and the Scottish pulled their goalie for a 2 man advantage and a Blue and White on slaught. But Italian backstop Frank Rispoli played brilliantly and the Cinderella Italians celebrated hard as they won this Bronze medal against the mighty Scottish 4-3. Both teams went 0-1 on the PP. Scotland got 2 goals from rookie sensation Brad Stoll and a single from the skinny Patty Sharp, he is just disappearing every year and getting faster and faster. He will most likely challenge his teammate Stoll as the #1 pick next year in the draft. Italians goal scorers veteran Johnny Annan, Paul Barbosa, Tim Randa and the game winner from Jodie Young. Players of the Game went to Scotlands Aaron Freeland.

And for the Italians the unforgettable Jodie Young!!!!

All that was left was our final game of our 34th season for all the marbles as The #3 seed Slovenia was ready to face off with he #4 seed Ireland. And what a thriller we had for a sold out stadium. I think???? Shut outs at both ends of the pond for the 1st period. It was the Art and Gordie show for sure. Ireland opened the scoring at 11:44 of the 2nd as Leo Brideau buried a 3rd rebound. Slovenia tied it up minutes later with Dan Barrett going end to end. Slovenia took the lead as the ever youthful rookie Ronnie Richardson stole one off the Jay Cummings and buried it past Artie. A back breaker for the Slovs as Irelands rookie Dave Vincelli tied it up at 2’s with 19 ticks on the clock in the 2nd. The 3rd period was back to the Artie and Gordie show as neither squad could gain an inch. With just under 4 minutes to go Irelands Alan Robb came barrelling down the right side and put it where grandma’s cookies are kept on the top shelf, Gordie could barely move. The Irish then came back just 25 seconds later as Pat McCormick made it 4-2. Slovenia pulled their goalie with 2 minutes to go and pushed really hard until Leo Brideau scored into an empty nitwit seconds left and the Irish WIN THE GOLD in an awesome tilt. Slovenia went 0-3 on the PP and Ireland was 0-1. The Rukavina Croatian CURSE continues now for 25 years. No one will want to play with him ever again. Ireland Bryon Wright wins his first Gold medal and laughs at Rukavina now. Nice!!!!

Our players of the Game went to both goalies and was well deserved. Art Senkowski and Gordie Ide. Looks like Dan Barrett wanted to get a pic with the Cup.

So their you have it another fantastic season especially with all the COVID craziness. We are very proud to announce our final individual award winner and thats for the MVP Conn Smythe winner of the playoffs. It was unanimous. Irelands Alan Robb.

And here is a final look at all of our teams.

A special thanks to Scottie McCallum for running that tailgate bbq in the parking lot that was awesome and we may try for Championship afternoon in the future as well. Brenda and the Refs of course and all of our sponsors. David Dodic, Brian Spence, Gary Julius, David Dupal and Frank Nweisser from Rabba. So much appreciated boys!!!! Here is a note form our President Frank Rispoli.

To our Members

We have completed our 34th season , most likely our most challenging season with trying to manage the  Covid situation and the uncertainty it brought through-out the year. We also had this year a tremendous amount of new members to our leagu , 17 to be exact almost 25% of our membership was new and as excited as we were to have our new members join us evaluating and balancing rosters was challenging to say the least .

A big thanks to all the membership for your understanding and support of the league this year with the many challenges that we faced.
I believe  we manage to do this as best we can and completed our season and a successful one it was, congratulations to our 2021/22 Playoff champions Team Ireland and our overall season Champion Scotland .
To our many new members I hope that you enjoyed the league and what we strive to be, a competitive but fun league that prides itself on FUN and one that has members safety as the #1 priority . We hope to see you all back next year, for some this may not be the league that your looking for and you may choose not to come back next year , which we totally understandable . Our league is not for everyone .
This year could not have taken place if it was not for the hard work and commitment of your league committee, a special thanks to the following 

Jay Cummings – Vice President

Sal Guerra – Treasurer 

Scott McCallum – Hockey Operations

Brian Spence- Equipment Manager

Gary Julius – Registrar

Robin Flumerfelt- Communication Officer

Mike Rukavina – League Stats/General Manager/Consultant

Theses individuals help guide our league through some very challenging decisions this year and I am very proud of their work, time and dedication that they put forth to ensure we had a successful year.

Wishing all our members a safe, happy summer. Make sure you keep up your dry land training and i’m not talking about just arm curls with a cold one !!
Will see you on the ice in September
Regards Frank Rispoli