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| July 27, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update Day 10
The More Things Change
|  ...the more they stay the same.... Mission Honeybaked takes both the Squirt and Bantam titles in an action filled day here at TECO Arena. Quite a bit of PRO action as well as we head into the PRO Final later today.
All year long while working regionals, I had been told by teams that no one would be able to touch the OC Blades ’90 and Mission Marvel Silver Surfers in the squirt division. Teams were just accepting of the fact that they’d be playing for 3rd place before even booking their tickets. So what happens? The top 4 teams from the Detroit Regional all advance to the quarterfinals and two of them, the Rollin Hogs and Team Mission Detroit 90’s advance to the semi’s and face off against one another to guarantee a spot for one of them in the Final. That left the Blades and Silver Surfers in the other semifinal.
The Hogs and Detroit would meet first in a game that would rival any prior Squirt Final, good fast paced action with that east coast feel, a bit more physical than the west. As was the case in Detroit, the Hogs would have just enough to hold off a late Detroit rally in the last minute to win and they would advance to the Championship with a 4-3 win.
OC and Marvel would have a similar matchup, a bit more perimeter passing and less play along the boards. Marvel would hold a 1 – 0 lead through half before scoring early in the 2nd to increase it to 2-0 before OC answered back a couple minutes later to cut the deficit to 1. That would be all goalie Nick Markic would need though as he shut the Blades down the rest of the way and Marvel would move on to the Final with a 2-1 win.
Both teams looked loose and ready to play before the Championship game. There are times when you’re lining them up for introductions before the game starts and you can see them looking at the lights, seeing the overall size of the rink, for these 2 teams it was as if they were playing in a local league, no pressure, no worries.
The Hogs would get on the board first with
Handley finishing off a setup from
Sanderson just over a minute into the game.
Szydlowski would double the lead just 2
minutes later and the Hogs would hold a 2
goal lead until late in the half when Cruz
would trim the lead to one with 1:26
remaining. Just when it looked like the
Surfers would end the half only trailing by 1
goal, Vallier would score with only a second
left on the clock and the Rollin Hogs would
lead 3-1 going into the 2nd half.
This time it would be the Silver Surfers who
would open the scoring as Cruz scored his
2nd of the game, and 2nd in 3 minutes, just
1:49 into the 2nd half. Then with just under
3 minutes remaining Holstrom would
convert a Marciano pass to tie the game at 3
and it appeared as if we were going to OT.
However, the Hogs once again would get a
late half goal, this time with 6 seconds left in
the contest and it would be Czarnik with his
biggest NARCh goal ever, that would seal
the win and give the Rollin Hogs the title.
A couple hours later Mission Honeybaked
and Big Willy’s would meet to decide the
Bantam division. Mission Honeybaked had
narrowly averted upsets in their first round
playoff game against the Marvel Black
Panthers, largely thanks to the play of Jeff
Lerg in the first OT session before they
converted an early PP chance in the 2nd to
move on to the quarterfinals. In the
quarters, they would once again persevere
late against the Mission Snipers to move
into the semifinals where they’d faceoff vs
the Tour Mudcats.
Big Willy’s had gone through the opening
games in a bit of anonimity before claiming
the #2 seed with a 3-0-1 record. In the
quarters they would continue to roll with a 7-
2 win over the Tour Bordercats, who had
won the Detroit regional over the
Honeybaked squad. In the semifinals they
would face the OC Blades, who had found
their form after dropping 2 preliminary round
games and being shut out against the
Tritons.
In the Big Willy vs OC semifinal the two
teams would finish tied in regulation at 2
and would go deep into the the extra
session before the Big Willy’s would score
with 2:22 remaining, on the PP that had 0:22
left, to earn a 3-2 win and move on to the
Final.
Mission Honeybaked would take control of
their semifinal vs the Tour Mudcats, who
defeated Team Tour in the quarterfinals, and
pad their lead late in the game as the
Mudcats tried to play catch up in their 10-4
win to put the Hogs in their 2nd Final of the
day.
Honeybaked would open the scoring early
with Bobby Ryan scoring just 15 seconds
into the game. Porter would score 4 minutes
later to stretch the lead to 2. They would
add to the total, once again scoring in the
latter seconds of the half with Kolarik scoring
to give them a 3-1 lead heading into the 2nd
half. Big Willy’s would come back, scoring
the first 2 goals of the 2nd half to trim the
lead to 3-2 with 7:39 to play. However,
Kolarik and Ryan would score to for
Honeybaked to stretch the lead to 5-2. Big
Willy’s would have one last run as they
created numerous scoring chances and
scored with 2:47 left to trim the lead to 5-3.
Lerg would make a big stop just seconds
later to settle down and Kolarik would score
his 3rd of the game via and empty netter to
seal the 6-3 win and give the Hogs their 2nd
title in the course of a couple hours.
Junior Platinum started today and there
were some upsets early. The Detroit
Mission Hyper Stars found themselves in a
tough game against Scarface and wound up
tied 2-2 in what was their 4th game of the
day. Mississauga Hyper showed they aren’t
just a one year wonder with a 7-2 win voer
the South Bay Rockets. A bit of an upset
was the Mission Snipers ’85 defeating
Dr.EM Armadillos. However it would be the
older Snipers who would face the biggest
upset of the day as the A-Team scored early
and held off the Snipers late rally with a 3-2
win to close out play for the day.
NARCh PRO: Playoffs started today after the
teams finished their final round robin games
earlier in the day. First up would be Mission
DNA and the Mission Hyper Pirates. DNA
would take it to the younger Pirates and
advance to a semifinal matchup against
Team RinkRat with a 9-2 win.
The next playoff game would feature Team
NIKE, who are looking good in their new
jerseys, and the Detroit Mission Hyper Stars.
Despite tying Team Rinkside earlier in the
day, Nike would regroup and advance to a
matchup against the top seeded Tour
Mudcats at 12:00 today with a 9-1 victory.
Today’s semifinals should be great
matchups as the Mudcats will face off
against some of the players from last year’s
DNA squad in a quasi repeat of last year’s
semifinal as Nike has quite a bit of size and
it should be a very physical battle as Nike
will try and wear down the ‘Cats.
Mission DNA and Team Rink Rat will feature
more of the same as both teams have size
and don’t shy away from the physical play.
Team Rink Rat is a much improved squad
from this past Winternationals and
goaltender Rob Laurie could be the
difference in this matchup.
Women’s Division: The Cal Selects and
Team Mission appear to be the frontrunners
for the women once again as Mission
downed the Buffalo Nightmare despite 40
saves from the Nightmare goalie in a 3-0
win and the Selects just were not missing
the chances as they defeated the Labeda
Easton Catz 8-2. The Catz and Nightmare
will meet for 3rd place today while the
Selects and Mission play for the Gold.
For the Senior Division, Team Hyper and
Omni St.Louis will meet soon to see who will
advance to play the top seeded Cyberweld
Wolves in the first senior semifinal while the
Rink Rat Bombers (#2 seed and who
defeated Cyberweld to win the Rahway
regional) will meet fellow eastern senior
team the Middletown Mudcats (who have
done a good job keeping the NARCh staff
awake at night these past few days at the
hotel!!). It was a very even division and 7 of
the 10 teams were in contention for the 5
playoff positions available. If Team Hyper
wins their opening game, they could run the
table as they are a very dangerous #4 seed.
35 & Over: Playoffs today, Can AM has
advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 win
over the Mission Snipers, who have made a
great showing with a bunch of guys from
Rapid Fire Arena and who for many, is their
first experience @ NARCh. Waiting for
them in the Final will be the Old Hosers, who
had a bye into the championship and could
be a factor as those in the division have
noted that it takes a bit longer to recover
nowadays.
Don’t forget the PRO Final tonight at 7pm
eastern time, check it on NARCh.com.
For more of Jim's articles on the 2003 Finals see the Latest News section.
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