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| July 28, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update Day 11
Silver Anniversary
|  Sunday saw the crowning of champions in Women’s, 35 & Over, Senior in the Platinum division and the conclusion of NARCh PRO, which featured a new champion in Team Rink Rat. Also, NARCh’s new Silver Division debuted and Varsity Cup and Girls team started play.
NARCh Pro would start off with the semifinals and the first two teams to play would be the #1 seed Tour Mudcats who would face the upstart Team NIKE. The teams would be tied at the end of the half at 1 in a game where most of the fans were expecting the Mudcats to pull away easily. Tour would pull away early in the 2nd half, scoring twice in the opening 4 minutes (I could give the names if they ever turned in an official roster, sorry..it was #8 and #18) to take a 3-1 lead. Team NIKE would generate some more offense in the 2nd half, but were shut down by goaltender James Bufalino until just a second left in the contest and the Mudcats would head into another final, their 3rd in 4 years at the Finals.
The 2nd semifinal would Mission DNA and Team Rink Rat. After their first foray into NARCh PRO, Rink Rat revised a large portion of their roster heading into the Finals. Notable new additions included former Mission players Gerry St. Cyr and Rob Laurie. Rink Rat would scorein the opening 75 seconds before DNA would tie it up just under 4 minutes later. After that it would be all Team Rink Rat as they scored 6 unanswered goal and consistently generated scoring chances to pull away in their 7-1 win to move into their first NARCh Pro Championship game.
In the Final, the scoring would again start quickly as Jay Mazer scored at 1:07 only to have Gerry St. Cyr tie the game just two and a half minutes later. The Mudcats would take the lead again with as they scored with 4:15 left in the half and looked as if they’d hold a 2-1 lead heading into the 2nd half before St. Cyr scored his 2nd of the game with just 18 seconds remaining and the teams woud be deadlocked at 2 after the first half of play. Rink Rat would get their first lead of the game after scoring 3:30 into the 2nd half. Once again, a lead wouldn’t last long as the Mudcats would come back to tie the game at 3 with 7 minutes remaining. The two teams would play a scoreless remainder of regulation and once again the PRO Final @ TECO arena would head into OT (just in case anyone had forgotten about Garv’s long slapper last time we were here in Ft. Myers). It wouldn’t take long to decide a winner as Team Rink Rat transitioned after the Mudcats had the first chance to score and had a 3 on 1 and it would be St. Cyr with his 3rd of the game from the left side on a one-timer just 48 seconds into OT and Rink Rat would win their first NARCh PRO title and the Mudcats once again would be the runner-up at the Finals.
Senior Platinum provided some great action as well on Sunday and it would start with the first playoff game featur ing the #4 Team Hyper vs #5 Omni St. Louis. Omni would hold a 2-1 lead late into the game before Hyper would get a 2nd chance as the Omni goalie misplayed the puck and Hyper would tie the game with just seconds remaining in regulation. In OT, they would get the majority of the scoring chances, although they’d be bailed out by their own goalie a couple of times before they would convert a one time pass into the Omni net and Team Hyper would move on to the next semifinals.
Next, they’d face the top seeded Cyberweld Wolves, and they would break the game open early as they would roll into the Final with a 6-1 win.
Two more eastern teams, the Rink Rat Bombers and Middletown Mudcats would meet in the 2nd semifinal and the Bombers would hold off the Mudcats, eerie foreshadowing of the PRO Final perhaps??, to advance with a 6-4 win.
Typically when teams are given a 2nd chance to advance at NARCh, they don’t disappoint. We saw it just the other day in the Mission Honeybaked vs Marvel Black Panthers playoff game in the Bantam division. Hyper would be hoping to duplicate that success and for much of the squad win their first Finals title. Jamie Milam would give Hyper the lead just 2:31 into the game. Raulie Licon would extend the lead to 2 goals just 2 minutes later. The Bombers would come back though, as captain Jason McGeown scored twice in a span of 2:24 to tie it at 2 with just under 90 seconds left in the half. Chris Petersen would give Hyper the lead once again though as he scored with 5 seconds remaining to give them a 3-2 lead at the half. Team Hyper would change goaltenders at the half as their tandem of Peter Manniro and Gus Sanchez had been in a rotation all tournament long. Proving the best defense is a good offense at times, Hyper roared out of the gate in the 2nd half with 2 goals in the opening 48 seconds, both by Popescue and would give Sanchez a bit of a cushion to work with as they now lead 5-2. For those not counting at home, that was 3 goals in 53 seconds. Rolfe and Milam would also score as Hyper completed its run of 5 unanswered goals to lead 7-2. Rink Rat would answer back with 2 goals in the last 2 minutes, trimming the lead to 7-4, but it would not be enough as Team Hyper would run out the clock and win the Sr. Platinum title.
35 & Over: Can/Am would narrowly defeat the Mission Snipers, who played above and beyond initial expectations, to advance to the Championship Game against the Labeda Hosers. The Hosers had the benefit of a bye into the Final by virture of having the best record among the teams in the preliminary round. Normally this isn’t much of an issue, however many of the older bodies were looking for the rest in order to stay a bit fresher.
Can Am would open the scoring with 5:37 left in the 1st half as Mongrain scored off a feed from Michael Hunt to give the Stars the 1-0 lead. However, just over 4 minutes later the Hosers would come to life as Mike Duffey tied the game off a Curt Labeda setup and Labeda put the Hosers ahead for good just 20 seconds later and the Hosers would lead 2-1 at the half. Labeda would score just 2:24 into the 2nd half to pad the lead to 3-1 and a goal by Joe Norris with Stars player Jeffray D. Gardner (who continues to claim that it was case of not knowing how to stop) in the box for Interference gave the Hosers a 3 goal cushion and they would cruise the rest of the way adding 2 late goals by Arminen to seal the win and claim the 35 title.
Women’s Platinum: Labeda Easton Catz would clinch 3rd place earlier in the day with a 7-0 win over the Buffalo Nightmare, who’s goalie was a big reason they had been in games against Mission DNA and the Catz earlier in the tournament.
The Final would once again feature the Cal Selects, who were the top seed, and Team Mission, who narrowly defeated the Selects in St. Paul last summer. The Selects would return many of the same players from last year while Mission would have an revamped roster, and only 6 skaters for the event. Complicating matters was the injury suffered by goaltender Keely Brown that forced her to play most of the game from the floor.
Regardless, the Selects were a year old and wiser this tie around and took control late in the first half as LeMond scored off a setup from former NP covergirl Maldonado and the Selects would lead 1-0 at the half. Team Mission would tie the game at 1 with only 4 minutes left in regulation as Van Aggelen snuck it by Martin. This time though, the Selects had the best player on the floor with perennial Olympian Angela Ruggiero and she would make her mark after racing down the floor and beating an outstretched Brown to tuck home the backhander with only 26 seconds left in the game and the Selects would clinich their first Finals title to complete the sweep of 2003 Women’s championships.
Junior Platinum: Are the Bauer Pythons back? Not that they ever really went anywhere, but they are playing some of their best hockey since ’01 with a strong 4-0 win over the Madhatters, who have suprisingly been held off the scoreboard for most of the tournament. Mission Hotskates tied AMB 2-2 as they attempt to improve on their playoff showing from last year. The Mission Snipers continue their run of hot and cold as they defeated the Jr. Everblades in a game where the hardest hit was that of Rob Scheer’s stick to an official’s head (said official received 6 stitches and was have been heard to complain that no penalty was called). The Tour Mudcats, essentially the same team that advanced to the Bantam Platinum semifinals, defeated WN champs Nike Buffalo Wings 6-5, while the A-Team was unable to pull off upset #2 as they lost to the Bordercats by a 4-2 score. Of course, despite their slipup last night resulting in a tie, the Detroit Mission Hyper Stars continue to roll as they defeated the South Bay Rockets 6-0.
Mite Silver: The Mission Cobra Selects, San Diego Scorpions and Sand Sharks all won their first games and kicked off the Silver division as many of the players had their first ever view of a NARCh Finals.
Atom Silver: Marple Jr. Gladiators broke open a close game against AKS with a 4 goal outburst and the Mission Snipers ’96 defeated Nike OC Blades in an 8-4 shootuot.
Squirt Silver: Team Excalibur Silver defeated the San Diego Gulls while CPH was just too much for the Gulf Coast Storm Lightning.
Girls:Hyper Cal Selects are likely the team to beat with many of their players from Platinum eligible for the Girls division, which is also in its first year here at the Finals. They defeated they Mystery Gals while the Black Stars beat the Fierce Bubbles in early round games.
High School: It’s still early, but Intelli, Santiago and Marina all won games today to put themsevles in good positions to claim the top seeds as teams continue to battle for the Varsity Cup title.
Cub Platinum: Mission Rapid F
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