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| July 27, 2004
By Irish #19
Days Nine and Ten
|  Irish in a Drunk Tank?
Rumor: The best rumor to the Tournament: I got in a fight with a NARCh referee and after beating him up went to a drunk tank and got bailed out by Junior Irish the next day because I wasn’t seen at NARCh.
Truth: There was a confrontation but it wasn’t anything more than a family thing, and there was no fight, though I could have easily kicked his butt. I wasn’t at NARCh the next day because when I return home after NARCh I have to have an operation on my shoulder and possibly my back due to a fall and a car accident I had back March. So, sometimes I need to rest and Daryn does not want me taking too much Vicodan and running through vendor row naked and crazed…at least without charging admission.
When you see me stumbling a bit around the rink, it is not due to alcohol as I cannot drink alcohol on my drugs, man, and so it’s because I am old, decrepit and those are the reasons. I honestly wish it was the latter, as I would be in a better mood…
You must do better with the rumors.
If Your Game or Team Was Not Covered:
Leave me alone. Geez. I have a thousand games to watch and report on.
Seriously, if you want us to insert your own game thumbnails, feel free to send them in to me, and I would be happy to see if we can incorporate them.
However, I do apologize because I was not able to keep up with the writing schedule and if I shorted anyone coverage, my apologies. Feel free to email me and I will be pleased to include your information in my reports.
Lets get down to business. Platinum is in full swing now, and we have crowned several Champions.
The first Platinum Champion was the Mission Snipers from New York. Small drought recently for the Snipers that was reverse here in the early going, and the Midget Snipers
On Saturday, we set up two more finals in Women’s Platinum, Bantam and Pro. Lots of other action as well.
Cubs:
Bordercat 97s beat TMD 97, 7-1, to get into the final. OC Blades over the Stallions, 8-3. Final? Toss-up.
Atom Platinum:
Tour Smoke beat the South Florida Lightening in a close one, 7-6, to get a trip to the finals. OC Blades beat play off winner TMD 95, 5-2, for a trip top the finals.
Finals are tomorrow at 3:20pm, local time.
Women’s Platinum:
Though a small division, the women had four solid teams playing. In the consolation game, Dry Ice beat the Riot, 3-2, to capture the Bronze.
Game details to follow. In fact, we will run down mostly scores and seedings today, and get to many game summaries tomorrow.
In the final game, it was Easton 4, and Primal 2, and the gals from Easton take home the gold.
Pro:
We are going to wrap up the pro separately, but the final game was a great one.
Mission got on the Board first, and the Mudcats tied it. Mission went back up and then the game went into a defensive battle between two of the best goalies in the business: Buffalino of the Cats and Laurie of KTek.
The action at the end was furious with Laurie blocking some shots that mortals would let in, and when the clock ticked down, KTek would take home 20 grand.
Squirt Platinum:
Squirt Quarterfinals had all the usual suspects. The only one I was a little surprised in not ranking earlier was the Long Island Stars. But all in all, it was a strong group.
TMD 91 took on the LI Stars, and beat them, 4-3. Sudden Death, my early favorite, fell in another close one, to AMB, 4-3. Velocity moved on with a win against Bordercats, 4-3. Finally, the Triumph beat a tough Raiders 3-0, to set the semi-finalists.
My picks? You will get mad, but I really do see the two California teams as the stronger teams, and Velocity and AMB should fight it out, and AMB should take it.
Tomorrow the Squirt’s will name a champion at 4:30 pm local time.
Pee Wee Platinum:
Pee Wee is just getting going. Early action is interesting, but I see the top four teams in early play to be: Blast 89ers, OCB 89, VC Vipers, and the Triumph. However, Its still the early going.
Midget Platinum:
Midget platinum has parried down to 11 teams:
Seed 1: Cobras
Seed 2: Molson Cold Shots
Seed 3: Tour Mudcats
Seed 4: Team Tour
Seed 5: Team Mission Detroit ‘86
Seed 6: Mission Snipers
Seed 7: Mission Honeybaked
Seed 8: Tour Black Ice
Seed 9: Nike OC Blades
Seed 10: Mavericks
Seed 11: Tour Bordercats
The breakdown…
Cobras look good, but I don’t think they have enough to make it past semis. Now that I have written this, I hope they prove me wrong, but I got to call it as I see it. Here, it all depends on big man Kransky in net. If he cal be a wall, they have a chance to take it all.
Molson Cold shots will make it to semis, but I am not sure they can get farther. Still, they have played some great teams and beat them, so a distinct possible final four.
Tour Mudcats have won everything this year but NARCh Platinum. In Juniors they had the toughest draw and left early. After a shaky start, they settled down and played well. Should get to semis, but new additions to the team are still working themselves in their system and Brad Ellis has not played since the injury.
Team Tour: Another team with a shaky start but now on a roll. Expect to see them is the semi-finals.
Team Mission Detroit ’86 has both surprised and impressed me, but I think they will exit before the semi-finals.
Mission Snipers: I really see this team playing very strong overall, and see them in the semi finals.
Mission Honeybaked: Strong but need help from lady luck to get into semi-finals. However, I never count them out. If they end up in the finals I would say, “Damned if they didn’t do it again.” But I would think they won’t make it to semi-finals.
Tour Black Ice: Over achieving. Will exit.
Nike OC Blades: Underachieving will remain.
Mavericks: tough, but not deep enough.
Tour Bordercats: Also underachieving, and inconsistent. For that reason I do not call them to make it to quarterfinals, but if they start to roll and stay away from stupid penalties that are costing them games, they will be a semi-finalist.
Cobras, Cold Shots, Mudcats and Snipers, with Team Tour trying to scratch one final spot away from the others. However, very close division. I wouldn’t fall over if all five fell and four new names end up in semi finals.
Bantam Platinum:
Tour USA 87 – Gold
Cobras – Silver
OC Blades 88 – Bronze
Top Points: Rhett Rakshani, OC Blades 88
Top Goalie: Andrew Gambino and Matt Endom, Tour USA 87
Tour USA 87’s biggest problem was expectations. After their previous showings at other tournaments and their sweep of the Detroit Regional there was suggestions that they should have been forced to play in Midget (18u) or not at all. They were expected to sweep. But the boys on Tour 87 knew better, because they knew the teams they would be facing and their rosters – many of which had been beefed up with players flown in from around the country, from USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, and so on. They simply walked in with the biggest target of any team on their backs.
However, the dirty secret of Tour 87 was when Brad Ellis’ glove came off in the Mudcats Midget game against Team North America, one of the North America players, seeing the gloveless hand, brought his stick down on it and broke his thumb. Brad would be secretly tended to by a medical doctor, and told he could play but had to brace it. To dull the pain, he was given shots into the thumb joint. The problem was he was limited in his shooting because he could not rotate the stick in his hand. USA 87 had lost one of their shooters, and he went back to defense for the rest of the tournament. However, as events ended up, he only needed one slap shot in the final…
In any event, after earning the number 1 seed, they then faced a team that had tied them recently, and a team that they felt was one of the true top four teams in the tournament: the Oakville Coyotes from Canada. Oakville dropped their last game and before that, they had posted a plus minus that was closest to the Tour 87s. They would face the Tour 87s in quarterfinals and the Tour boys would look on it as a final game with the same intensity.
At the start it was a nip and tuck game with Oakville’s skaters matching Tour 87s stride for stride. Then, the USA’s slowly built a lead that bought them their first play off win at NARCh, 9-3. However, going into the final four with their number 1 seeding, what they had also guaranteed was a medal, at least a bronze.
Next up in the semi finals was the Team Mission Detroit 88s, and while some may have felt they had an easy seeding, these Detroit boys had recently faced the 87s in Detroit, and lost to them, so pay back was on their mind. They were there because of their quality. However, it was Tour 87s day, as they jumped up quick, and when TMD chipped back, their puck control game kept the 88s at bay and they extended their lead to 5-2. A late goal made it 5-3, but it wasn’t enough. The game put them in the final.
However, while the Tour 87s were playing it all out, there were four other teams that were fighting it out for the right to challenge them.
The OC Blades, who were stronger this season, is many observers’ estimations than in year’s past because of their additions of top level 87s to the team, would face the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs in the Quarters. AMB, of course, were the semi-finalists at Winternationals. In a game that literally belonged to Thomas Tartaglione, their goalie. The OC Blades converted one ppg to go ahead 1-0 and with TNT in net it was all they needed. Credit, however, to the AMB goalie as he kept his team in, with only one goal against, taking some of the best snipes in the tourney and knocking them down.
On the o
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