May
31st,
2005-
With
three weeks off from league play, the ‘Bulldogs’ turned
their attention and efforts towards the First Annual
Denny Pratt Memorial Tournament on Memorial Day Weekend.
The tournament was held at Johnny’s Ice House in the
West Loop area of Chicago, featuring house teams and
other regional squads wishing to play.
The
‘Dogs’ practiced several times during the course of the
last couple weeks in preparation for the tournament.
Since they had no scouting reports nor have they ever
faced any of the teams in the tourney, they worked hard
at developing their game
victory does not make a season.
The
‘Bulldogs’ opened their first game against John
Marshall, a team made up of the janitorial staff,
rent-a-cops, professors and a plumber from John Marshall
Law School. Although the ‘Dogs’ were hyped and excited
to play, they looked flat, disorganized and sloppy. They
gave up three ugly goals and scored only one. Their
offense looked anemic at times and dreadful at others
with the sole tally coming on a highlight reel play by
Frank Lionello. They lost the game 3-1, to a team they
should’ve easily beaten.
The
‘Dogs’ could have gone back to the locker room with a
bad attitude. They could’ve made excuses or blamed one
another. They didn’t. Instead, they held their heads up
high and prepared themselves for the later game against
‘Mile 41’. ‘Mile 41’was coming off of an embarrassing
9-3 loss themselves, at the hands of the ‘Hellfish’.
“Jason [Darfler] told us to put that game behind us”
said Alex Martinez. “He never let us get down on
ourselves and kept us psyched up for the tournament.
The
highly talented ‘Mile 41’team was the favorite in this
tournament. They too were determined to prove their
early loss was a fluke. “I saw these guys in warm-ups”
said Sal Karim. “They looked a whole lot better than the
team we played earlier. If we want to win this game,
were going to need to bring our best to the ice.”
Things
looked bad early on. ‘Mile 41’ jumped out to a quick 2-0
lead. It was beginning to look like the ‘Bulldogs’
didn’t belong in this event, that is, until Mike Mancuso
smacked a Darfler rebound to put the ‘Dogs’ on the
board. The goal seemed to rejuvenate the guys as
Lionello and Darfler put up two more goals to close out
the first period.
The
‘Bulldogs’ never looked back. They played solid defense,
controlled the puck and got some stupendous goaltending
from Martinez. They also got two goals from Joey Van
Grimbergen and one by John Carrerra to beat ‘Mile 41’
convincingly 6-3. They ended their first day of play
with a 1-1 record.
On the
second day of play, the ‘Bulldogs’ learned early on that
if they won their game against the ‘Flying Hellfish’,
they would play “John Marshall’ in the championship
game. The ‘Dogs’ were unsure which ‘Hellfish’ team would
show up; the team that blew out ‘Mile 41’ 9-3 or the
team that was shutdown by ‘John Marshall’ the day
before. “None of that sh*t matters” said Darfler. “We
need to keep our focus on the game at hand and not worry
about what the other teams do.”
Game 3
began well for the ‘Dogs’. They took the early 1-0 lead
on Darfler’s hard slapper from the blue line. However,
the ‘Hellfish’ tied it up near the end of the first
period. The two teams exchanged goals in the second
period to knot the game at two apiece. The ‘Bulldog’
goal was scored by James Senne.
Frustrated by the ‘Bulldogs’ aggressive attacks, the
‘Hellfish’ pulled out their bag of tricks. They threw
cheap shots and hard slashes at the ‘good guys’.
However, the ‘Dogs’ never lost their composure and kept
their eyes on the prize. They killed all of their
penalties, including a 5-on-3 with two of their three
defensemen (James Senne & Darfler) sitting in the box.
Late in the second
frame,
Joey V. broke the deadlock by scoring a power play goal
to give the ‘Bulldogs’ the lead for good. For good
measure, Mancuso and Joey V. added two more tallies in
the third period to give their team a resounding 5-2
victory and a ticket to the Finals .
The
Championship Game drew a capacity crowd of close to 150
patrons, some were players from the tournament, but most
others were curious hockey fans cheering this unknown
underdog team known as the ‘Bulldogs’.
Despite
their early round loss to ‘John Marshall’, the ‘Dogs’
were confident that they could beat this squad. They
entered the tournament with one mission, and it wasn’t
to finish up as bridesmaids to anyone. They took control
of the game early on Darfler’s goal and forced the boys
from ‘Marshall’ to play at a faster pace than they were
accustomed to.
In the
second period, the ‘Dogs’ scored twice more to take a
commanding 3-0 lead. The goals were scored by Tony
Micheles and Joey V. The once powerful ‘Marshall’ team
now looked like a doomed squad. They couldn’t get
anything going against a ‘Bulldog’ defense which made
their offense look like a joke. The exuberant ‘Dogs’
knew victory was theirs.
Perhaps
it was overconfidence or a momentary mental lapse.
Whatever it was, the ‘Bulldogs’ gave up two quick goals
to close out the second period. What appeared to be a
rout just moments before had suddenly become a close
game. “We were fatigued and battered” said Maher Karim.
“But we have hearts like warriors and there was no way
we were coming this far to lose to these guys.”
Although ‘Marshall’ battled valiantly, they just
couldn’t do much more after their late second period
surge. The ‘Dogs’ scored two more goals (one each by
Darfler and Joey V.) midway through the third frame to
put the dagger in their collective hearts and claim the
crown.
“This
was a job well done by all” said Darfler. “This was a
whole team effort and we proved it to everyone. It was a
great experience for all of us and we left a great name
for ourselves with everyone who was there. I am very
proud of what we accomplished and we did it as a team.
We have some areas to improve on for certain, but we
played with a ton of enthusiasm and heart which meant
the most and resulted in the trophy”
The
‘Dogs’ will celebrate their victory for a couple more
days and then it’s back to work. They will be back at
practice this week in preparation for league play, which
resumes next week. If they can play the rest of the
season with the same heart, desire and passion as they
did in the tournament, expect these guys to be hoisting
the elusive, Lord Stanley’s Cup at the end of this
season
