One Love......some reminiscing

With 3 minutes left in the final period (it was about this time)of game 3 of the division final. Casey Schellenberg, wound up his carbon one piece stick and let fly a shot destined for the upper left hand corner of the net. The ball seemed to hang in the air for a brief second as it passed the unaware goaltender and found the white mesh of the net. The ball was in! The game was tied! The Maroons were taking this one to overtime!!!! The Maroons went on to win that game soon after overtime started on a goal by Aaron Oevering. With a new season on the horizon, we must look back to some of the great moments of the 2008 Tier 4 Champions, The Maroons.

#19 Kyle Sporer sat in the penalty box (as he did a lot that year), with just 10 minutes left in the final period against the Wildcats. The score was 4-3 and the Wildcats were coming on. Brett Edwards stripped one of the Wildcats and rushed up the rink one on one with the goaltender. Brett went top shelf with a rocket. Brett leaped into the back boards, pumped like never before. The goal seemed to spark the Maroons as they went on to trounce the Wildcats, 9-4.

3 games into the brand new 2008 season the Maroons found themselves a lowly 1-2. However this night against HC Dynamo, the Maroons regular goaltender Chase Miciak, was away on holidays, so they had Drew Urqhuart called up to play. With a minute left in the third period, playing the team that would eventually be one of the worst teams in the league, HC Dynamo, the Maroons were down 3-2.In what would be a hotly contested and continuous issue for the entire season, the Maroons pulled their goalie and pulled the third line off the ice and put the first line on (which was not appreciated by some). With frustrated teammates on the bench, the first
line knew they had to score. Kyle Sporer won the faceoff and the Maroons maintained control in the offensive zone. 30 seconds left...the ball gets fed back to Scott Wilson on the point. Scotty rifles a shot at the net. As became customary throughout the season, Scott's shot missed the net high and left. The ball came bouncing hard off the end boards right to the left side of the net where Brett Edwards was standing. With the ball 2 feet in the air, Brett swatted it hard to the open right side of the net. The Maroons had tied it up! Aaron Oevering would later score a huge overtime goal to set the fire under this future championship team! Drew Urqhuart would go on to help the Maroons win thier next two games and eventaully take over the goaltending reigns, and win 13 games.

The Maroons found themselves down 3-2 to the then first place, Vipers. The game was a real hard fought battle. With chances going either way. Time was slowly starting to run out for the Maroons, and with around 4 minutes left a collision in the corner, and a marginal call, meant another penalty for #19 Kyle Sporer. However Kyle didn't take this one all too well, and angrily slammed his stick on the ground, the referee threatened to kick him out. Kyle was beyond mad at this point and slammed the gate to the penalty box as hard as he could. The referee signalled that Kyle was kicked out. It was kind of the breaking point for the Maroons, as they ended up losing the game 4-2. Kyle never seemed to play that same after his meltdown.

It was game 3 of the semi final series vs. the Swashbucklers, the first game had been forfeit to the Swashbucklers due to the Maroons using an illegal player (my bad, it was unforgivable I know). The Maroons stormed back however taking game 2. Now with a minute to go in game 3 the Maroons looked to be closing out the series, with a 3-2 lead it was almost a certain trip to the finals. Almost. A Battle was going on along the boards and #10 Steve Langer got dumped, no one knows what went through the mind of Aaron Oevering, but he ran over and hauled down a Swashbuckler. This resulted in a penalty in the final minute for the Maroons. The Swashbuckler made everything of the chance. Scoring they sent the game into overtime. Lucky for the Maroons they had Ryan White in their lineup. Overtime waged on for around 10 minutes before the Maroons rushed down the ice and with an absolutely booming slap shot, White beat the Swashbucklers goalie for the overtime winner.

There were many appearances by some great players throughout the season as well, so lets give a shout out to some great substitution players.

Jason Singh (enough with the behind the back passes)
Rich Smith (the younger better Smith)
James Mcteer (loved the bandanna)
John Mcteer (leaped off the bench to defend his teammate......and got a 5 game suspension for it)
Mike Mcdonald (loved the blue visor, though it lasted all but maybe 5 minutes)
Steve Langer (the Mike Bossy of ball hockey)
Clarke Jay (lol our illegal player, I'm sooooo sorry lol)
David White (in the over sized jersey, lol, just awesome)
James Higgs (played just about every position at one point)

Here are some other brief highlights:

Barry's first and only goal.
The brawl (when josh and john leaped off the bench).
Jordan Jeske's five goal game.
Drews mom tossing him out of the van halfway to the rink leaving us goalie less.
The wildcats goalie wearing a Canadian tire kids mask gets kicked out and Kyle Sporer scores 2 empty netters to help the maroons win 6-5.
Brett Edwards 3 hat tricks and one 4 goal game (talk about a pure goal scorer).
Jordan Jeske's electrifying second half of the season, he had only 7 goals in the first half, and 17 in the second half!

Well that's all, and I'm looking forward to the 09 season ahead for a lot more memories.
Peace
-Sporer