Thursday night's Lokomotiva game vs. the Butter Cream Gang was seen as a test for Loko. This was the fifth game of the season and a win or a loss could determine a lot at this point in the 10 game schedule, including and especially playoff seeding. Coming off a recent 6-5 loss, Loko was eager to get back into the win column and cement a spot at the top half of the standings.
Lokomotiva kicked scoring off in the first period with a Matty Miller goal. Soon after, the BCG would tie the game on a fluke backhand snipe over Anthony Martucci's shoulder. However, the rest of the game would not go as smoothly for the BCG.
Loko clamped down on defense and goaltending and spent most of the second and third periods in the BCG zone, seemingly scoring at will. A flurry of seven goals were scored by Lokomotiva before the BCG would score their second.
Highlight reel goals were rattled off by Rob Danzuso, Pete Thompson, and Derek Kaiser, who brought the house down and impressed his family watching in the stands as he deked his way through the BCG defense and scored from midair only to end up hurtling into the boards, reminiscent of the famous Bobby Orr Cup-wining goal. It should be mentioned that Derek's birthday was the day after the game. Not to be outdone and not finished scoring yet, Matty would score three more goals on his way to a 4 goal, 5 point night and Rob Danzuso would add another tally.
Lokomotiva was in control for most of the third period, but let up a couple fluke (read: lucky) shorthanded goals to the BCG during a Loko power play and added one more late goal to draw the score up to 8-4. Chad Smith then answered with a deflected blast from the point to put the nail in the BCG coffin and sealed the win for Lokomotiva. Lokomotiva is now enjoying a second place position out of 8 teams with a record of 3-2. The next game will be at 11:00 PM on November 5th. Loko will take on the Knuckleheads, who are currently tied for 4th place with a 2-2 record.
Although not everyone showed up on the score sheet, Loko played a complete, team first game. Forwards changed quickly to keep their legs fresh, and defensemen did the same. The game plan was simple: get the puck up the boards and keep it in the offensive zone for as long as possible. Anthony made several key saves during the game, backstopping his way to his 3rd win in a Loko uniform. Lokomotiva likes where it stands now and looks for more success in the season's second half.
By: Chris Gmiter
Season 1 Game 4: Lokomotiva @ Average Joe's - L 6-5
Lokomotiva evened their record back to .500 last night in a loss to Average Joe's. AJ opened up the scoring early to take a 1-0 lead.
Matty got the game tied up at 1 and then gave us a 2-1 lead with his second goal of the game. AJ tied the game again at 2 before Rob gave us a 3-2 lead. Matty netted the first hat trick in Lokomotiva franchise history and just like that, Loko had a comfortable 4-2 lead.
That's when things started to break down. AJ scored another goal to pull within 1. Loko held the lead for a while but on the opening faceoff of the third period, while on a Lokomotiva power play, AJ won the faceoff and tore into the zone to score a shorthanded, game-tying goal.
AJ went on to score the next two goals and now they were the ones playing with a 2 goal lead.
With about 5 minutes left in the game, Yehuda passed a puck out of the zone to Rob. Rob carried it into the AJ zone and passed to Matty. Matty passed right back to Rob who buried his second of the night and got Loko back in the game.
While a late period flurry gave Loko some life, we weren't able to cash in, even with the net empty in favor of the extra attacker. Loko would fall with a final score of 6-5 and their record dropped to 2-2.
Loko was missing a handful of key players last night and, while missing personnel is not an excuse, there was a noticeably different atmosphere on the bench. That, combined with the extremely late start time (11:20pm), combined with a lot of missed opportunities (several hit pipes and crossbars) led to a disappointing outcome. We'll get back out there next time though and kick some ass.
Next up is Butter Cream Gang (currently 1-2-0) on 10/24/2013 at 10:30pm.
By: Yehuda Miller
Season 1 Game 3: Lokomotiva @ Direct Energy - W 6-5 (Shootout)
The Lokomotiva Hockey Club was coming off their first victory of the season, and hoping to continue its push up the standings. Loko would begin its winning streak after pulling out a shootout thriller 6-5. This would advance them to 2-1-0. Good for 2nd Place in the league.
The team was missing a few key players, but lacking any one player will not set this high octane team back. Loko dominated puck control in the opening period which was capped by Pete Thompson scoring fairly early, to put Loko ahead 1-0. Derek Kaiser had a beautiful single-handed play by pokechecking the puck in his own end and taking the breakaway straight to a 2-1 lead. Which was also shortly lived and we were tied at 2.
After Direct Energy took a 3-2 lead, Mike Shomin went to the corner for the puck and fed Rob Danzuso in the slot, which he ripped by the goalie to tie it back up.
With the game all tied up, defensemen Tom Koerbel slapped a shot from the point, which was redirected perfectly by Jon Butzke to give Loko another lead. Tied yet again at 4, Matty Miller put what looked like a harmless shot top shelf that went right by the glove hand 5-4 Loko.
Goalie pulled for DE...the game seemed sure in hand until some sloppy play in our own end lead to another tie game with 38 seconds to go. Here comes the shootout to determine the winner: Rob Danzuso scored the only shootout goal for either side, as Anthony Martucci froze all 3 shooters for Direct Energy. Loko wins 6-5!
The game was overall yet again dominated by Lokomotiva, but risky mistakes lead to letting Direct Energy claw back into it, time and time again. A lot of positives were taken from this game, but the team strives to become better each and every game, so although a win is great, much work lays ahead of the team. Back in action October 13 @ 11:20pm.
By: Chris Gardner
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