After losing to them twice in the regular season, Lokomotiva made a loud statement last night to their arch-rivals, The Brigade. After 60 minutes of incredibly fast paced hockey, Loko came away with a 4-3 win to knock off the first-seed Brigade team and advance to the championship game against a yet-to-be-decided opponent.
Loko started scoring early and often as Rob, Derek and Sammy (2) put up 4 unanswered goals in the first period for a commanding lead. Everyone was staying focused, sustaining pressure in the offensive zone, and doing a bang-up job of clearing the puck out of the zone.
As is usual when The Brigade and Lokomotiva meet on the ice (with Bruce Kaplan as a referee), Loko had a parade of men going to the penalty box in the middle frame. The Brigade scored three times on the power play, including a 5 on 3 goal, to bring the score to within 1.
The second period ended 4-3 but Loko had it covered. Battles on the walls, battles in the middle of the ice...The Brigade kept coming fast and strong but the boys in orange stood their ground and kept winning the puck battles. With 15 seconds left and the goalie pulled, a face-off in the Loko zone gave the Brigade a flickering hope of tying the game. Pete won the face-off but their center put everything he had into it and the puck flew from the face-off dot straight into the catching glove of Mr. Martucci. That killed about 4 tenths of a second. Loko won the ensuing face-off and cleared the zone for their first playoff win.
It was, by far, the best played game from top to bottom of the entire season. The offense was clicking, the defense was playing them tight. It was definitely a night to be proud of.
Puckheads play Direct Energy on Saturday night to decide who we play on Monday night. In the interim, it's time to sit back and rest up in preparation for the big game.
Until next time! #GetLoko!
By: Yehuda Miller
Even though it was the goal all along...Going from a patchwork team where lots of guys didn't know one another, to playing in the Championship our first season. I think that speaks volumes about how far we have come in just one season. Great work guys, and it's a pleasure being on this team.
ReplyDelete