Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

Spring DIHL Week 4

This week’s DIHL competition featured rematches of Week 3. Highlights
from this week include the emergence of Stefan King as black hole in
goal, letting nothing escape his grasp, and a surprise shoot-out to
settle a draw between the Jets and Stars.

In this week’s first game, between the Midgets and the Bullfrogs,
replacement goalies for each team were required. Olivia and Stefan
bailed out the respective teams with Olivia playing for the Midgets in
the first and third periods and the Bullfrogs in the second with
Stefan at the other end. Great goaltending by both kept the score low.
The Midgets put Stephan to the test facing a smattering of shots in
the periods he defended the Bullfrogs goal. Olivia faced fire in the
second. For those interested, goalie stats for Olivia and Stefan were
15 shots, 11 saves and 16 shots, 14 saves, respectively. Aside from
the goalies, it was a fierce game with the Midgets overpowering the
Bullfrogs to remain undefeated in the B grade. Players of the game
were Anna Craw for the Bullfrogs and Xavier Wood-Aliberch for the
Midgets.

In the first game Olivia suffered a knee injury preventing her playing
for her FYC team in the A grade game against the Bears. Stefan was
once again called up to defend the goal, this time for FYC. The Bears
came out on top beating the FYC 4-0. The score could have easily been
6-0 were it not for glove-hand of King stealing two sure goals from,
ex-Ice Black, Mike Sam (maybe next time Mike). Richard Kendall scored
a brilliant goal while sliding on his back to earn MVP honours. Jarrod
Williams was the FYC player of the game for his solid defensive play
against the Bears.

Wednesday’s B grade game had the Maglashan Superfly team seeking
revenge (with a few reserves this time) after last week’s loss to The
Chiefs. Becoming a familiar sight was Stefan King playing goal for
Superfly, filling in for Josh Hubbard. The offensive onslaught by
Superfly was too much for Peter Wallis’s Chiefs. Superfly took the
game 4-0. Robert Morgan was given MVP honours for Superfly, setting up
a nice goal in the second period. Rieke Stackmann was a ray of light
on what could only be described as a dreary performance by the Chiefs.
Stackmann, in fleating moments of brilliance, make Stefan have to work
for his first DIHL shutout.

The Jets and Stars faced off in a rematch of last week’s nail biting
finish… and this week did not let the capacity crowd in the
warm-room down. The lead fluctuated back and forth the whole game.
Toward the end of the third period the Jets scored what they thought
was the go ahead goal, only to have it called back on a goalie
interference call. Frustration got the better of the Jets allowing a
break away goal to Heath Dunlop on the ensuing play… seemingly a
crushing blow. However, a heroic effort by the Jets to keep the puck
in the Stars zone in the final seconds and get one last shot off saw
van Leeuwen sneak the tying goal past Parry with just 3 seconds left.
A spontaneous decision by the league organiser forced the game to be
settled by a shootout. After 14 pitiful attempts/great saves the game
was finally decided when Dan Dilkes scored to put the Jets on top.
(Note: in the future draws will not result in a shootout unless time
permits and will be up to the judgment of the referees.) The Stars
were given 1 point for a draw and the Jets 2 for the shootout win. Sam
Smith and Dan Dilkes were their respective team’s MVPs.

As always, many thanks to the scorers who volunteered their time to
make these games possible.

See you all next week

Pete

Spring DIHL 2009 Standings-WEEK 4