PLAYOFFS HCB 4/7

OLL 4 - 0 HCB, LEAD SERIES 3-1

• We got the home W - and didn't beat just HCB, but the refs, too! We did have PPs, it wasn't a complete farce, but there were some of the usual head-scratchers, to put it politely. We should never have been on a 5 on 3 penalty kill (PK), as Bradley sucker-punched Simšič and didn't get penalised. Now, there might have been a touch of embellishment from 12, admittedly, but I think you'd all agree that if an OLL player did that in the ICE League, there is no way he is escaping at least a minor penalty. Anyway, I suppose we should just be grateful that the multiple reviews on the goals all came back positive for us and accept that there will be obvious missed calls - but we can still keep transcending them with quasi-divine PK performances.
• Talking of that 5 on 3 PK, that was absolutely heroic. Surviving 1:43 of 5 on 3 was a clear turning point in the game and fuelled our momentum to close it out convincingly.
• Heroism wasn't confined to the PK, either - finally, Sabla had a Captain's moment. As I've grown older, I have tried to lean more on gratitude for something 'better late than never' than rueing and stewing over why it took so long to happen. This is one of those things. Sabla had an incredibly difficult act to follow after Pavlin's statesmanlike captaincy (I would follow him into battle). In my opinion, he hasn't outwardly shown himself to be a wonderful leader - but he might be great in the locker room. Tonight, though, he did show some serious leadership. HCB had started lashing out in the final few minutes of P3, just looking to hurt OLL players. A net-front mess saw Vallentine (a longstanding rat of a player) purposely target Mahkovec, who hadn't engaged in a fight, in brutal fashion. Sabla said enough is enough and knocked another HCB player down (HCB18, on second viewing) and gave him by far the most violent beating I've seen an OLL player inflict. If you start it, Foxes, the Dragons will finish it. 

https://www.simpsonstreetfreepress.org/history/Muhammad-Ali Plus HCB Wikipedia and OLL website

• How have I got this far without mentioning Tokarski? His first shutout was extremely timely and involved possibly the save of the season - yes, even beating out Horak's balletic goaltending. It was a blocker save for the ages that he had no right to make. Sadly, his 'Dus-tin, Tok-ar-ski' chants fall very far from the greatness of '(boom boom) Hor-ak! (boom boom) Hor-ak!'; his absent acknowledgement of the crowd and post-match celebration also made me miss Horak quite a bit. Get well soon, Hory! Hopefully Tick-Tok will continue to hold the fort well in your absence! (Surely we go 'boom boom Tick-Tok from now on?? 😆)
• Goals:
• Messy net-front PPG (Quince from Meyer)
• Rush drop-back from Meyer to a trailing Drozg
• Messy net-front - Kapel gets it out from under his feet and in from a tight angle (Quince A).
• Cherry on top ENG from Pance (Mahkovec and Beričič As)
• HCB again walked straight off without engaging in the post-match ceremony. As NR pointed out, spurning a free gift bag that often includes some expensive wine is just silly - as well as very poor manners. As a teacher, I thoroughly approve of our teaching these bad mannered foxes a lesson with a resounding 4-0 victory that ended with HCB visibly losing their heads. I know some people said it wouldn't be so bad to have the Saturday home game to properly celebrate a playoff series victory - I think I would actually prefer crushing their spirits with one more away win tonight.