Halifax Floor Hockey League
I'm Billy Concarney and do we have some news for you.
Ok, so have you ever seen that movie where the underdog, the guy who doesn't even stand a chance, gets in there and flukes his way past his first opponent. Then he fumbles his way in his next match and pulls off another upset. Finally he gets to the "Big Dance" and manages to take it all. Have you seen that movie? No, well me neither. But folks we are talking about reality, not the movies, but maybe one will be made about this rag tag group of misfits who pulled off the biggest upsets in the history of the league to bring home the prize for the 2011 "B" season.
So first lets look at the Mighty Titans. This is the team that I picked at the beginning of the season to take it all. Jeff " My Arms Are Some Big" Shute picked a power house team on paper. With the likes of Dave "The Scooper" Cooper, Jeff "I'm Going To" Townley and Donnie "Beetle" Bailey as well as some solid "D" In Adam "Wheels In The Soles Of My Shoes" Heally, Jeff "I'm Just A" Shepperd and Tom "Half Bird half Lion" Griffiths, these guys looked unbeatable. That is until the injury bug rode into town. They had a hard time fielding a team most nights and had to pick a guy up on more than one occasion just to play. They finished the season with a dismal 9 pts but that never seemed to phase them. I asked Dave Cooper about this and he said "Yea, that never seemed to phase us".
So enter the play offs. A different team, everyone except Townley comes out to play. And how's this for luck, their way to the finals is paved with good fortune as the first two rounds saw their opponents have to throw a player in nets as the goalies were all out of town. FYI, the league is currently investigating allegations that some higher ups were influenced with promises of pigeons and stuff if they sent theses goalies away at the said time. We will keep you in the loop on this. So that is their story.
At the other end of the floor stood a creature of a different make up.
Who would have known that in the dark dingy corner of some smoke filled tavern, master mind Craig "Beetlejuice" Beidler would be plotting a plan so devious, so unbelievably diabolical, that would send ripples through the very fabric of the HFHL.
On paper, his team did not stand a chance. Yes he had the best ever goal tender to dawn pads in this league. But that was it. The rest of the guys sucked, or at least on paper they did. (Just kidding boys). My point is that this was not the loaded team that some of the other captains had put together. Actually, most of the experts thought, "Craig...what were you thinking" while the remaining experts said "Craig, what were you drinking". The flavor of the draft was to stack your team with offense and Craig broke this mold by choosing a goalie, the 46 year old 272 lbs too good to play Ball Star veteran keeper Martin "Candy" Kane for his first pick. Then he chose his "misfits" and started out the season.
They had their guys show up every night. True fighters who played through screaming goalies, high powered offenses and even the infamous "Sulli Incident" and at the end of it all, had 5 pts to show for it. They were surely doomed once the play offs rolled around. Their first hurtle were the powerful Chill. Someone never told the Hackers that they were supposed to loose big in this game. Badly out played they stayed tight and fought hard and with 27 seconds left scored the tying goal and with 5 second left, they shocked the Chill and won the game. But could lightening strike twice? The next up was the league leading Slayers. Barry Coolen had put together a great team who were virtually unbeatable during regular season play. I mean they even had "Chris McKinnon", the most revered and feared goalie in the league. But he didn't scare the Hackers. The game started with the Slayers taking a tow goal lead early. But that didn't get the Hackers down. they battled back and took it to the Slayers. There were no last minute heroics, no lucky bounces, just hard play and at the end of it, the Hackers had just plain and simple beat the Slayers. Once again shocking the world but they weren't done there.
the finals were played last night by the two worst teams during regular season. The Mighty Titans were the undoubtedly the better team on paper. But the Hackers, well they were Hackers! They had pulled off two huge upsets and were poised to take a shot at a third.
The game went back and forth with the Titans taking a 5-4 lead into the second. The Hackers played tough and after two, the score was dead even at 6 all. The third saw the Hackers weather the storm so to speak as the Titans came out firing but the only managed to score one goal. With the period dyeing down, the Hackers once again had their backs against the wall. Titans keeper Pierre Joyal made the save of the play offs when he dove across the net to make a huge save and keep the lead for his team. Unfortunately, he could not recover fast enough and the Phil Rodgers burried a blast from the point to tei the game. This game was going into overtime.
Sudden death...the words no one likes to hear. One goal decides it all. The Hackers and the Titans laid it all out on the line.
In the end, it was the hard drive to the net that ended the game. In a controversial play, Craig Beidler fired a shot at the net and John Couch ran hard towards the net. The rebound came right out and hit John's foot and found it's way into the bottom corner. The Hackers Win....The Hackers Win, or did they. The refs meet with the score keeper and in a tense moment of silence, they discuss whether or not the ball was intentionally kicked in. After a few minutes, the rule on the floor stand. The ball was not intentionally kicked in and the Hackers win! What a season! What a team! Worth while to note that Hackers Captain/GM Craig Biedler score 3 goals and had 4 helpers in the win. Great job Captain Biedler!
In closing off the 2011 "B" season, it is worth while to note a few things.
John Couch has been in the league for 8 seasons and this is his first cup win. Congrats John!
This is also the first win for:
Leigh McCormick
Adam Secord
Phil Rodgers
Craig Beidler
Glen Sullivan
Paul Connolly
For Richard Wannmaker, this is his second time on the cup
Martin Kane has won a championship in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and now 2011
We want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who played this season. it was great season and hats off once again to league commissioner Johaan Tienhaara. Great job chief!
So this is Billy Concarney saying so long and remember, you can make a whole lot of racket during the ride, but it's how you finish that counts!
Next week will mark the start of the 2012 "A" pre-season pick up and we are looking for new recruits. We specifically need two more goalies, so if you know anyone, or want to play, let the league know via email at commissioner@hfhl.ca
Be well folks!
