Original Four Ball Hockey League

Mercies bookend otherwise great opening week of Spring 2025 season!

8:10 - Muscant Mafia 8 Fort McMurray 1

After a short layoff between seasons the Spring 2025 season got underway Sunday and first on the slate was a highly anticipated game between a couple of teams expected to compete for the A this season. Captain Andrew Stephens teamed up with his brother in law turned goalie Brock Murray for Fort McMurray to face off against Jason Muscant and Kortnie Legari who have joined forces this season to captain Muscant Mafia, both teams boastedvets all over the floor so this one was expected to be close.... let's just say things did not go well for FM.

Five minutes into the new season Sam Parsonson

would become the answer to the who would score first trivia question as he lit the lamp for MM. With the score now 2-0 MM would strike twice in less than 20 seconds with Parsonson first setting up Ty St-Jean

then sniping his 2nd of the day to make it 4-0. FM would manage to get on the board with one in the final minute of the period off the stick of Devin McManus

to send the game to halftime at 4-1 MM.

McMurray would first 16 shots on goal in the 2nd but Mark Legari would turn them all aside, that allowed his wife Kortnie Legari

to run ragged and that's exactly what she did scoring a natural hat trick to finish the game in an 8-1 mercy with 2:23 left to play. A shocking result to start the season and hopefully not a sign of things to come for FM.

9:00 - Sibling Rivalry 3 Takahara Terrors 2

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With our first mercy already out of the way the pressure was off the rest of the teams as things couldn't go much worse for any of them than it did for FM in the opener. Game 2 had the return of captain Shawn Weatherdon from a one season hiatus as his Takahara Terrors took on the Malloy Boy's Sibling Rivalry.

As he's known to do SR's Bradley McCarter

came out of the gates guns blazing scoring a pair in the opening 5 minutes toput his team up 2-0. The goalies would be the story of the rest of the period with TT's MC Chartrand and SR's Patrick Gaudreau stopping 31 shots to keep the score the same at halftime.

The goalies would continue their dominance into the 2nd frame, finally six minutes in JP Donnelly

managed to sneak one through for TT to pull them to within a goal. It took almost 10 minutes to see another goal and this one would tie the game from Ryan Hawkins

with 5 minutes to play setting up a wild finish. With the teams trading chances it was sophomore Elsie Jahn

who would break the tie with 2:09 to play potting a feed from partner McCarter to put SR up 3-2. Gaudreau would lock things down the rest of the way finishing with 29 saves on 31 shots in a 3-2 final.

9:50 - Tequila Sunrise 6 Clark to the Future 4

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Next up Mona Le Blanc and Kelly Brant's Tequila Sunrise hoped to avoid the vacation hangover battling Brock Murray the player's Clark to the Future in what turned out to be a great game. Sophomore Mike Macdonald

would build on a solid rookie season by lighting the lamp for TS early, however within seconds CTTF would answer with another 2nd year player Luisa Lawson

doing the damage to knot the score at 1-1. That wouldbe a running theme in this game as TS would take the lead twice more in the period only to see CTTF claw back very soon after sending the game to break locked at 3-3.

Very early in the 2nd period TS would take their 4th lead of the game on a Jeff Murphy

blast, this time they would make it through the next shift without giving up a tying goal, in fact the would add to their lead 6 minutes later on ageless wonder Helene Bourgeois' 193rd goal and 25th GWG in her O4 career to make it 5-3. With the score now 6-3 captain Brock Murray

would make it a more interesting finish with his 2nd of the game but that was the last goal that Brent Ferguson would allow as he stops 34 of 38 in a 6-4 final.

10:40 - Rum Punch 4 For Pucks Sake 3

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The "hump" game of the opening week was another good one on paper featuring a couple of top tier masked men as For Pucks Sake's Marty Leury faced off versus Rum Punch and their returning All World Goaltender Stephane Portelance. Surprisingly the game would see 5 first period goals but it wasn't really the fault of the goalies with both teams playing some high risk hockey and splitting 50 total shots on goal. FPS would manage to take a 3-2 lead into the break thanks to a goal with just 7 seconds remaining in the period from Christine Morris

. Veteran sniper Don Prior

and budding superstar Gabriel Grimard

both found the first half scoresheet mutlple times in a strong period of play.

The masked men would again dominate in the 2nd stanza, however the floor would now be tilted heavily in the trailing Rum Punch's favour as they held a 23-12 edge on the shot counter, finally with 4:44 to play RP's veteran duo of Spencer McDonald

and Mike Zaborski

would combine for the game tying goal. The rest of the clock would run down with the goalies making some great saves, just when it seemed like a tie game was assured FPS would fall apart late with Zaborski getting free with only 4 seconds to play to score the game winning goal in a 4-3 final. A tough way to start for FPS would put forth a strong effort while RP trailed for more than 32 minutes of game time but still come away with 2 points.

11:30 - We Got a Fast Car 5 netsirK maeT 4

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The schedule maker certainly did their job in Week 1 as the 11:30 was another anticipated one between Dave Allston's oddly named NM squad featuring returning scoring stars Tim Squires

and Rachel Bolzon

and Doug Tattrie's We Got A Fast Car who feature 4 of last year's Bubba winners along with last season's top goaltender MA Lalonde. After 11 minutes of scoreless play one of WGAFC's champs from last year would open the scoring with Valerie Gies

doing the honors, that goal would open the floodgates with the teams combiing for 4 goals in the final 8 minutes of the period and WGAFC up 3-2 at the buzzer.

Early in the 2nd frame WGAFC would get more offence from an unlikely source with noted dman turned sniper Phil Graziadei

popping his 2nd of the game to make it 4-2. The teams would start to get into penalty trouble as the game wore on, WGAFC would take 2 straight and NM skipper Dave Allston

made them pay with a PPG and followed with another soon after to tie the game at 4-4 with 6:40 remaining. Unfortunately it was his team's turn to feel the wrath of the refs, after killing off one chance they would gift another with 2 minutes remaining, this time WGAFC would capitalize and the winner would come off the stick of none other than Graziadei with 43 seconds remaining for the hat trick and GWG... not a bad start to the season for a player not usually renowned for his offence!

12:20 - The Tough Get Going 11 Rich Gets Richer 5

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The 12:20 was one for bragging rights as league execs took the floor with Sean Frewen's The Tough Get Going taking on Craig Richer's Rich Gets Richer in a game that would not be one to remember for the tenders as we saw A LOT of goals. The scoring would come early and often started by Dale Carlson

just 150 seconds in and within 5 minutes the score was 2-2 with RGR's Richard Tattrie

and Marty Leury

getting in on the action. TTGG would go on a run afterwards led by Steven Toste

and Elie Berthiaume

and at one point led 6-2 but another pushback from RGR would make it 7-4 at the break.

Things would slow down considerably in the 2nd, halfway through the frame and TTGG holding an 8-5 lead they would effectively put the game to bed with captain Frewen

notching his hat trick goal making the hill just to big to climb for RGR. TTGG add 2 more late to end this game in an 11-5 final score and start the season on the right foot.

1:10 - Eeyore & Friends 7 Admyre From Afar 0

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On to the final game of the first week fo this O4 season and we had some offensive talent on display with Austin Perron's Admyre From Afar facing off versus Michel Blondeau and Josianne Garneau's Eeyore & Friends, unfortunately only one team's sniper's were able to put on a show in this one.

To no one's surprise E&F's season would start with a Michel Blondeau

dangle and snipe, it would take 10 minutes before we'd see another goal and it would come on a man advantage with Laurie Reinhart burying feeds by Blondeau and Josianne Garneau

. E&F would add 2 more before the end of the first to hold a 4-0 lead while dominating the shot counter 22-8.

The trouble would continue in the 2nd for AFA as they simply could not get shots on goal, Garneau would extend the lead to 5-0 early and after that the only real questions remaining were would the game last the full 40 minutes? And would Admyre from Afar be able to get on the board at least once. The answer to both questions would be a resounding NO as Eeyore & Friends scored twice more ending the game with just over 8 minutes to play in a 7-0 mercy victory. Returning star goalie follows up his player hat trick in in previous game with his 11th O4 shutout in this one, he only had to face 17 shots but many were quality scoring chances so he was full value for the blanking.

Oddly this mercy bookends the day matching Fort McMurray's disappointing showing in Game 1, but with 4 games being decided by 2 or less goals and 2 game winners being scored in the final 10 seconds of play it was still a great day of ball hockey!

Mercies bookend otherwise great opening week of Spring 2025 season!

2025-01-12

8:10 - Muscant Mafia 8 Fort McMurray 1

9:00 - Sibling Rivalry 3 Takahara Terrors 2

9:50 - Tequila Sunrise 6 Clark to the Future 4

10:40 - Rum Punch 4 For Pucks Sake 3

11:30 - We Got a Fast Car 5 netsirK maeT 4

12:20 - The Tough Get Going 11 Rich Gets Richer 5

1:10 - Eeyore & Friends 7 Admyre From Afar 0

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