Brawling Dutchmen Get Burned at Fire Station

Crowds Gather ahead of Monumental "Match of the Year"

GYM ABOVE FIRE STATION – “There were too many to stop.”
That was Matt Maxham's succinct summary of the Flying Dutchmen's 8-7 loss to the Juice on Wednesday night.
“It was a question of not being alert in the defensive zone and allowing too many odd-man rushes,” Maxham said after the Dutchmen surrendered a season-high eight goals. “This certainly wasn’t the game I expected.
“I thought we showed a lot of character and battled to the end. We scored a lot of goals, but we couldn’t find a way to keep them out of the net,” Joey G. said.


Battle was a good way to describe the game between the Bottom Division rivals. Two hours after the game, the off-floor officials were still trying to produce the final statistics for the game. The unofficial totals showed 6 penalty minutes with zero fighting majors and zero game misconducts.



At one point, there were six players from each team in the penalty boxes.  This could be because they also serve as team benches.
“I think it’s been since Juniors that I’ve seen so many guys in the penalty box,” said referee, Angel, watching from a streaming internet site. “I think as players they all had fun with tonight’s game and I think the fans had fun watching the game.”


There was almost a rare fight between goaltenders when Matt M. and Johnny "Shorty" Johnson squared off, but it failed to produce a single punch. They did not actually leave their respective creases.


The highly competitive "Grammy"  didn’t seem as upset as he usually is after a loss.
“It was pretty open at both ends,” he said. “It was just old time ball hockey really, going end-to-end and scrapping it out. It was actually pretty fun to play in; it’s just the end result was not what we were looking for.”


“It’s always passionate and it’s always emotional when we play each other,” said Dutchmen captain David Wheaton, who scored his 4th ball hockey goal. This marked the first time the Juice had actually showed up for a match against the Dutchmen.  Literally.  “Obviously, today was a big game with a lot of points in line, important points.” he said.  The game didn't count, actually.  Perhaps he meant it metaphorically.


Vanna Vong said the key to the wide-open game was the first half when the Dutchmen scored the only two goals in a 13-minute span.
“That was the difference,” he said. “After that, we played them even.”  The only thing is:  they did lose, in the end.


The high point for the Canadiens was a power play that produced 1 goals on 1 chances and D-Max allowed “certain players gave a good effort.”


It took only a look at the statistics to point out which players didn’t produce a good effort.
Dave W., Jay P. and Matt M. were each minus-4 and they played only mediocrely in the second half. John Greer went 0-for-1 in the faceoff circle.


Rookie defenceman "Grammy" C. had mixed feelings about the game. While he was disappointed by the loss, he took home a souvenir – some socks someone had left behind.
“That’s a memory I’ll treasure,” said "Grammy", who said the final score showed “how crazy the whole night was.”
Goofus the Giant said it was important that the Juice make a statement after losing their first three games to the Canadiens this season, by default.
“It was huge, especially when they’re only a few points ahead of us,” said Goofus, who opened a four-point bruise on Dave's rear end with a hit resulting in a four-minute minor.   “We really wanted to push them down and have that game in hand.”  


"No, maybe he did, but I don't think anyone else wanted to do that," said The Juice captain, Richard "Dick" Smolter.
The Dutchmen won’t have much time to brood over the loss. They start the new season Wednesday night at one of the gyms (7:30- 9:30 p.m., RDS, CJAD Radio-800). Matt said he would probably start himself in goal.