Good afternoon SSBHL Community!

Week 12 Finals Stats and Performers are here! Last one of Fall 2024! Let’s Jump on in baby!

Spiders Vs Smokey Joes Fall 2024 Cup Summery of Game

Wow…Just what a game! Back and forth action! 6 Lead Changes! 11 Goals total, it was an epic match between two very evenly matched squads!

1^st Period: Game starts off with both squads feeling each other out, couple shots here and there test both goaltenders in the beginning. Scoring opens when a ball is dumped into the Spiders Offensive zone, The Spiders goaltender Dan comes out to play it in a seemingly harmless situation. However, when he goes to flip the ball up over the attacking players’ stick, it gets no air and goes right to the stick of Smoky Joes Captain, Matt Swan, who throws it into an empty net to start off the scoring, 0-1 Joes. Harding wanted that one back to say the least.

However, The Spiders Would strike back not much later on, when a ball is dumped into the Joes offensive zone and is pursued by Spiders forward Ben Lotzkar who throws the ball out in front of the Joes Goalie. Matt Leary, the Spiders captain, sees this and gets to the front and pops home with a one-handed shot off the pass to tie the game 1-1.

Game Keeps going with great pace and eventually the Spiders get on the powerplay from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Joes Defenseman, Rob Crocker. Both teams line up for the faceoff draw which is won by Howie of the spiders, it trickles over to J-mac who passes to Leary on the point for a shot off the pass that beats Panda Low blockers side, and the Spiders take a 2-1 lead. Bother teams get multiple other looks but the period ends with the Spiders up 2-1.

2^nd Period: The second period starts off quickly! Steve O’Brien Passes one up to the Spiders Captain Leary, who runs up the right-hand side and puts a wrist shot on net from the blue line that beats Panda short side, and the Spiders go up 3-1 and Leary completes the Hat Trick in the 2^nd period!

However, The Joes were not going to wilt away, Spiders were pushing pretty hard, and Off a really nice one timer save from Panda, the ball is cleared up to the Spiders offensive zone to Steve O’Brien who gets his pocket picked from the Joes Captain Matt Swan who gets a breakaway on Harding and puts it by him low blocker, closing the gap in score to 3-2 Spiders.

Later on in the period, The Joes would get back a power play opportunity of their own off a trip from Josh Charmatz. The power play was producing some really good opportunities, but the Spiders were holding well. Eventually, a shot from the point off the stick of Matt Connelly was saved from Harding but produced a rebound which Swan was able to corral and get another shot off that was once again saved from Harding, However Swans Tenacity pays off as he sticks with the redound again and wraps around to the other side of the net and manages to throw it off Harding’s foot and deflected the ball into the net for a power play goal and tied the game at 3-3.

Period countries, after multiple icings in a row by the Spiders who were being outplayed the majority of the 2^nd period, the Joes get another offensive zone faceoff which is won by the Spiders initially and goes to Steve Swi. Steve tries to throw the ball to J-mac but is intercepted by The Joes Forward, Aidan Lovett who rips by a quick wrist shot low blocker side of Harding and the Joes Reclaim the Lead at 3-4!

As we were near the end of the second period, Joes dominated for the majority, but the Spiders would get another great look. Max tries to bring the ball though the Joes Defensive zone but is stolen by Matt Leary who brings the ball into the slot but does a behind the back pass to J-Mac who collects the ball and whips a wicked wrist shot past the blocker side of Panda and evens the game at 4-4 to end the 2^nd period. The Stage was set for an epic climax to a great season!

3^rd Period: We start off with some conservative play from both sides, concerned about possibly giving up the lead. Both get some shots off which are handled by the goalies. However, at about the 10 minute mark, Howie gets the ball at the half ice mark and Sees J-mac sprinting ahead and flips in a perfect pass to give J-Mac a breakaway attempt and he goes forehand backhand and tucks it by Panda, giving the Spiders the Lead at 5-4 in a massive goal.

But…But it isn’t the end, the Joes Fly into the offensive zone of the Spiders, Aidan feeds Swan a pass at the blue line, He shots it fast but it misses wide, But that produces a lively bounce off the bored behind Harding and goes right to the stick Of Aidan who intelligently followed the shot in the zone and quickly puts it past Harding to Tie the game yet again 5-5 with only 6 mins left, It was looking like this might be an overtime game!

With the clock ticking down, both goalies were making monster saves to keep the hopes alive, Both defensive players on both sides were sacrificing the body to block shots, But As Matty Swan was streaking into the Spiders zone, Steve O’Brien steps up and steals it and brings the ball up to the halfway line of the rink and goes to just flip it into the Joes Zone, But J-Mac get a small piece of it and changes the trajectory of the ball ever so slightly and added spin to it, it goes up into the air and plummets toward Panda in net who I caught off guard from the strange bounce and goes up under his pads and bounces in with a minute and 31 seconds to go In the 3^rd Spiders now winning 6-5

The Joes Would Pull the goalie at 50 seconds left and pound on the defense and goaltender of the Spiders, At one point with 30 seconds left, a shot is hammered from the point of the Spiders which deflected off Rob Crocker and hit the cross bar just hardly keeping out of the Spiders net! However, Time would expire, and the Spiders Hang on in dramatic Fashion, holding the lead and Winning the SSBHL fall cup 6-5 Final!

An Absolute Thrilling game of the ages and was as dramatic as they came! Final stats were as follows.

Spiders Scoring Summary:

Matt Leary - with 3 goals and 1 assist, 4 Points total

J-Mac - with 3 goals and 1 assist, 4 Points total

Steve O’Brien - with 2 assists, 2 Points total

Howard Troughton – 1 assist, 1 Point total

Ben Lotzkar – 1 assists, 1 Point total

Smokey Joes Scoring Summery:

Matt Swan – 3 Goals 1 assist, 4 Points total

Aidan Lovett – 2 Goals, 2 Points total

Max Schraut – 1 assist, 1 Point total

Rob Crocker -  1 assist, 1 Point total

Goalie Stats:

Dan Harding: Mins Played 51 / GA 5 / GAA 5.00 / SA 51 / SV 46 / Save% 0.902 (Spiders)

Paul Mendonca: Mins Played 50 / GA 6 / GAA 6.12 / SA 38 / SV 32 / Save % 0.842 (Joes)

AWARD WINNERS FOR FALL 2024 SSBHL

MVP: Matt Swan

Best Defensive player: Matt Leary

Most Valuable Goalie: Dan Harding

Joe Godfrey Award: B-Mac

6^th Player Award: Ryan Gurley

Best Sportsmanship Award: Brad Wall

Overall, what an amazing season this Fall was. Just a quick and very big thank you to all that help make this possible! Steve Wilde, Matt Hocking, B-Mac, Matt Swan, Matt Leary, Pat Schultz, Nick Buckley, Rob Crocker. Thank you all for your help with running the league and all you do to make it smooth and fun! Thank you to the refs and volunteers for helping out! Ronnie Prince, thank you for all you have done and all the contributions you make! All this isn’t possible without you guys and I truly from the bottom of my heart appreciate it! With that all said, thank you to all the players as well who make this a fun and positive atmosphere for us to all play in! Love you all and I look forward to a great season in Spring! Enjoy some time off to rest up and recover and get ready for Spring! See you all then, till then though, be safe and well! 😊

Thank you all!

-Dan Harding