Fall 1999
Champions
The Players
PJ Cunningham
Bobby Dowe
Justin Drone
Kyle Drone
Derrick Fontana
Nicky Fontana
Billy Giersbach
Nick Gugliocciello
Frankie Heslin
Tommy Heslin
Jordan McGee
Eddie Miccuilli
Matt Miller
RJ Reynold
Robert Schlueter
The Coaches
Frank Heslin
Ed Miccuilli
Bill Giersbach
How much does it cost?......They are both free
When does it start?.........As soon as you sign up
How do I join Sandbox?....... Click here to join SANDBOX but read the following instructions first.
Once you are in Sandbox Sports you must register. Select a username and a password. Then follow what ever instructions they give you to start. Once you select your 6 player team select GROUPS in the left menu bar. Then select JOIN A PUBLIC GROUP. In the search box enter HOWELL BLACKHAWKS. Once that shows up select it and your team will be registered to play in the HOWELL BLACKHAWKS Ice Hockey Fantasy League.
How do I join Yahoo?....... Click here to join YAHOO but read the following instructions first.
You must register with Yahoo first. Then you can draft your team and JOIN A PRIVATE group. Our group number is 6737 and the group password is blackhawks.
We are back in the 12-U division for one more season. We have nearly the entire team returning as we only replaced one player from last season. Cody was replaced by RJ Reynolds. We are the defending champions and we are working for a fourth straight. I have heard some of the players picked up by the other teams, and I guarantee that we will have our hands full. The Thunder have added some strong skaters to a team we snuck past in the championship game. They will be a team to be concerned about. The Whalers have been restructured and have a new coaching staff. Look for them to be a good team and a brand new team has been entered and they sound like another strong team.
October 7 - Blackhawks 10 - Whalers 0 October 14 Blackhawks 8 - Crunch 2 October 21 - Blackhawks 8 - Thunder 4 October 28 - NO GAME - We have a bye this week. November 4 - Blackhawks 3 - Riptide 0
I again don’t have the stats with me as I am typing this, but I do remember that Jordan scored the first goal, which turned out to be the game winner. And Nicky Fontana scored his 2nd career Blackhawk goal for our third goal. I forget who scored our second goal. SORRY. Our defense (including the offensive back checkers) was overwhelming. In the second period, the Riptide controlled the puck for less than a minute in our zone. In the offensive zone we passed well. The offense covered for the defense well. And we tried to make things happen. Another 37 shots on Matt and we got three in.
Some memories of this game were the couple of times that Tommy used his body and "beat up" the Riptide in front of their goal. Frankie skating with a peice of the foam "filler" hanging from his stick. PJ holding his temper after getting hit with a stick and a punch. Nicks goal. Billy trying the "Michgan Move", Justins great end to end rush in the second. Matt hitting the pipes like Victor. Bobby's great passing. AND ON AND ON.......
They have a great goalie, and play great defense. When they get a real strong offensive threat, they will be a team to watch.
November 11 - Blackhawks 11 - Crunch 1 November 18 - Blackhawks 2 - Riptide 1 December 2 - Thunder 2 - Blackhawks 1 Double Header
December 16 - Playoff
With a lead and our defense I felt good about the game, but I wanted to feel better. We needed more goals. In the midst of a Blackhawks line change, Billy broke through the Thunder defense and scored our third goal. And then the game became "interesting". Billy immediately came off the rink and "hurled" (YUCK). While we were watching this, Tommy scored what turned out to be the game winner. And we all missed it. After a little rest, Billy recuperated and came back to play. The second period ended with us holding a 6 to 1 lead.
The 14-U league has been put on hold until January. The league fell one team short, this season but expects to be ready in January.
9 wins 1 losses
70 Goals For 13 Goals Against
Billy started our quest for our fourth straight championship quickly. He won the opening faceoff and skated past the Whalers defense, shot and scored 7 seconds into the season. This game featured a lot of passing. Sometimes it was sharp passing, sometimes it was pretty weak. Something we will work on. Many of our set plays resulted in shots on goal. We worked well behind the net, at the points, in the corners and in the slot. Our defense was strong as all 10 skaters had the chance to play defense. We finally got Robert to play defense and he did a great job. We gave up 4 shots on goal and took at least 32 shot. Full team effort this week. Bobby and Nicky set up some key plays to help us score some early goals. Nick was spectacular in net.
Goals were scored by Billy(3), Tommy, Frankie, RJ, Robert, Jordan, Matt and PJ. Assists by Billy(2) Jordan, PJ Robert and I can't remember who else. Great plays were set up by all.
This was going to be a hi scoring game as we were scoring on both ends of the rink. Bobby started the scoring as he gave the Crunch an early 1-0 lead when he scored on Nick. HUH? Bobby knocked the first goal of the game into our net by mistake. (I told you I was going to bust your chops Bobby). Anyway we settled down and played a tough game. The Crunch have really improved a lot. They are playing positions well and they have improved their game tremendously.
But we were on fire this week as we held on to win 8-2. Goals were scored by Billy(3), Tommy(2),Eddie, PJ and Jordan. Assists by Eddie(2), Matt and Bobby. Bobbys asist and both of Eddies assists were beutiful. They were passed "out of the office" (the area Wayne Gretzkey made famous). Ever since we "sold" "the office" concept to our kids, we seem to have picked up the passing behind the net game. Everyone played great this week as we juggled the lineup a little bit. Sorry for the sort review this week. I will do better next week.
My prediction is this will be a thrilling game. The Thunder are going to be real good this year. Thrust me on this.
The Thunder did improve a lot. They scored 4 goals on us this week. That is the most we have given up in league play since March 1997 when we lost the champios ship game to the Roadrunners. We did hold on to win this game 8 to 4, but it was a good, high scoring game. Many new players on the Thunder.
This was an enjoyable game. Playing a close game is always more fun than a blowout, and when you win the close games you feel like you accomplished something. This was one of those games. Scoring was not easy for either team. Both goalies made great saves. Both teams played great defense. And in the end, we managed to sneak a couple pucks past the Riptides goalie. I always say how impressed I am with Matt Deering who was between the pipes for the Riptide, but this week was Nicks game. Nick played one of his best Blackhawk games ever. (Nicks best game(s) were played for the Sabres as he won the Allaire championship in a shootout and then won the Summer Cup). Even though we only let the Riptide spend 5 minutes total in our zone the whole game, they did manage to use those 5 minutes to their fullest. They took many shots on Nick but could not get anything past him. He was brick wall today.
This was a great game to practice and improve our passing. Of the eleven goals we scored, only one was credited as unassisted. The other ten goals were scored with assists. We did a lot of passing and worked behind the net well this week. Our defense was just as stingy as it always is. And our offense was as powerful as ever. Goals were scored by Matt(3), Billy(3), Kyle(2), Bobby, Jordan, Frankie. Assists went to Billy(2), Matt(2), Derrick, Jordan(2), Nicky(2), Justin, Eddie.
This was our 24th straight win dating back to a shootout loss last January. Our last regular game loss was 32 games ago. WOW.
We looked sloppy this week. We seemed to not play our game. The Riptide kept setting up behind our defense. We didn't pass behind the net. We didn't use the points. We gave up a lot of shots (for us anyway). We looked lazy at times. Then the Riptide took a 1-0 lead when they scored a power play goal. The guy that scored, set up behind our defense and had a clear shot on net. Then we had a great opportunity to score when we had the puck in their zone. We yelled to our offense to get someone behind the net and both players without the puck, went behind the net, as the puck was centered to NOBODY. With Matt Deering in goal, the kids already looked defeated, and I have to admit at this point I thought we were about to lose.
But the Mighty Blackhawks came back and scored two goals in the third period to take the lead. I wish I remember who scored them, but I can't. Sorry. And I'm sorry for doubting us. We held on to win our 25th straight game. This is already a Blackhawks Club record for victories. The last time we had a streak like this was when we went 26 straight games without a loss (2 ties were involved with that streak) from May 1996 to February 1997.
It had been a long time since we were on the losing side in Jackson. We had won our last 25 games and tonight we were going to tie a Blackhawks club record of 26 consecutive games without a loss. (We went 24-0-2) from the spring of 1996 to the winter or 1997). But the Thunder had other plans for us. We knew they had a much improved team from last season, but we never expected this. Their goalie played the best game I have ever seen him play. Their defense was smothering. It was a heck of a game. Congratulations to the Thunder, who we will meet in the Championship Game on Dec. 16.
Nick looked great in goal this week and our defense did a great job shutting down the Thunders top scorers, who were in the top three scorers in the league. Our offense hustled but could not connect on anything. Who scored our goal? I can’t remember.
December 9
Game 8 - Blackhawks 10 - Whalers 0.
Game 9 - Blackhawks 10 - Whalers 0.
This week was terrible. We really did not want to play the Whalers twice in one night. After the games were over, I felt horrible, but there was not much we could have done different. With playoff games coming against the Thunder and the in Allaire, we had to work on our offensive plays. We really wish the Whalers the best of luck next season.
We had the chance to get some guys in the top scorers so we did something very uncharacteristic of our team work philosophy. Tonight we let Billy, Jordan and Matt work to get in the top five scorers in the league. It might have worked as Billy added 6 points (3 goals and 3 assists) to regain the lead. Matt added 8 points (6 goals and 2 asissts) and Jordan added 4 points (1 goal and 3 assists). Our goalie even got on the score sheet this week as Nicky sent a pass to Billy who went coast to coast to score. Other players that goals were scored by Bobby(3), Justin, Kyle(3), Robert, Frankie, Tommy. Additional assists were registered by, Frankie(2), RJ, Kyle, PJ, Derrick, Bobby, Justin and PJ. That is 17 assists on 20 goals. TEAMWORK. Defense was great today, as they shut down the Whalers, but more importantly they added to our offense. Next week we play for our fourth straight championship in Jackson.
This week I broke out the flag for signatures. I had a thought the morning of the game. We have played in the 12-U division since January 1996. Four years. And next week would be the end of that. Next season we move the team up to the 14-U. For the first time in 4 years their will be no 12-U Blackhawk team in Jackson. We had a heck of a run here and I want to thank everyone for their time and efforts for helping us, and for being a part of it. We enjoyed it, and I am sure there are some teams that are happy to see us go. Here are some of our statistics in Jackson:
We played from January 1996 to December 1999
Our record was 94-24-2
We won 6 championships
We lost 4 championship games (one merged with the Whalers)
The 12-U Blackhawks played in every championship game during the 4 years we were in Jackson.
It took some effort to add these up but we scored 543(?) goals and gave up 137(?).
We registered 24 shutouts.
Blackhawks(1st place) vs the Thunder(2nd place)
Championship game - Blackhawks 8 - Thunder 3
12/15/99
When we play this game we will be attempting to with our 4th straight championship in Jackson. This one will not be easy. In the past three seasons, we cruised through all the regular seasons as we crushed most teams. Once we got to the championship games we were surprised to find oursleves in some real nailbiters. This season we get the chance to play a game that we already know is going to be tough. This is going to be a close one.
12/17/99
Prior to the game we selected a couple of honorary Captains. After 4-1/2 years on the team and more than a year of making phone calls to earn a letter, Tommy was selected as Captain today. His Co-Captain was Eddie, who was given the honor for being a member of the team longer than anyone else other than Frankie and Tommy. After the game the co-Captains were given the Team Trophy to skate with.
It did not turn out to be as close as I expected. After a couple of weeks where our offense looked lethargic, we came in fired up and hit the Thunder hard and fast as Matt scored on the first shift. After taking a quick 2-0 lead it looked likewe were going to take this game easily, but the Thunder stormed back scoring a power play goal to draw within one. Now it looked like it was going to be a close one. The Thunder spent a lot of time in our zone and really made us work as the first period ended with us holding that 2-1 lead.
Prior to the third period, the kids wanted to forgo the normal "BLACKHAWK" chant. I was reluctant but after a brief discussion with the other coaches, we let them do it. Thanks to some dirty stickwork the last time we played, I allowed them to yell "1-2-3-OREO", which brought a chuckle from the parents. We scored two more in the third and the Thunder scored two more but we held on to win.
The score does not indicate the game. The Thunder really made us work hard. They spent more time in our zone than anyone has done all season. Their defense is smothering. They only gave up 24 goals this season, but 17 were to us. That means they gave up 7 in 7 other games. Very impressive. Their offense was powerful as they scored nearly 60 goals. They scored 9 against us including 3 and 4 goals in two of those games, which is the two highest goals scored against us in 40 games. They Thunder have put together a great team. Great season and continued success next year Thunder.
Next season we will be moving the entire team into the 14-U division. ALL 12-U PLAYERS ARE INVITED TO PLAY. Hopefully we can get 4 teams in the 14-U division. If anyone is interested in playing in the 12-U division let us know and we will continue the team. They already have 4 teams that have verbally committed to play. It looks like games will be played on Thursday nights at 7:30 and 8:30.
14-U division - players born in 1986, 1987 and younger
12-U division - players born in 1988, 1989 and younger
Check out the information on them.
