March 4, 1999 , Blackhawks 3 - Cobras 1
Goals were scored by Billy, Tommy and Frankie. Billy added an assist on Tommys goal. Billy set the pace with a goal 30 seconds into the game. Early in the game Derrick made a great play running down a Cobra on a breakaway. Nick had to face more shots than normal today, and blocked all but one. Our defense continues to play spectacular defense, and the offense has been fantastic in helping out the defense. Great passing and cycling. Our goals against has gone up this season, but it has nothing to do with us getting sloppy. The Cobras can take credit for that. They have played us great 3 times. If we look at the standings correctly, we have locked up first place this season. Based on the shortened playoff system, this puts us in our seventh straight championship game where we are 3 and 3.

March 11, 1999 , Blackhawks 6 - Outlaws 1
I'm not sure what it was about, but our players were chanting O-E-O at one of the Outlaws players. When the Outlaws heard it, they started saying it too. This amused our players since they were goofing on one of the Outlaws. I don't know the meaning of this, but I sure wish someone would fill me in on the joke. I think the player was the kid that was hitting us and wound up with 2 penalties for it. I appreciate our guys for not retaliating. While I don't condone the "verbal taunts (O-E-O)" it was better than a physical retaliation. And I only condoned it when I saw him hit Nicky a few times and when he punched Eddie in the head (two of our smallest players).

Anyway. Goals were scored by Billy, Tommy(2), Bobby(2) and Frankie. Most importantly each goal was scored either on a rebound or by an assist. We were credited with 7 assists (4 by Derrick and 3 by Billy). Forget the scoring. The passing game, the assists and the defense are what we are most proud of. Earlier in the week we were complimented on how well we pass. Prior to the game, I told the players about this compliment and they seemed "thrilled".

I saw something interesting that has me baffeled. The Devils played the Cobras after our game. The score was 3 to 2 in the third period when I left. I wonder who won, since the Devils beat the Cobras in the second week.

A couple quick comments. Everyone has been raving about Nicky's hustle on offense and Bobby's all around play.

In the Wednesday night league, it looks like the Whalers will be playing in their fourth straight championship game. GOOD LUCK WHALERS. WE WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK.

March 18, 1999 , Blackhawks 7 - Devils 3
No review. I missed the game.

March 25, 1999 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Blackhawks 4 - Cobras 3
I just want to preface this game review with a comment. This will be the longest review of the season, because this was on of the most exciting games I have coached in a long time. This was the best games we have participated in, in a long time. Other than the Road Runners and the Indians, we have not faced steady competition like the Cobras in more than two years. We really enjoyed the 4 game series we played with them. All four games were close. We tied in the first game 2-2 (the Cobras won the shootout). We followed that up with a 2-1 victory and a 3-1 victory which left us in first place in the regular season. When the Cobras beat the Devils on March 11th, they locked up 2nd place and set up this great showdown of a championship game.

This turned out to be the 4th championship game decided by one goal that we played in. Our first was a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to a great Indians team in 1996. Later that year, we won our second straight championship by beating the Islanders 3-2. In this game our best player played with phenumonia (we knew he was sick at game time, but did not know the severity of it until the next day). The next season, we lost to the Roadrunners 2-1 in a real heartbreaker. And finally we have this game with the Cobras where we came out on top 4-3. Along the way we had a few other championship games that we won or lost by big scores, but the close championship games are by far the most exciting.

Matt Deering was in goal, so we knew coming in, scoring will not be easy. We had to capitalize on every chance we could. True to form, Matt killed us time after time.

We started with the powerful offensive attack of Billy, Eddie and Kirk, who started the scoring the last time we played the Cobras. These are three great skaters, shooters and passers. They kept the pressure on, but we didn’t get any goals in their first shift this time. In his first shift of the night Bobby Dowe scored our first goal of the game when he took a rebound (off the inside of the net), and slipped the puck past Deering. Matt Miller and Cody played great on defense this period and kept the Cobras from getting any shots on goal. The action went back and forth from end to end for the remainder of the period. The scored stayed 1-0 until Tommy buried a puck with 13 seconds left in the first period. We were now up 2-0 and out shot the Cobras 13 to 1 in the first. The Cobras were passing great, in fact I think their passing game was better than ours this week, but we were not letting them shoot. Our talk between periods revolved around the fact that this team has come back on us twice and we can’t get too cocky, but we were confident that we broke their spirits.

WRONG. The second period started with us up 2-0. One minute later the score was tied at 2. What a shock this was. Ten minutes later the Cobras were up 3-2 when they scored their third straight goal. It was a bit scary at this point. We were down 3-2, they had the momentum, and they had Matt Deering in goal. I still felt we were going to win, but it didn’t look good. As the period went on, it became obvious that the old rivalries and battles lines were being drawn between players. A couple of our players are great at trash talking, and generally can’t be shaken by trash talk. It became obvious that we were getting under Steven Goldblatt and the young Bauer’s skin. Buaer got his third penalty to end the period and was given a game misconduct which gave him a front row seat where he could watch the game with the rest of the spectators. The key to this was our "hot heads" did not retaliate. We warned them about retaliating and they listened.

The third period started with us down 3-2. We knew we had an uphill climb, but we were still confident. I knew our defense of Matt, Cody, Frankie and PJ were not going to let anyone beat them during crunch time. With 10 minutes left, Tommy sent a pass to Bobby who scored his second goal of the night to tie the game at 3. The action continue back and forth. Matt Making save after save for the Cobras. Our defense stopping attacks and Nick making saves when the defense let the Cobras pass. Then Nicky blocked a shot above right above his pads and went down. Even though we took the rebound and we were on the attack we were screaming for the referees to stop play. Nicky was hurt and had a hard time standing on his leg, but they made us play on. Sometime during the third I decided to play for the tie and take my chances in the new "Sudden Death". While on the power play with six minutes left, Bobby took another pass from Tommy and buried the puck in the net, to earn a hat trick with the game winning goal. With us leading by a goal, with 6 minutes left, it was time to play dump and chase.

Then it got fun. At 4:55 Tommy got a penalty. I called time out to remind our guys to play "the box", keep the puck away and dump it. . One minute later, Billy took a penalty and we found ourselves playing 3 on 5 up by a goal in the championship game. And our goalie was having a hard time standing. I hope the parents enjoyed it. I sure did. At that point we got the biggest break of the game. The Cobras called time out. Good timing for us. It gave us a chance to regroup and catch our breath. Without that break, we would not have been ready to continue. We decided to keep Frankie and PJ on defense because they did a great job all season. Eddie and Cody split the chase position. And they killed the 5 on 3 brilliantly. When Tommys penalty ended, Derrick took his spot and we now had our 4 biggest and oldest players on the rink. I challenged them by reminding them that they all play on successful 14-year-old teams, but that would mean nothing if they let the younger Cobras score on them. They all played fantastic to kill the penalty until Billy joined them. With one minute left we knew to look for the open net. Kinda to put the icing on the cake. To our surprise they never pulled the goalie. As the clock counted down 5-4-3-2-1, you could feel the excitement on the bench as the kids knew they won a tough game against a good team. They really earned this one.

This game we had to kill 5 penalties, but we also saw the Cobras kill 5. On two of those penalties we actually managed to get our goalie of the rink and a sixth skater into the play. That shows great puck control. Overall, the Cobras played a great game, even outplaying us at times. They passed great and played some solid defense. Thanks for a great series, Cobras.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much with this LOOOOOONG review, but I was really excited by this game, and we have not had too many games this exciting.

At the end of the game I decided to select an team MVP which we have not done since Steven Iwanyk and Victor Scotto in the fall of 1996. This seasons MVP was Nick Guggliocello. We gave up more goals this season than last, but the competition was better. Nick ended the championship game hurt, played one game sick, and faced 12 shooters in shootouts over the first two games.

Watch for the team photo in this section. That same photo and a writeup will be sent to.......well I won't say yet. But it will be as cool as the USA Hockey Inline magazine photo and the Asbury Park Press team of the week photo.

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Next season begins on April 15th. What a lousy day to start the season.

 

The Blackhawks have purchased four season tickets for the Trenton Titans. The Titans are New Jerseys minor league ice hockey team in the prestigious East Coast Hockey League. We are making these seats available to our club members first. If you are interested in these seats let us know.
Check out the information on them.