Blackhawks Calendar

Game Schedule
We have limited the roster size this season to give the players more skating time.
We are carrying a few players on the roster as extra players to be used in an emergency.
It is important that you let us know if you will be missing a game ASAP.

Game 1 - Thursday, October 8 Blackhawks 10 Rolling Thunder 0
Our first game as the Blackhawks after 6 months off thanks to our last season being cut short in April. And we came back with a vengence. We started out slow and we kept the Thunder in the game. At the end of 2 periods the score was 4 to 0. We took 23 shots and the Thunder goalie made 19 saves. The reason we were winning at this point was we played a typical Blackhawk game. Defense first. Our goal is to always keep the other team from taking shots on our goal. I promised Nick that he would face less shots with the Blackhawks than he has ever faced. He saw one shot this game and he reached for a few others that were off to the side. The defense was anchored by returning 12-year-olds, Frankie and PJ. Our newest defenseman added a lot to the game as Kirk play great. Kirk, by the way was one of the best goalies to ever beat the Blackhawks. Nicky was brilliant on defense. The offense was powered by lots of speed, some great passing, and a relentless attack as we took 34 shots on the Thunder goalie. We had 15 shots go high or wide and many shots wound up hitting a Thunder defenseman. Winning face offs and digging in the corners was a big plus from our centes Tommy, Eddie and Kevin. Our wings (RJ, RJ, Matt and Steven) controlled the offensive attack as they outskated the Thunder and opened up the attack by passing to the points. This was a great game but we should not expect to see games like this often. The Thunder has some extremely talented players who WILL be more prepared for us the next time we face them. The other teams in the division are loaded with great players. No star of the game was awarded this week. It has been eliminated (temporarily) due to the selfish actions of a former player. If we had to pick one this week it would be real hard. RJ Farkas was made Assistant Captain.

Game 2 - Thursday,October 15 at 6:30 vs. Storm
This was a tough game. I can't believe that one player can improve a team as much as Craig does, but the Storm is a greatly improved team with him on the rink. And this kid has some great stamina. He played almost the entire game. I wish I could leave a kid out there that long, and not have to worry about him getting tired, or making a parent mad, or even agreeing with that decision myself. Anyway we played okay. We only gave up 15 shots on goal, but we only took 18 shots. We didn't seem to pass the puck enough and we had kids arguing on the bench. These two problems are going to keep us from winning games. Next week we will work on the passing game and talk to the kids about camaraderie. Cody and Eddie scored both of our goals, and Craig scored all of the Storms goals. We had 5 penalties today including 3 at the same time. This left us at a 3 on 5 disadvantage. What turned out to be the winning goal was scored at the end of this 5 on 3.

Typical Jackson insanity, we had two of our players play another game immediately after our game. One of them left early since he was a goalie in the next game and needed to get his equipment on. This season, they merged the Tuesday and Wednesday night leagues due to poor turnout. All the players that were in both leagues were now allowed to play on two teams in one league. Like I said typical Jackson insanity.

Game 3 - Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 vs. Outlaws
Before the game we had a talk with the team about passing and arguing. We laid the law down, that if kids complained about anything or argued, they would be benched. We talked about passing and face-offs. It worked, but for how long. We skated well, passed well, played great defense and great offense. This was probably one of our most dominating games that we have played which is a great feat, since we know how good some of the Outlaws are. Mike Costa is their goalie, and you might remember Mike as our 10-U goalie in the Philadelphia and Rye NHL Breakouts. We won both of those. Kyle was also the winning goalie in the 1998 Garden State Games. Justin and Kyle Drone also played with the 10-U and 12-U team in Breakout so we know they are loaded with good players and a great goalie. As good as these kids are, we just played our best game. We blasted Mike with the magic number of shots. 50, which would earn our 14-U team a trip to Hooters. Thanks to Frankie and Cody who think I should offer the same deal, the 12-U earns a trip for pizza or Rita's or an arcade or something. However, the whole picture of this is not good. We took 50 shots and only scored 7 times. We made Mike work hard. As hard as Mike worked, Nicky relaxed. He only had to face 3 shots this week, which earned him his second shutout of the season and gives him a total of 19 shots faced this year. Nick's goals against average stands at 1 goal per game. Everyone seemed to get goals and assists this week. The best play of the night, was a play we have been working for 3 years, the Breakout. Frankie took the puck from defense and cleared it to Tommy on the left point. At Eddies urging, Tommy passed the puck across the rink to an open RJ Reynolds who took it in and scored. This was a perfect play, that we have been working on for 3 years. It was great to see it work so well, finally. The offense (especially Steven) backchecked great the entire game. We worked some great line changes on the fly to try to keep the shifts to 2-1/2 minutes. Everything looked great. Goals were scored by Tommy, Eddie, Steven, RJ Reynolds......... We are 2-1 and have outscored our opponents 19-3.

I got real lazy and stopped updating the web site. It is 2/12/99 and I am playing catch-up.

Game 4 - Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 vs. Flames
We won 10-0.

Game 5 - Thursday, November 5 at 6:30 vs. Whalers
We won 9 to 1. Billy Giersbach scored their only goal, early in the game.

Game 6 - Thursday, November 12 at 7:30 vs. Crunch
We won 10-0.

Game 7 - Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 vs. Devils
This was an interesting game. Adam Houli scored two goals early giving the Devils a quick 2-0 lead. Everyone was really physched on the Devils side. I was curious to see how we rebounded. We did. We wonthe game 6 to 2, in our second worst offensive and defensive game of the season.

Game 8 - Playoff
I don't remember who we played, but I remember we won 10-0.

Game 9 - Playoff against the Flames.
We won this game. I missed it, so I don't remember the score, but it was not close. On to the championship game.

By the way, the true championship game was played the night before. The Whalers beat the Storm for the chance to play us in the champioship game. I was more excited for the Whalers that I was for us the following week. Game 10 - Playoff vs. the Whalers
We won the championship, as we beat the Whalers.

On the season we were 9-1 and we outscored our opponents 75-7. This tied our team record for least goals given up in a season. The 75 goals scored was the most the 12-U has scored in a season. At the end of the season we said goodbye to two of our long time players. Our Assistant Captain RJ Farkas and Steven Goldblatt. Good luck wherever you guys go.