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For our last game of the regular season, we were pitted against very familiar foes -- the Road Apples -- who we've faced dozens of times over quite a few years.....and almost every game is a hard-fought battle to the final buzzer, and this one was one of those classics as both teams were vying for the more respectable #6 seed....

Unfortunately, for this battle in our long-standing war, the core of the Apples was not on hand as masked man Chris Campbell was MIA --- which, given his known status as one of the top 5 goalies around, should have meant advantage to our Flyers.....but another masked man who's also well known to our team -- Mike Miller -- strapped on the pads.....and as luck would have it, he played one of the best games any of us have ever seen him play.....and our big man between the pipes -- Mark Yeates --- was no slouch either as he also showed why he too is viewed as one of the top 5 tenders as he made several solid saves as he shut-out the Apples in the whole 1st period ---- in fact, no goals were scored in the opening frame until the very last shot seconds before the whistle when D-man Bernie made a clever ricochet pass off the wall to Prevost up the left wing, and he took a nice high shot that beat Miller high glove side making it 1-0 Flyers after 1 period.....

About 4 minutes into the 2nd stanza, our leading scorer (again this season!) Richie walked in from behind the net and executed a nice wrap-around after some good work from linemate Terry......but a couple of minutes later, the rotten Apples would score 2 goals on one shift both on quick precise shots off of scrambles in our slot......no goals for the next 7-8 mins as both goalies were simply stealing the show exchanging amazing saves.....then with about 3 mins left in the period, Captain Patty fed a nice break-out pass to Scatch on his right wing, and he danced around their D-man with a sweet move, and then he deposited a quick shot that found twine between Miller's glove and pad to give us the 3-2 lead.....and Yeatesy preserved that lead with an unbelievable glove save while prone on his belly......

On the first shift of the 3rd period, converted D-man Fynn made one of his crisp outlet passes to Prevost near center, and he fired home a great shot to give us a nice 2-goal cushion......about 3 mins later, the bruised Apples got a fluky goal on a long shot that somehow eluded traffic and our hot goalie.....for the next 15 mins, both teams battled hard and created tons of chances --- a few of which pinged off the red iron pipes at both ends including 2 wicked shots on one shift by Bernie and then Richie.....but as crisp as the Apples were, they couldn't muster any more goals as our overall team defence was stellar backed up by outstanding goaltending from Yeates......and Scatch would cap off the scoring in this epic battle as on a nice passing play with Terry to make the final score 5-3 for our Flyers which secured us the #6 seed --- way lower than we expected to be this season, but a hell of a lot better than 8th place where we would have been with a loss to these ripe Apples......

Stats for the game: Prevost 2G......Bernie 1A......Richie 1G......Terry 2A.....Scatch 2G......Patty 1A.....Fynn 1A.....

Flyers 3 Stars as voted by our teammates (and one teenage scout who was there to evaluate our team going into the playoffs)....

---- #1 ---- getting the most votes was our biggest man up front --- Scatch --- who got that clutch 3rd goal right when we needed a boost after the dirty Apples tied the game....and Scatch also played his usual game of creating many dangerous chances along with playing stingy defence to help us limit their chances.....

---- #2 ---- the next star goes to our next biggest man --- goalie Yeates --- who was the main reason we only allowed a mere 3 goals to a very talented squad ......when Yeates is 'on' like he was in this game, he makes most saves look easy as his angles and rebound control are impeccable --- add to that his 5-6 acrobatic saves (which is not easy given his girth), and it's easy to see why Yeates got so much voting love.....

---- #3 ---- goes to our other 2-goal man Prevost who opened the scoring and got the eventual game-winner thanks to his tireless work ---- he's a lot like a Claude Lemieux in his prime, a pain in the ass to play against, but at his best in big games coming through with clutch plays all over the floor......

Honourable mention was a tie again this week -- this time between D-men Patty and Colin who each received more than a couple of votes (including a 1st star vote for Patty!) which was great to see as both Patty and Colin are being recognized for their relentless defensive work -- they were animals all game long in our zone (and Colin made a giant leap from behind our goal-line, over Yeates (with that girth mind you), right to the slot to block a shot!!) -- and with a little luck both Colin and Patty could have had 3-4 goals with all the chances/shots they had.....also getting star votes were Rich, Terry, and Fynn.....

As posted on our website and the league website, NEXT WEEK AT 9:00PM, we have our first of our 3 Round-Robin games ---- we face the #9 seed Nordiques, then a re-match with the #7 seed Road Apples, followed by a bird-battle against the #5 seed Black Eagles......after which the 6 consolation teams will be re-seeded with the top 2 facing off for the trophy on Dec. 14th.....for this first step next week against the Nordiques -- even though they finished 9th and we easily beat them 2 weeks ago, we can not take them lightly for 2 main reasons --- they tied the top-4 Orange Arrows 10-10 this week so they have talent, and every goal for and against in these playoff games could go a long way in determining our fate of making it to the 'gold medal game' presumably against either the Black Eagles or the Road Apples --- so we need to start strong and give it all we got throughout every game to show what we're made of and finish off our season in style.....