O’Dell Sounds the Bell!!

Chandler O’Dell scores six goals in epic game to beat the Aces, Minute Men get a quiet win over Sand Sharks!

The FIHL played week two of it’s twenty five week “Sequel” Campaign Saturday night at TBSA and the games could not have been more contrasting. In Game one, the Minute Men played a Sand Shark team that received help from a most unlikely source, two of last years Cup Finals opponents from the Aces roster. Jax Law and Gavin Frost, in town for Sunday morning tilts with their TBJL U18AA team, donned the Sharks blood red uniform to no avail however, as neither could crack a rebounding Minute Men netminder in John Thompson. A freshly removed mullet brings a new outlook on life, helping Thompson stop 39 of 41 Sand Shark shots in a 6-2 win. Thompson was shelled last week vs the Sting Rays and was happy to grab the win for the Minute Men and give his save percentage the much needed boost. In the first period there was only one tally as Jonny “whatsa” Motta would jam home a nice goal on an end to end rush. In the second period the Minute Men would score two more to open the game up a bit, 3-0. Julian Wojcik snipes Sean Gaffney one a nice set up from Kyle Fanelli and Wyatt Frontiero. The second goal came as Wyatt Frontiero curled at the blue line, chipped the puck in the zone and ran over 6’4″ Phenex Hauver en route to the reclaim and the score. The Sharks were not going to lay down though as Matthew Clark would score on a break in to make it 3-1. A minute and half later Kyle “Le Grande” Fanelli hammers home a Wojcik rebound that was set up by Alex Noti and the spread was back to three with the period ending 4-1, Minute Men. A quiet third until two goals were scored within thirty seconds of each other, the first for the Minute Men’s Jonny Motta and the second by the Sharks Jayveer Doad. Motta broke out the shovel and hit pay dirt digging in the crease and Doad slipped a pretty little backhander past Thompson after an incredible individual effort to keep the puck on his stick through the neutral zone. Motta would nail down the hat trick with a minute left on a nice feed from Connor Hill and the game ends 6-2 Minute Men. Only one penalty in the game and it was awarded to Frontiero for interference of the Minute Men, and outside of a couple of pretty plays a quite win for the Minute men.

Game two was anything but quiet as the game was explosive with a lot of FIHL History being made. It started with the first ever live performance of the national anthem in the FIHL. Kylie Blozouski, sister to Sting Rays forward Braeden Blozouski, did a spectacular job and the FIHL welcomes her to sing the anthem for us anytime she wants!

Once the game started, the Sting Rays took it to the Aces scoring four unanswered goals which included a natural hat trick for the Cash Money Man, Chandler “Cha Ching” O’Dell. The mans stick is like a scalpel as he slices and dices goalies for fun. Poweska and Brann would both send O’Dell off to the races for two of the goals and the cap getter would be an unassisted goal. That was followed up by O’Dell returning the favor to Poweska slipping him a pass in the slot for a goal of his own and with still eight minutes left in the first stanza the Rays were up 4-0. The Aces came back though and score three unanswered goals of their own to close the period and just like that, we had a ball game! Aces new comer Alex Macris would score on a nice play with BFF Connor Johnston Ferris and the Aces were on the board. Two more goals both scored by Zachery Tate made it a game, assists on the first of his two goals, A. Macris and Jonathan DelaCruz. Our official furthest living full time player got the assist on Tate’s second goal. Chase Sterling who comes from Alabama to be on the Aces Roster gets his first point in the FIHL in his debut. Your score at the end of one period, 4-3 Sting Rays. After that rowdy first period the second stanza was uneventful outside of some jousting and a few penalties, with the exception of the Aces tying the game on yet another FIHL first. Connor Johnston Ferris with under a minute left in the period–short handed– would take a slap shot–from behind the Aces goal line–that some how ended up behind Rays netminder Ty “Top Carney” Schmidt for the longest goal in FIHL History. So the period ends in a 4 goal deadlock on that crazy slapper and we head to the third having no idea what could happen next. The Rays come out swinging with two goals in the first three minutes with O’Dell’s finger prints all over them. He sets up the first one which was scored by Logan Brann and then takes a Matthew Babcock pass off to the races and scores his fourth goal of the night putting the Aces are right back in the hanger. They would pull within one again with about six minutes left when Jonathan DelaCruz would walk in the zone and send a puck on net that had eyes for his first goal in the league. Unfortunately, for the Aces, it was answered twice in a mere thirty seconds later as Joshua Guay would go end to end for the eventual game winner and Chandler O’Dell would score his fifth on the night. After a melee in the Sting Ray crease that saw Michael Macris receive his third and fourth penalties on the night in his debut for un sportsman like conduct, the Aces would get another short handed goal from Connor Johnston Ferris to make it 8-6 with a minute to go. The Aces pull Tate out of the nets for the last ditch effort and the man of the night racks into the empty net his FIHL record sixth goal of the game for the emphatic power play. The eight point night for O’Dell puts him at 8-3-11 totals just two games in and the league is officially on notice. O’Dell wants the scoring title. Who will stop him? Your final score 9-6 Sting Rays over Aces in a wild one!!