Eldo trounces Brick Oven in town league playoff opener

Finals Saturday, February 23 at 7 p.m.

Hot off a one-game winning streak, the Brick Oven looked to pull off an upset over the Eldo in the first round of town league playoffs Tuesday, February 19. That ended abruptly though as the Eldo proceeded to score six goals in the first period enroute to a 9-2 win.

The game attracted a huge fan base for the Eldo, including “owner” Ted “Fat Cat” Bosler (adorned in a team uniform and choking on a cigar), his partner Mike Knoll, as well as several players’ wives and Eldo bar patrons.
Paul O’Connor started the scoring for the Eldo firing a shot through traffic that found the back of the net two minutes into the game.
Forty seconds later Guy Cuilla took a pass in the slot from Kurt Olsen and stuffed the puck top shelf for a 2-0 Eldo lead.
Cuilla scored again two minutes later on a rebound off a shot from John Starr and Milo Wynne gave the Eldo a 4-0 lead taking a slapshot from O’Connor off his hand and swatting it past the goalie with his stick.
Sean Norton did anything and everything he could to create some offense for the Brick Oven, breaking free for a one-on-one but Eldo goalie Tom Brother stopped him with a poke check to deny his backhand attempt.
Wynne scored his second goal of the night on the breakout off of Brother’s save and Cuilla finished his hat trick during an Eldo power play, scoring on another rebound.
Kent Preston netted the Brick Oven’s first goal of the game with 15 seconds left in the first period when Norton circled through the entire Eldo zone, drawing three players before finding Preston alone on the post.
The Brick Oven tightened up on defense, hustling back to break up numerous five on three breakaways to hold off the Eldo offense for a majority of the second period.
But the Brick Oven needed goals as much as they needed defense and they couldn’t buy one, as heavy fore-checking from the Eldo continuously broke up the Brick Oven attack.
John Hickey scored the seventh goal of the Eldo assault when the puck squirted loose in front of the Brick Oven net and Hickey punched it through for a 7-1 Eldo lead.
O’Connor opened the third period with the Eldo’s eighth goal of the game, taking the puck from the blue line and picking the upper triangle with a pinpoint wrist shot.
Norton got his just reward for his hustle all game long, taking the puck coast-to-coast to beat Brother with a wrist shot just inside the far post, but the game was far out of reach by that point.
Hank Deroche closed the Eldo scoring, taking a pass behind the net from Olson and slipping a wrap-around backhand just inside the post.
Town league is now down to four teams—the Troutfitter, the Last Steep, the Bacchanale and the Eldo—with the semi-finals on Thursday, February 21.
The Last Steep faces the Troutfitter at 7 p.m. and the Eldo takes on the Bacchanale at 8:45 p.m.
The finals are scheduled for Saturday, February 23 at 7 p.m., weather permitting of course.