Victory continues to elude Peak Consulting

Winless but not hopeless

I was just talking with a friend the other day and we were reminiscing about the good old days in the Talk of the Town. You remember the good old days, right? Tombstones, whistle pig, Mot, Jim Morrison, Rolphie, Dano, Robyn, Early Times bourbon, etc. 
That sparked my inspiration to go catch another Talk of the Town hockey game. Perusing the town league hockey schedule, I realized they would be facing Peak Consulting, the only winless team in the league. And with the Talk just one spot above them in the standings with one win, this would be a chance to see Peak Consulting blossom.
Player/manager Brian Krill put it this way: “We are the acorn that becomes the oak.”
Unfortunately, it’s hard to “become an oak” when you’re missing some key players and the other team has their full roster.
Peak Consulting was poised to change things with a stoke session prior to their game a week ago. And while they lost 9-2, Krill was convinced the team had turned the corner psychologically and things were going to change.
But then one of their key players got hurt and another teammate was missing due to coaching responsibilities when they took the ice Tuesday night against the Talk of the Town.
Talk about kicking a team when they’re down.
Things started out good for Peak Consulting, opening with a dump-and-chase strategy backed by some outstanding goalkeeping from Ben Dougherty.
Talk skater Rob Bramwell fired a series of shots from the point but Dougherty was spot-on with a series of saves to keep hope alive for Peak.
Hopes were soon dashed though, as Steve Reska and Willy Coburn scored goals in a span of 10 seconds to put the Talk up 2-0. Steve Shea added another strike two minutes later and it appeared the wheels were falling off for Peak Consulting.
Peak regained its composure a minute later to mount a massive all-team attack on the Talk net. Adam Chater shot from the top of the face-off circle but Reed Schaub made the initial save only to have the puck drop in front, and Charles Gano followed to push it through.
The Talk responded 30 seconds later when Kevin Bramwell found Mark Goldberg camped out on the pipe for the tip-in and the Talk took back control of the game with a 4-1 lead.
Goldberg struck again in the first minute of the second period and Kevin added in his second goal of the game for a 6-1 Talk lead, but bless Peak Consulting, they wouldn’t give up.
Peak defender Jeff Duke put in extended shifts on the ice doing all he could to keep the Peak team fired up, spinning around for poke checks, taking shots off his chest and clearing the puck from the Peak zone.
The Talk closed the second period with their seventh goal of the game when Betty Sue Gurk found Reska breaking free in the neutral zone and hit on the tape with a perfect pass. Reska carried the puck to net and fired a shot off Dougherty’s pads that trickled in, leaving Peak down six goals with one period left to play.
Peak Consulting put together another full-team rush of the Talk net to score their second goal of the game. As they charged forward Todd and Torrey Carroll connected like only brothers can, with Torrey getting the goal and breathing some more life into the Peak Consulting side.
They continued to push despite the score, with Tim Clark circling on defense to break up Talk assaults and then heading up-ice, looking to unleash the Holy Smoke but the Talk was too fast getting back and broke up every chance Peak had.
The Talk dumped a little salt in the wound in the final 10 seconds when Rob blasted one last shot from the point to finish off Peak Consulting 8-2.