HCCM and Talk remain in a tie for last place

You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here

Whenever I hear the words “Talk of the Town,” I’m reminded of the years 1991 to 2001 (January is nostalgia month here in the Sports Barrel). To quote some guy who wrote some book (or “novel,” as the highbrows say) that is apparently important enough to be taught to almost all high school kids: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Apparently the guy who wrote that was a pretty good author. My favorite author in high school was a guy by the name of Cliff. Brevity was his specialty. Not a lot of pictures but the chapters were short.
Anyway, the Talk of the Town has a vital role in the fabric of this community, for it is there that love is found and lost, friends are made and lost, jobs secured and lost, housing agreed to and lost and brain cells—well, just lost.
(Hold on to your reading glasses, here comes the segue…)
Speaking of losing (BAM!), High Country Capital Management (HCCM) and the Talk of the Town faced off Wednesday night at Big Mine Ice Arena. Neither team won a game in the first two weeks of the season heading into the match-up and, thus, they were tied for last place in the standings. (That’s right, I said “thus.” So did that guy I talked about earlier in this article who wrote that book that I didn’t read.)
Nevertheless, Wednesday night’s game would change all of that as the scorekeeper pointed out just before the puck dropped: “After tonight, one of them is not going to be in last place.”
I must admit I believed him, completely unaware of the possibility that these two teams could tie that night and thus, both remain in last place.
Truth be told, whether teams are in last place or first place, town league hockey continues to amaze. Sure, HCCM and the Talk may not be the strongest teams, but they’ve got plenty of individual standouts that provide plenty of individual highlights.
The two teams opened the game a bit erratic as they skated through five minutes of whackf*** but as the period progressed, each squad found their respective rhythms.
While the Talk focused on positioning and breakouts, anchored by the efforts of Charles Hoigaard and Rewk Patten with Paul Moscatelli and Shane Palmer providing the fireworks up front, HCCM relied mostly on dump-and-chase with James Brennan, Molly Frame and Ian McBride pushing the pace.
The goalies figured heavily in the erratic first period, with Ed Dujardin turning away a number of HCCM shots and Andrew Winogradow coming up big in the closing minutes, including shutting Moscatelli down on a late-period breakaway, leaving the two teams deadlocked in a scoreless draw.
HCCM did most of the damage in the second period, continuing to rely on hustle to create offensive opportunities. Meanwhile, the Talk refused to get pulled into the mayhem, looking to establish a more consistent style of hockey. Their dedication to a more organized style proved advantageous as the second period continued. Bruce Winchenbach broke free for a one-on-one on net, only to be shut down by Winogradow. Talk positioning set up Palmer in the high slot for a spinning shot but Winogradow came up big again and the two teams opened the third period scoreless.
The culmination of the Talk’s dedication to positional play and passing hockey came two minutes into the third period when they pulled off one of the best goals in the history of town league hockey. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t matter if the teams are the worst or the best—town league hockey never ceases to amaze and this Talk goal was amazing.
As Pat Hoag collected a loose puck just inside the blue line, he sent it across the ice to Palmer. Moscatelli slid into the high slot to get the pass from Palmer, turned and found Fred Salas on the weak side with a quick flick through the scrambling HCCM defense. Salas took the pass and stuffed it through, putting the Talk up 1-0.
Faced with the task of preserving a 1-0 lead, the Talk succumbed to an all-out HCCM assault. With nothing to lose, HCCM stepped up their efforts for the remainder of the third period with Talk goalie Dujardin forced to hold off the HCCM attack. But nine minutes is a long time to hold on for and HCCM flipped into overdrive, pulling their goalie with less than a minute to go in regulation. The move had the Talk pinned, forcing them to ice the puck in an empty net goal attempt. HCCM capitalized on the ensuing faceoff when Drew Holbrook won the draw and pushed the puck to Brennan, who swatted it into the lower corner to tie the game 1-1 with 39 seconds remaining.
The final ticks of the game proved to be some of the best open ice hockey as the two teams were determined to decide who would remain in last place in the standings and when Moscatelli broke free with less than 20 seconds left, it appeared HCCM would be finished. But Winogradow was having one of his best games in net and when Moscatelli skated in, Winogradow stood his ground and denied the shot to hold the 1-1 final score, leaving the two teams still tied in last place.
Now I remember. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.