Bacchanale puck knocking on the door of the Brick Oven

Cut down Rocky Mountain Trees

After losing their only game of the season two weeks ago to the undefeated Brick Oven team, the Bacchanale rattled off two wins in a row, including slashing and burning its way through Rocky Mountain Trees for a 5-1 win last Thursday.
The Bacchanale was always good, but with the addition of Jeff Black and Cosmo Langsfeld to the line-up they may have taken a step toward town league greatness if they, or anyone else for that matter, can just get past that pesky Brick Oven team.
Rocky Mountain Trees is no slouch of a team with the Whiting family tree on board, Willy Miller, and a host of hockey coaches/enthusiasts such as Steve Curtiss, Bill Frame, Tony Lambert, to name a few.
Their coaching background and knowledge of the game proved fruitful through the first period of play. Looking over the two teams as they warmed up, Rocky Mountain Trees looked grotesquely outmatched but solid fore-checking and discipline on defense made the difference early in the game.
As the Bacchanale looked to put together a series of breakouts, Rocky Mountain Trees broke them up repeatedly and defensemen Miller and Frame held court at the blue line to keep the Bacchanale pinned in their own zone.
The pay-off came with four minutes left in the first period when Rocky Mountain Trees won a face-off in the Bacchanale zone and dropped the puck to Miller at the blue line. Miller took a look, saw mass chaos in front of the Bacchanale net and drove a low slapshot through traffic that hit off goalie Andrew Winogradow’s stick, popped up and bounced in for a 1-0 Rocky Mountain Trees lead.
During the break between periods, Trees all-star scorer Matt Whiting showed up and with his team leading 1-0, was green-lighted to light it up.
The Bacchanale had other plans as Black handcuffed Whiting’s one-man attacks on several occasions and the Trees were lured in off the blue line by Whiting’s show.
The result left the Trees wide open to counter attacks and the Bacchanale took full advantage of the situation.
Nathan Lacy led the first round of counterattacks, carrying the puck straight to net for a shot. The puck squirted loose and Lacy recovered it to turn and feed Black coming on strong for the shot and goal, tying the game 1-1.
Whiting started to find seams in the Bacchanale defense and left Winogradow sprawled on the ice for an open net look, only to ping his shot off the pipe. The rebound bounced out to Frame at the blue line and Frame lifted to puck to pick the upper 90 but Winogradow was up and denied Frame with a glove save.
A minute later, Whiting tried again but Winogradow didn’t bite on the initial move and stuffed Whiting cold.
Black attacked again this time taking the puck up the boards before feeding Dan Downing in front for a 2-1 Bacchanale lead.
Rocky Mountain Trees killed a penalty and surged in the final two minutes looking to tie the game but came up short, leaving themselves wide open for another counter.
The Bacchanale broke out of the zone en route to an odd man rush but a key poke check from Dick Whiting slowed them down. Tom Collins trailed to pick up the loose puck and drive a wrist shot at net, but Frame laid out to stop the shot, holding the Bacchanale to a slim 2-1 lead heading into the third period.
The Bacchanale put together a picture perfect breakout midway through the third period for their third goal of the game. Black picked the puck off a Trees player’s stick and found Talley Nichols cross-ice with a pass. Nichols settled the puck to open the middle for Lacy, who charged straight up-ice to take a pass from Nichols and score for a 3-1 Bacchanale lead.
Trees net minder Shawn Harrington did what he could to hold off a series of Bacchanale attacks, pulling off numerous saves, but the Bacchanale just kept coming.
Eric Dishmon and Collins teamed up for another two-on-one with Dishmon ultimately leaving the puck for Collins to finish. Black capped the Bacchanale win in the final minute, skating through two defenders to stuff the puck top-shelf for the 5-1 exclamatory win.