Lightning strikes seven times against the Talk of the Town

Send good thoughts to Bill D.

If you are reading this, take a moment to send positive healing thoughts toward Bill D., patriarch of the Talk of the Town clan. As chaos and carnage surrounded him the past couple of decades, Bill remained cool and calm when he was at the helm of the S.S. Talk of the Town. A wayward ship of fools sailing the seas of ski town debauchery.

That said, how about that roof? It’s been hot, until now, hot and sunny. And had there not been a roof over Big Mine Ice Arena, town league probably would not have been possible this year, at least not the past couple of weeks. But thanks to the roof, town league hockey survived the latest heat wave and continues with the playoffs just one week away and the Lightning in the driver’s seat.
The Lightning remained in the driver’s seat Tuesday night after skating to a 7-2 win over the Talk of the Town. Granted, it was expected with the Lightning coming in undefeated and the Talk oft defeated, but I’m always searching for the miracle upset and was hoping Tuesday night would be it. Plus, had I heard about the biggest upset of the season and not been there to cover it, I would have been pissed.
And, for the first four minutes I nailed it and was there to witness the biggest upset of the season. With Jeff Black making an appearance for the Talk, no doubt determined to shut down Lightning leading scorer Sam Reaman, things were looking good. So good, in fact, that the Talk took a 1-0 lead when Charles Hoigaard won a face-off in the Lightning zone and dropped the puck to Black at the point who proceeded to pick the upper corner.
The Talk continued to set the tone for the next three minutes and things were shaping up real good. Isaac Long tied the game up, battling for a puck in the corner and turning to goal to shoot. Ed Dujardin made the initial save but Long scored on his own rebound. Reaman scored two minutes later to put the Lightning up 2-1 but the two teams spent the rest of the period shuffling around and trading off shots and the thoughts of an upset still swirled in my head.
Everything was lining up for the Talk upset, that is, except for the score, as the Lightning proceeded to rattle off three more goals in the second period.
Long struck again in the first 30 seconds off an assist from Ian Baird and then finished his hat trick for the night scoring three minutes later. The Talk kept pressing though with Rewk Patten’s bull-in-a-china-shop style and Lily Doris’ smooth skating while Black continued to fire shots at will.
Molly Keating and Doris connected a couple of times for close calls but came up short while Michael Fabbre finished the second period with a solo effort to pick the five hole for a 5-1 Lightning lead.
The Lightning had two more golden opportunities but Dujardin denied Reaman on a breakaway and Patten broke up a Lightning three-on-one to hold the game somewhat respectable.
Fabbre and Reaman each struck again in the third period for a 7-1 Lightning lead but the Talk had the final say, or last call, as Hoigaard and Black connected one last time earning themselves another cold, frosty one after, or maybe even during the game, to help ease the pain of the 7-2 Talk of the Town loss.