Post by alphalackey on Feb 13, 2023 16:17:37 GMT -7
The Houston Sundogs closed out their inaugural NNHL season by saving their set with the league commissioner to end their season. Though the dreams of a .500 season had been dashed, the orange and teal nevertheless wanted to end on a positive note even if only to show the rest of the league that they definitely belonged in the league, irrespective of their.. unorthodox.. game scheduling.
Houston @ Cremona opened with some bulletin-board talk going around about how the Titans were gonna allow the visitors to 'run the score' up a bit so as to inflict more financial pain on the new franchise and their goal-driven charity campaign. This slackness may have gone a bit too far, however, as the visiting Sundogs ripped four goals in an 11:12 span to take a temporary 4-3 lead after a slow start. Sundogs goalie Saros, however, showed the toll of a season's worth of PTSD, and just couldn't overcome the shellshock of Cremona players firing from every where to steal the rest of this game. Patrik Laine added a late goal to make it a bit closer for a 7-5 final score; a score that, unlike his trademark earth tone fat-man khakis, greatly flattered the visiting coach.
Cremona @ Houston opened with a much edgier tone, as beloved veteran Joe Thornton drew into the lineup for the final game of the career. He even started on the front line, and won the faceoff before abandoning the puck in favor of a lumberjack shot to the head of Brady Tkachuk, which play-by-play announcer Wayne June described as "a singular strike!"
Tempers quieted down a bit until the Titans (eventually) scored late in the first, off the stick of Miko Rantanen, at which the Sundog faithful roared in disgust, with chants of "We Want Joe!" (who was taking the place of resident Sundog problem-solven Austin Watson) ringing down. Joe was still getting oxygen from his opening shifts, but Colton Sissons and ol' Ztrong Zad himself, Nikita Zadorov showing Tory Terry exactly what they thought of men with two first names, sending him back to the pit at the cost of an extra two minutes for the Dogs; the goddamn gong show was gonna go down, and go down it did.
Staking themselves out to a 4-0 lead after two periods didn't seem to satisfy the road team, who decided to further infuriate the home-crowd, delaying the third period for almost an hour as the league commissioner took the time to give a number of public speeches on a variety of league-related topics, but that didn't chill off the Sundogs players that still wanted blood, nor the local fans taking advantage of the "Beer is $1.00 off for every goal against" promotion; and once the speeches finally came to an end, the 'Dogs came out roaring, scoring twice to "kick the tires and light the fires" of the home crowd.
Cremona wisely decided it was time to be serious again, pouring on their trademark relentless forecheck and restoring their 2 goal lead with Miko Rantanen's hat trick goal.
And a whole bunch of other stuff that no one cared about happened, including Cremona winning the game like 6-4, I think; nothing else mattered when, at 11:36 of the 3rd period, Jumbo Joe hammered home one last greasier-than-a-Steak-N-Shake goal, concluding a frantic sequence of shots initiated by Gustav Nyquist and Rasmus Andersson.
Indeed, when the home fans whipped out their cocks, and a hail of stuffed plush toy roosters fell on the ice, it was the final 'mission accomplished' on a fantastic first season, and Coach Mousseau knew exactly who needed to go out for the post-game pressers.
(to be continued)
Houston @ Cremona opened with some bulletin-board talk going around about how the Titans were gonna allow the visitors to 'run the score' up a bit so as to inflict more financial pain on the new franchise and their goal-driven charity campaign. This slackness may have gone a bit too far, however, as the visiting Sundogs ripped four goals in an 11:12 span to take a temporary 4-3 lead after a slow start. Sundogs goalie Saros, however, showed the toll of a season's worth of PTSD, and just couldn't overcome the shellshock of Cremona players firing from every where to steal the rest of this game. Patrik Laine added a late goal to make it a bit closer for a 7-5 final score; a score that, unlike his trademark earth tone fat-man khakis, greatly flattered the visiting coach.
Cremona @ Houston opened with a much edgier tone, as beloved veteran Joe Thornton drew into the lineup for the final game of the career. He even started on the front line, and won the faceoff before abandoning the puck in favor of a lumberjack shot to the head of Brady Tkachuk, which play-by-play announcer Wayne June described as "a singular strike!"
Tempers quieted down a bit until the Titans (eventually) scored late in the first, off the stick of Miko Rantanen, at which the Sundog faithful roared in disgust, with chants of "We Want Joe!" (who was taking the place of resident Sundog problem-solven Austin Watson) ringing down. Joe was still getting oxygen from his opening shifts, but Colton Sissons and ol' Ztrong Zad himself, Nikita Zadorov showing Tory Terry exactly what they thought of men with two first names, sending him back to the pit at the cost of an extra two minutes for the Dogs; the goddamn gong show was gonna go down, and go down it did.
Staking themselves out to a 4-0 lead after two periods didn't seem to satisfy the road team, who decided to further infuriate the home-crowd, delaying the third period for almost an hour as the league commissioner took the time to give a number of public speeches on a variety of league-related topics, but that didn't chill off the Sundogs players that still wanted blood, nor the local fans taking advantage of the "Beer is $1.00 off for every goal against" promotion; and once the speeches finally came to an end, the 'Dogs came out roaring, scoring twice to "kick the tires and light the fires" of the home crowd.
Cremona wisely decided it was time to be serious again, pouring on their trademark relentless forecheck and restoring their 2 goal lead with Miko Rantanen's hat trick goal.
And a whole bunch of other stuff that no one cared about happened, including Cremona winning the game like 6-4, I think; nothing else mattered when, at 11:36 of the 3rd period, Jumbo Joe hammered home one last greasier-than-a-Steak-N-Shake goal, concluding a frantic sequence of shots initiated by Gustav Nyquist and Rasmus Andersson.
Indeed, when the home fans whipped out their cocks, and a hail of stuffed plush toy roosters fell on the ice, it was the final 'mission accomplished' on a fantastic first season, and Coach Mousseau knew exactly who needed to go out for the post-game pressers.
(to be continued)