The offensive juggernaut of the NHL Alumni team piloted the team to a 5-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game and the valiant comeback effort by the Law Enforcement All-Stars’ fell one goal short with the final score 8-7 for the NHL Alumni over the Timmins Law Enforcement team.
The ceremonial puck drop featured opened up the game with Timmins captain Mayor Steve Black facing off against NHL Alumni captain Steve Sullivan.
An energetic burst of power quickly put the NHL Alumni a head by the mid way point of the first period at 5-0.
On the night Brent Gretzky No. 49 scored two for the NHLers.
The NHL Alumni abetted by two goals by number 49 Brent Gretzky jumped out to a fast lead and they hung for dear life as the Law Enforcement All-Stars chipped away and chipped away to eventually erase the five goal deficit and tie the game 5-5 at the end of the second period.
The second period was actually based on an entertaining team-based skills competition. The winners in the two categories were the Law Enforcement All-Star on both competitions.
But the powerful NHLers took a goal lead early in the third period making it 6-5 their advantage. The police team tied it, but two quick goals made the score 8-6 with only several minutes left in the game.
Mayor Black had a great solo effort on net but just missed scoring, a few seconds though the Police Team jams the net and scores its first goal. The game stopped as the first player to score got his photo taken and then received a pie in the face courtesy of
Ultimately it was the police team’s inability to arrest the NHL Alumni’s offense and offensive behaviour such as the pie in the face, the shower of hockey sticks while the Police Team player went in on a slap shot on LaForest
Remarkably late in the game with score 8-6 for the NHL Alumni, the Police failed to arrest several NHL Alumni players for bribery as the NHL squad paid $50 and $100 bribes to referee Dave Hutchison to bring the face from deep in the NHL Alumni zone in the waning minutes of the game, all the way down ice into the Law Enforcement face off circle.
The Law Enforcement team was given a bit of boost when the Sullivan brothers Gary and Steve switched teams. Steve Sullivan had a couple of good rushes but not able to put the puck in the net.
All and all it was an entertaining match with a packed house, lots of fun and money raised for a good cause.
Notable play on the Police Team was demonstrated by shell-shocked goal tender Trevor McGee whose play is not indicative of the 8-7 outcome.
If not for the play of McGee the score could have easily have been 100-7, but key saves by McGee kept the game close enough for the Police squad to lose in a squeaker 8-7.
Also Traffic Squad Sgt. Tom Chypyha demonstrated the lighting quick speed that helped to lead the police transition from 50 km/h to high octane 100 km/h dashes up the ice. No police radar was going to slow Chypyha on the ice tonight. Remember Chypyha was speeding on the ice, not on the streets so don’t you dare or Officer Chypyha will get you.
Derrick Martin, No. 7 also played a strong game scoring a goal late in the game to bring the Lawmen back into contention
But no one could talk a candle to Mayor Steve Black, No. 9 who displayed the deft stick handling on the ice that he uses to stickhandle through political issues at City Council. Despite have two clear cut break a ways, his worship could not put the biscuit in the basket when it counted.
The mayor’s high energy play indirectly led to the Law Enforcers first goal as his hard driving rush turned back my goalie Mark LaForest, discombobulated the goaltender on the very next attack and the Police scored their first goal of the night.
