Starting the blog off with everyone's favorite subject, game videos. All game videos will be posted together HERE along with pictures from each week (thanks Brandon Brownlow & Eric LeVigne). I'll keep hyperlinking them in each game header so its easy to find, and we'll have weeks 1-3 added to the Google doc sometime this week.
First off, sign up for CSHL's Charity Golf Tournament on Friday 10-20: REGISTER HERE
It's a BLAST and there are awesome raffles after the scramble. Sign up as a foursome or an individual!
We had an incredible slate of B Division games with three ties, a massive comeback, and unfortunately... an injury that may shake up the season. Let's dive into the weekend.
The NorMonsters took a small step in correcting their early season kryptonite by tying this one against the Cowbell, making the series 2-0-1 Cowbell on the season. The Cowbell's speed has posed a lot of trouble for the heavier runners in blue and frankly, they don't have an answer at all to Karson Steckler's early season surge. Baby Steck had two goals in both of the Cowbell's games this weekend and is the clear frontrunner for MVP. Faceoff specialist & Hockey Jesus^tm Nick Harris scored in the first for the Cowbell and his physical presence has been a huge help to their squad so far. Erik May added a goal in the first to tie it, while a Brownlow snipe in the second gave them the lead. Unfortunately, this may be his last of the season which we'll cover later.
Stud defenseman Hill Hollowell is starting to get used to the asphalt as his ball control noticeably improved this weekend and he added another to his tally in the second. A note from the Cowbell, Matthew Bowser has made a huge jump in improvement since the Winter 2023 season and tallied his first two assists of the year. The league teens look a lot more comfortable with the added space & Uncle Steck has plenty of lanes to feed the kids.
BEACHY! Absolute DAWG Jonathan Justus gave the Charlottans the lead one they would have for about 26 more minutes. Goals from star substitute Cole Heslin and the father-son duo of Joe & Joey P gave the Charlottans a 4-0 lead, one that was sure to stick as it lasted over halfway into the third. We'll let the video do the rest:
The electricity was turned up to 11 and we had a dominating last 3:12 from High Voltage capped off by a completely intentional Rios deflection with 3 seconds left. This is what we live for baby, THIS IS B-LEAGUE.
Uncle Steck gave the Cowbell the lead and Sevs immediately took it back. These are the type of plays the High Voltage need from their first pick as he picked Karson Steckler clean and looked off Nappy for a near-post goal.
However, it was the Steckler show again as 71 combined years gave the 'bells 3 goals on the day. Karson Steckler added a couple more to secure CSHL INSIDER's B Division Player of the Week award with Colin Barrier and Haley Gourdie assisting on both goals. Ironically Karson leads the league in assists and is ineligible to win our Red Clay Cidery Assist Leader Award at the end of the season due to age restrictions; no word if Mike will take control of the cider dispersion but sources say he's looking forward to the complementary booze. After sealing a comeback with 3 seconds left we assumed that would be the latest goal of the slate but High Voltage Captain Tom Carriero tied the game 2-2 scoring with 1 second left in the second period.
Pittsburgh's finest Big John Lavella tied the game in the second and an up-and-down matchup in the third resulted in this game finishing a draw.
Beachy, Joe P, and Jenny gave the Charlottans a 3-0 lead but the most impactful play of the game came in the third as NorMonsters Captain Brandon Brownlow took an uncalled trip from Jenny and went down hard. Per sources (Brandon) he is out for the regular season and hopefully can come back for the playoffs
Sheesh, we hope Brownlow can come back. CSHL INSIDER's preseason pick for MVP is a superstar in the league and CSHL isn't the same when he's watching from the sidelines. This was Brownlow's redemption year as he was bounced out of the playoffs in two straight games during our Winter 2023 season, we don't expect him to go quietly this fall. Things got heated at the end of the game, as Joe P was killing the clock he came together with Cynthia Clay knocking them over because Joe is significantly larger of a human.
NorMonsters defenseman Jacob Burns didn't love the challenge which is a surprise considering he has a history of aggressive stick play in his short time with CSHL. The players came together at the end of the game loudly exchanging words, while they aren't linked in this newsletter check out the game video and see for yourself.
Let's take a look at some B Division scoring trends from CSHL Insider's Analytics Department (Worters):
Teams with fewer games played will make them up near the end of the season.
Once again the Wieners came up a bit short, not just in the box store but also with their roster. With multiple players missing they were forced to call up the B division's 4th and 6th picks, stud defensemen Nick Severins & Petrini. With a shorthanded roster and a couple of players unfamiliar with the speed and physicality of CSHL's A-League Wieners looked..good? Yeah, it wasn't the result they wanted but coming down from a three-goal deficit to tie things in the early third had to be a great feeling for their defunct early-season offense. Bateman had a hat trick of assists with JY and Hotch combining for three goals. We had two incredible saves made by goalies Danny MacMahon and Chris Napierala in this one:
The second of which was so good the referee missed a high stick that drew blood on JY from Chris Cookingham (which would have given him 5 on the day).
This looked like a turnaround point in the Bombers' sloppy start to the season with them jumping into third place in the standings. Being a top-three seed in the A Division this year as it guarantees you a spot in the modified double-elimination playoffs.
Game Six: Mighty Mullet Men 4 at Huntersville Hooligans 3
No game footage on this one. You know who you are.
The Hooligans had their captain back as James Forbes made his first appearance of the season netting two assists in the process. Happy he didn't have to drive 12 hours to play unlike last weekend's Mylec Cup, his newfound partnership with Zach McKenna assisting on his goal less than a minute into the game and another with 75 seconds left. With another hat trick, McKenna has secured a three-goal lead in the scoring race this season.
Not used to playing from behind, the Mullet Men found themselves down under a minute into the game but tied things up with a Chetta Narach goal shortly after. Things played fairly even until the boys in blue went full Mullet Men scoring 3 goals in 71 seconds in the second period. We've seen a trend of the Mullets dominating other teams in the mid-late game stages and this looked no different, however the Hooligans firepower brought them back into this one as they came within a goal with a minute left. Goalie David Gonsalves made a flurry of saves late to save this one and keep the Mullets flawless 5 games into the season. Three assists from Helinski and two goals from Jeremy Hotchner helped with that.
Condensed dual-cam video (quality will improve next week to 1080p)
Bobby Arkus carried the offensive load in this one for the Fridge Raiders finishing with two goals and an assist for the game. Speedy defensive pair Caleb Brownlow and Chris Cookingham both scored for the Bombers as Campbell (2A) and Prusia (1G 1A) also had two points on the day. Arkus iced this one on some slick board play off a wide Sean Byrnes shot absolutely cooking the defender and Bombers substitute goalie John Bergner:
Bobby Arkus is named CSHL INSIDER's A Division Player of the Week as he finished the day with 3G and 1A, contributing to 100% of his team's points on the day. As stated before, this is the time of the CSHL Adult season when the games go from friendly to chippy and this game may be the turning point. Shortly before his GWG Arkus took a two-handed slash to the wrist from Brownlow...and as time expired Tim Hickey's stick experienced the same. No word if the Bombers' players-only meeting after the game can ease some of the tension the team was feeling, but with Greco out this weekend (Playing in the Chiclets Cup with the Salty Crabs) they have an uphill battle. Per league sources, Nick Petrini will be called up for their 8:30 game against the Mighty Mullet Men.
This one had the looks of a blowout from the drop as the Wieners were down to 3 roster runners available to play: JY, Jon Hotch, and CSHL Insider's only ever DAWGOTW (and former CDI) Scott Urquhart playing the skilled trio of ex-pro player Mike Steckler, Petrini, and Severins. They dropped behind quickly due to a James Forbes goal on McKenna's first assist of the season. "Maybe I'm a selfish player, I don't have any assists," he noted before ball drop of their second game.
Then, the Wieners exploded. 3 goals in 4 minutes from Hotch, Sevs, and Petrini gave them a 3-1 lead entering the break. Our preseason pick for Defenseman of the Year, Jon Hotchner has a breakout 3-point first period. That race will be tight all season as we're seeing a surge in blue-line scoring compared to our Winter 2023 league. Then Hooligans climbed back four straight goals from Forbes, Malmstrom, Steckler, and McKenna giving them a 5-3 lead to put this one out of reach. A last-minute Petrini goal on a JY rebound made it a one-goal game but it was too late for the Wiener who hope to regroup next week. McKenna buried his 10th of the season with some excellent coaching by Frank Lozzi who has the self proclaimed "easiest job in the league" this season.
We also have a first-ever CSHL Insider award to hand out! Congrats to Hooligans goalie Patrick Martin on becoming CSHL Insider's Charmin-Soft Player of the Week. PMart gave up a goal to a substitute player wearing a black shirt then complained the shirt wasn't dark enough:
In probably the Mullet's most even game of the season, you could feel them missing Pete Becht and his defensive presence. Becht is an elite defenseman who's input doesn't show up on normal stat sheets, and the Mullets being able to keep one of him & Sernus on the rink at all times is a huge advantage. This one was all Mullet Men early as they kept pressure in the Fridge Raiders zone but were unable to put one past Cale Bowman until late in the first. Turns out all Chris Ward needed to do to score was not shoot as he took a Jack Ingalls slapshot off of his knee to give the Mullets a lead. Patrick Bynes put this absolute SNIPE past Cale early second:
This is typically when the Mullets break the game open but the Fridge Raiders clawed back thanks to physical play and another goal to narrow the gap. Arkus is used to carrying his teams offensive load due to his Charlotte Rise experience this NBHL season and it certainly looks this will be the case for the Fridge Raiders. In the third, the Mullet Men had a goal called off because they were "in the crease" and we don't have a great angle to review this due to the near side camera being off (thanks Greco).
What we do have is an absolutely preposterous tripping call at the end of the game by our favorite referee & CAO PMart. Somehow he called Helinski for a trip on a play where he was tripped from behind by LeVigne in a blatant even-up move to try to control the game from the officials.
The Mighty Mullet Men held on to keep their undefeated season alive.
CSHL IN THE COMMUNITY: CSHL was invited by the Matthews Police Department and Matthews Fire & EMS to participate in a Charity Softball Tournament with the proceeds going to the Matthews Help Center, and we won! CSHL lost our first game of the day then won 4 straight to bring home the trophy.
Most importantly, we raised over $1,000 for the Matthews Help Center, strengthening our relationship with the city as we look for a place to call home with a full hockey facility.
A special shoutout to Sarah Cuozzo for connecting us with these groups so we could participate in the tournament!
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