Heart-attack kids win again and SC-Titanium continues to roll on   

Week 10 SHL action saw Sukhumvit Spitfires beat AWARE 3-2 in an overtime thriller in game one, while Sport Corner-Titanium continued its winning ways thumping Hooters Nana 7-3 in game two.

Sukhumvit won its fourth overtime game, overcoming a valiant effort by AWARE. Acting captain Scott Murray pulled keeper Lance Parker with 90 seconds to go for a sixth attacker. Seconds later Sukhumvit tied the game at 2. In OT, Murray sent Dugal Monk out with Dave McBurney and Donny Kerfoot as Sukhumvit’s first three players in the 4-minute OT stanza. The three swarmed the AWARE net, and won the game on a perfect feed from Kerfoot to Monk who roofed home the winning goal. Kerfoot has been quite the sensation since joining the SHL. Born on the same date as former NHL star Mike Richards, Kerfoot regularly competed against Richards as a junior player in Manitoba and it shows in the way Donny dangles and weaves his way through opposition players. Brandon Vick continued to play well for AWARE, scoring a goal and an assist moving him into fourth spot in the SHL scoring race. Darren Boodle added his sixth goal of the season for AWARE, while Kerfoot, with his seventh of the year, and substitute Tom Price, with his third of the season, added the other markers for Sukhumvit. The two teams react to overtime very differently with Sukhumvit winning four of its five overtime matches and AWARE losing four of its five OT games, despite some outstanding efforts by individual AWARE players.                          

Gabor Toth, filling in for Yves Gaboriault, played well and made 25 saves on the 28 shots he faced for AWARE, while Lance Parker won his third straight for Sukhumvit stopping 16 of the 18 shots AWARE fired at him. Dave McBurney was the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game for Sukhumvit assisting on one goal and making his presence felt throughout the night.

In game two, Wasanun “Pop” Angkulpattanasuk stepped in to replace her brother Dream (lost to the Thai national team). Pop had an excellent game two weeks ago, but this time it wasn’t so easy as SC-Titanium threw their top guns at her. In the end, she was able to stop 27 of the 34 shots she faced, while Gabor Toth, pulling double duty again, stopped 19 of the 22 shots sent his way.  SC-Titanium built up a 3-0 lead after one period; then increased that to 7-0 after two stanzas. In the third period, Hooters finally came to life scoring three times, with Vanchalerm “Top” Rutthapong scoring for the third straight game and captain Justin St. Denis and substitute Alex Gilbert adding singles. Tommi Haakkinen added two assists on defense for Hooters.

John Schachnovsky’s three-point night (goal and two assists) enabled him to keep his point streak alive at ten games. Mike Wilson’s five points (a hat-trick and two assists) made him the first player in SHL history to win back-to-back Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game awards. He now has fourteen points on the season and sits in second spot in the SHL scoring race. Schachnovsky still leads the SHL leader board with fifteen goals and nine assists. He is followed by linemate Wilson, in second spot and his other linemate SC captain Zak Garofolo—who also had a goal and two assists on the night—in third (the three linemates­­—who make up the MSG line­—sit 1,2,3, in the scoring race, which is quite a feat for three players in any league, anywhere). SC-Titanium’s other two goal scorers on the night were DJ Sherman and substitute Ben Dolgin-Gardner, who flew in from his home in Shenzen for the game.

AWARE’s Brandon Vick sits in fourth place in the SHL scoring race with nine goals and four assists, and Hooters Paul Stoddart, with eight goals and four assists, rounds out the top 5.

SC-Titanium continues to occupy the SHL penthouse with sixteen points and an 8-2 record. Sukhumvit Spitfiies, riding a three-game win streak, sit in second spot with a 5-5-1 record with eleven points. AWARE has ten points and sits in third place with a 3-7-4 record and Hooters sits in last place with nine points and a 4-6-1 record (the third number in sequence stands for overtime losses, where a point is gained by the losing team).  

Week eleven SHL action has been moved to Monday November 13th at “the Rink”, Central Grand Rama 9, with AWARE battling Hooters Nana at 8:30pm and the Spitfires taking on SC-Titanium at 9:30.

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