TORONTO -  The Gas Station Islanders eked out an uncommonly low-scoring win over the Beau's Beer Hack, this past Saturday night at Upper Canada College, while the Wheatfield Souldiers held off a three-goal 3rd-period Jokers rally to post a 4-3 victory over the Funniest Team on Ice.

 

The first two shifts of the game resulted in the first two goals for the Wheatfield Souldiers, as a sleepy Jokers defence corp took a couple minutes to wake up to the fact the pregame skate was over and the actual contest had commenced, failing to clear away net-front rebounds off the pads of goaltender Burke Lawrence on both red-light occasions. Pinching defenceman Shawn Star and forward Mark Jones were the goal scorers, with Grant Paley and Scott Pettus noted for assist.

 

The 2nd period saw the Souldiers double up the Jokers in the shots-on-net column, while multiplying their advantage on the scoreboard to 4-0, this time with goals off the sticks of Jon Weier (his first of the season, scored on the power-play) and Jones, who registered his first-ever multi-goal game with the team. Star, Marc Couture, Chuck Molgat and Brian Bentley collected assists on those markers.

 

The slant of the ice shifted noticeably come the back half of the 3rd frame, though, as the Jokers took a page from the American Standard Plumbers Manual and got their shit together. The comeback attempt began with a net-front scramble resulting in a hard shot off the stick of Charlie Rishor along the ice past spare goaltender Joseph Steinman (on loan from the Gas Station Islanders) and under the left shin pad of a sprawling Souldiers defender. Just like that, the Jokers were on the board... and they weren't done.

 

Four minutes later, Tim Progosh combined with Joel Lacoursiere to halve the deficit with 2:30 remaining on the clock, garnering his first goal of the season and, perhaps more importantly, narrowing the score differential enough to stop the clock at whistles for the final two minutes of the match. The Jokers would benefit from that detail as an odd-man rush resulted in a third goal, this time involving veteran Jokers Mike Takacs (for his first goal in five games) and assisted by Adrian Cavan. With the score 4-3, the Jokers net empty for an additional attacker, and the trailing team on the power-play giving them a two-man advantage, the remaining two minutes saw a flurry of Jokers offence, and a couple of robust zone clearings off defenders sticks, as the horn sounded on a narrow Souldiers win.

 

The victory afforded the Souldiers the edge in the season series versus the Jokers thus far, as the two teams had previously posted a 2-2 draw back in late November. The longtime rivals are scheduled to meet once more for a Regular Season tilt on Saturday, March 4 at 9:00 pm.

 

Saturday night's UUHA late game played out like an old-fashioned joke about some ethnicity or another's proclivity towards not spending money - in other words, it was a miserly, parsimonious affair, particularly the 1st and 3rd periods, in which zero goals were scored. The opening frame saw both squads put a half-dozen shots on the opposing net, but the red bulbs remained cold. The Islanders were first to light the lamp in the 2nd, though, with team scoring leader Dominic Chartier solving Aaron Brophy at the 10:15 mark, claiming his 14th tally of the campaign. Just over a minute later, Courtney Stevens would combine with Tim Vesely to make it 2-0 Isles. But with 1:45 left in the period, and with the Hack on the power-play, Chris Barkley would convert a crisp pass from Chris Cacciotti to cut the GSI lead in half. The tally was Barkley's 10th of the season, moving him up to 3rd spot on the league leader board in goals.

With no additional scoring transpiring, the game would go into the books as a 2-1 win for the Islanders, who now find themselves tied with the Hack for 1st place in the standings with 14 points each. The teams will meet again next Saturday, Jan. 28 in a game that will determine the outcome of their three-game season series, both squads having claimed a single victory thus far. The other game on the UUHA slate that night has the Humiliation up against the Jokers. The Brockton Rockets and Wheatfield Souldiers will enjoy the weekend off.