Mona Shores 9 Grandville 1

This just in...a report has been filed by our anonymous Mona Shores correspondent. Read on, or click here for the box score. Honestly, this is one of his best posts yet.

It’s always interesting to observe the intensity in the moments before an important High School Hockey Game (HSHG): the anxious, stern looks on faces, the stare-downs, chest thumping, nervous body language, sizing up of the opposition...even the smell of the combatants that can only be found at an ice rink. But enough about the parents, this game was really about two quality, motivated hockey teams excited about their league game.

The host Grandville Bulldogs were straining their leashes, having come off three consecutive home losses. The Sailors, likewise, were blown out of the water by GPN last weekend at home. Both teams were now looking for a measure of revenge, a perfect recipe for a competitive game. As the puck dropped, the tension was so thick, you felt like you could cut it with an Easton Synergy hockey blade.

After the first few minutes of the opening stanza, it became apparent that this wasn’t going to be Grandville’s night. With 3:34 gone, David “Chicken Pox” Coppock went hard to the net, deflecting a missle from his friend Mike “Hands Solo” Soto, with assistance from Brendan “Shaken, Not Stirred” Sturr for the game’s first goal. .

The Bulldogs roared back a minute later, when Ian Strayer, on a nice back door pass, scored at 4:25 to even up the contest. For several minutes, the play continued back and forth until the levy officially burst at 9:42 of the first, when Austin “Z Bubble” Zaloga, after clanging one off the post earlier, continued to pound a loose puck that somehow remained unfrozen, until he wore it down and it retreated across the goal line. Coppock rounded out the scoring in the first, netting the second goal of his first hat trick on the power play, off a rebound with :24 remaining. Coppock was assisted by Ryan “Rhino Virus” Mylenek and Taylor “Made” Moore.

The second period the ice continued to tilt in favor of Mona Shores, with goals in chronological order from Moore, Adam "Up My Points" Meloche, Ryan “Goal Meister” Burmeister, J “C Ya On The Highlight Reel” Boyd, Coppock, and again Burmeister, with assistance from Soto, Boyd, Meloche, Tyler “Member’s Only” McCarl, Zaloga, Brett “Grevel Yell” Grevel, and Meloche. By the time the dust had settled at the end of two, Shores skated off the ice with a 9-1 victory.

For those of you scrap-booking at home, Burmeister had his second multi-goal game tallying two, Soto collected 3 assists, Grevel 2 assists, and Boyd 3 points in addition to the accolades previously mentioned.

The hit of the game goes to: the owner of the Dodge Intrepid who parked too close to my car and dinged my door going into the ice rink (there were no hits measurable on the Richter scale during the game itself). Penalties were few and far between at 2 each, and shots favored the Sailors to the tune of 30 - 14. Bouncing around net with the quickness of a meerkat for the Sailors was “Scottie Do” Tiefenthal, who cast aside 13 shots. Grandville netminder Ryan Wysocki totaled 21 saves for the Bulldogs.

Kudos to the Southside DJ who came strong with contemporary music from BonJovi, Breaking Benjamin, Guns ‘N Roses, two hits by AC/DC, Disturbed and more.