Elvis rocks, team rolls
Elvis scored eight goals, including five straight at the end of the game, to lead his side to a dramatic 22-20 overtime win in Sunday Morning Road Hockey's 14th regular season opener.
It was a startling turnaround to a game that had started so gloomily for the power forward and his mates. Down 5-1 and then 10-5 after the first two periods, they may already have been planning for the consolation minigame. But, just as the clouds that had cast a dull pall over the courts through the morning began to lift, so did their play. And their confidence.
"We just started getting the bounces," says Elvis, who's side also had to overcome a couple of early controversial calls on disputed goals. "Everybody tightened up on defense. We did what we had to do."
"We just never gave up," says Billy Idol. "I think when we tied it up at 13, it all kind of snowballed from there."
Playng his usual hard-charging game, Elvis crashed the boards and dominated the corners, creating scoring chances for his linemates, and wearing down his opponents.
"Elvis turned it on," says Billy Idol. "He could pull anyone off the boards and throw it out front. He's just out there and you kind of feed off that."
"He was impressive," says Gump of Elvis' rocking and rolling.
"They wouldn't quit," says Wendel. "They refused to admit defeat and we just ran out of gas a little bit."
And even when their sputtering offense could muster an attack, it ran smack into the dominating denials of Ottoman, who overcame an unimpressive preseason to play one of the strongest games of his goaltending career.
"Ottoman started playing unbelievable," says Elvis. "We all know how deflating it can be to have a couple of soft goals go in, it really takes the wind out of everybody's sails, but he played really well there at the end."
"He made a few big saves there, and that just gave us a bit of hope," says Billy Idol. "When he's playing really well you just kinda pick up your own game."
While the other team folds their tent. For Sunday's losers, their late-game collapse was a bitter welcome to the new season. They blew it, says Wendel. "You think, hey, you've got these guys by the short and curlies, it'll be a sweet and easy one, we've just got to stick together to keep making it happen, and then it doesn't. It was a heartbreaker."
Posted by jaysuburb at October 19, 2003 05:33 PM