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Setting up for the Stick

On his first shift of his first Stanley Stick game, Scrappy found himself knocked flat on his backside by Elvis. It was a bruising wake up call for the young speedster to the intense physical and mental toll of Sunday Morning Road Hockey's championship series. He won't be letting it happen again.

"Things get quicker, so you can't be caught flat," says the sophomore centerman, a season wiser and tougher as he prepares to play in his second finale, which begins May 3. "You have to make snap decisions. Everyone gets banged up, bruises, scars."

Velma's heard the stories of epic four-hour battles and smashed eyes; the rookie forward knows he'll have to gird himself for the toughest games of his young career. So he's making sure he gets as much playing time as possible to prepare.

"Most of us should be in pretty good shape by now," says the playmaking winger who warmed up for Sunday's game by participating in a 10 km run in another city. "It's a grind and it's all about the mental effort."

Lak Attack knows what it takes to win the Stanley Stick. Other than the Living Legend, there's no other roadster at Sunday's game who's played in more finales. He's a former series' MVP.

"Mentally, you've got to step it up," says the veteran sniper. "You're razor sharp in terms of what you need to do, you've got to make sure every pass is crisp, you've got to make sure every play is a good play."

And you've got to be hungry, says Doo. With his team a goal away from being swept in last season's championship, Doo teamed up with Unabomber to spark the most incredible comeback in Stanley Stick history.

"You've just got to be tenacious," says the feisty forward who was a finalist for series' MVP last year. "That's the biggest thing in the Stick; the goals will come with the tenacity and you've just got to be really focused on that."

With only one more regular season game to be played until the start of the two-week championship showdown, many of the roadsters are already looking ahead.

"The Stick is a big deal, it's what everybody plays for all season," says Elvis, who's never lost a championship series in his eight seasons. "You've got to be prepared, you've got to really be on your game."

"The gams is three or five times the pace of a regular game," says Beetle Boy. "There's lots of physicality, lots of stick work, so you just have to prepare yourself that it's quite a jump from the regular season."

Sunday's game was a preview of the goaltending duel that will open this season's Stanley Stick Championship, as Nibs out-dueled Twizzler 20-16. Earlier in the week Gump announced he'd be unavailable for the finale's first game.
Neither goalie was particularly sharp, as each fanned long shots early in the game while they shook off the rust that may have settled from last week's rain out. Twizzler also struggled with rebounds and his team was never able to get closer than a goal.

This year's Stanley Stick will be missing some storied players as a number of veterans failed to play the requisite number of games to ensure their eligibility for the post-season. Notorious Gameshow Host Gone Bad, Wink, will miss his third consecutive finale, while Lobsterboy and Paul One are also ineligible. Only two rookies will play, Velma and Twizzler.