Pifferfish

Week ending 9/04

Week ending in 9/25

Halifax Times Who Let the Dogs Out in Halifax? Written by Todd Ripley In today's sports news, local VHLM team, the Halifax 21st, were involved in two major upsets at the Halifax Forum. The 21st entered yesterday on a most impressive 8-2 run with hopes high among fans for their upcoming contests. The hometown crowd was chomping at the bit to see the debut performances of both center Jose Silva and defenseman Elias Lampi. We should add that Jose Silva has been on the Halifax roster for some time but was sidelined with what the team injury report classified as "illness." In their first game of the week, Halifax went head to head with the Mexico City Kings. Odds makers gave the hometown team an opening line of -1.5, but news of the debuting players saw this line shift to -2 before pick drop. Halifax was back stopped by the league leader in save percentage with .929, goalie Ash Sparks. Meanwhile, the Kings' sophomore netminder, Jeremy Swayman, came into this matchup with a sub .900 save percentage. While the game was certainly closer than the score indicated, it still resulted in a underdog win by Mexico City with a final of 2-0. While not in the midst of his best season, Swayman is still a young player who showed flashes of brilliance and potential in a stellar rookie campaign. On this night, we once again saw that spark as Swayman lead his team to the shutout win. W Nanashi Mumei struck twice in the victory for his 5th and 6th goals of the season. Center Alexander Stroheim showed off his playmaking ability with two beautiful feeds to his teammate Mumei. Stroheim recorded an assist on both his team's scores with those passes. For the opposite locker room, defenseman Elias Lampi looked solid defensively in his first action despite being on the ice for both goals against. He recorded a massive 5 hits and a blocked shot in a promising debut. Fellow first time starter, center Jose Silva, on the other hand, was rather shaky. Silva led Halifax in shots on goal but had nothing to show for it. The rookie also struggled at the faceoff dot, only going 6 for 14 on the evening. The game's "Key to Victory" for Mexico City was letting their opponent harm themselves. The 21st took penalties at critical points in the game and the Kings managed to capitalize on one about midway through the second period. When asked after the game what went wrong on the penalty kill, rookie Lampi said this: "They are a good team. Even when you have a guy back there as good as Ash, you can't let them get too many scoring chances. They got four or five quick shot attempts and we just didn't do a good job clearing the zone." Clearly after the 2nd the locker room discussion was on limiting chances as the Kings only mustered three shots in the 3rd. There is no rest for the wicked as the 21st had to play again the next night still on their home ice. Despite being in their own arena, odds makers gave the -0.5 edge to the visiting Miami Marauders. From multiple sources in the Halifax locker room we did confirm there is a bit of a grudge from Ash Sparks as Miami took their netminder four picks ahead of him in the draft. The focus for Halifax, however, keeping their net clear. This team went into this matchup with one thing on their mind, "light that lamp." Light it they did en route to a 4-3 victory over a strong playoff contending team. Halifax cam out firing jumping to an early 3-0 lead on goals from winger Jeffrey Bezos, winger Bedirhan Paard, and center Vinny Lecavalier. 21st center Vinny Lecavalier looks to his team's bench following his 1st period goal. (AP Photo/Dark Spyro) The best performances from the Marauders came from center Rick Grimes and winger Michael Shotter. Grimes managed an impressive 2 goals on 6 shots. The first of these came on a great breakout feed from Shotter leading to Watson and Grimes 2 on 1. The hometown team once again struggle to stay disciplined with four penalties in the contest - three of which came while the team had just a 1 goal lead in the 3rd period. The most notable individual performance of the night came from Jeff Bezos as he grabbed 2 goals and 1 assist on his way to a +3 mark for the evening. His top helper was winger Babay Shrimp with two apples of his own. The whole top unit recorded a +3 whole the second group struggled with a -2. They were out there for all 3 goals against. We got a chance to ask new acquisition Elias Lampi about his first two games in the VHLM and here is that transcript now. - Interviewer: Congratulations on finally making your debut. You were quite the hyped prospect coming out of Helsinki. How are you feeling? Lampi: It feels good to get the first win of many. I love my team right now. Didn't have a great start but they've stuck with me and kept the energy up for a stronger second game. Interviewer: Do you have any comments on the loss to the underdog Kings last night? Lampi: You know I already talk to the boys about it a bit in private but the great teams all lose games. Being a winner isn't about perfection like some people think. Winning is about knowing how to bounce back from the tough losses and learning from the mistakes of those games. I think this group still has a lot in it's game to clean up but there is a lot of the regular season hockey left to work out those kinks before we go on a run. Interviewer: Any particular areas of concern for the team? Lampi: Well, I'm not gonna tell you everything we are seeing out there but the most glaring one is being on the penalty kill. Like I said immediately following the loss, just because we have an incredible talent in net, doesn't mean we should be reckless with our sticks and put ourselves down a man. Good teams will take advantage of those chance eventually if you give them too many so definitely gotta clean that up. - On that note, the Halifax Daily and Todd Ripley wish all our readers marvelous day. 1,079 words Week ending 9/25 Week ending 10/02

To all teams who showed interest, I appreciate your offers dearly. That being said I'm pleased to announce I'm #SettingSail in Halifax. I loved every pitch. Thank you all. See you on the ice!

Player Information Username: Pifferfish Player Name: Elias Lampi Recruited From: Member (ShawnGlade) Age: 16 Position: D Height: 72 in. Weight: 210 lbs. Birthplace: Finland Player Page @VHLM GM