Recap: The Icemen needed 2 goals in 0:10 with their goalie pulled for an extra attacker to salvage a point against the Black Aces on Thursday night, proving that in the C-division no one is good enough to take another team for granted. The two teams remained tied after the 5:00 minute extra session and were then robbed by a tired, old ref of the chance to continue their shoot-out after being knotted at 1-1 after 3 shooters. To the Black Aces' credit at least all three of their shooters recorded SHOTS in the shootout, with Brad Cover scoring on the only official shot on goal for the Icemen.

The Icemen did enjoy a brief lead in the game when Tim Polanowski scored on a breakaway with 2:18 remaining in the first period. However, the Black Aces, which clearly out-hustled the first-place Icemen all night, would pull back even just 0:29 seconds later and then take the lead 0:47 seconds after that on a PP goal right off the face-off at centerice. "We won the draw and I just whiffed on the puck giving them a breakway", explained defenseman Sal Crupi.

Blueliner Brian Hayes tied it at 2-2 late in the second period pouncing on a loose puck in the slot created by linemates Polanowski and McElwain taking each other out in an awkward, and very gay, play. "Thankfully Brian scored to shift the attention away from those two", said Ray Makowski. "I don't know what they were doing but it was very disturbing."

Once again the game did not remain tied for long as the Aces answered just 3:09 later. The Icemen looked slow and out of sync for most of the night and it appeared the game was lost when the Aces scored to take a two goal lead with just 4:48 remaining in the the third period. Finally though, the Icemen would come to life.

On the PP with just under 2:00 left on the clock and a face-off in the Aces zone, the Icemen pulled goalie Steve Trostle and somehow manged to score twice to tie the game before the final minute of play. Crupi scored the first goal into a wide open net when the Aces' goalie mistakenly tried to play the puck in the corner down 2 skaters. "It took him what seemed like an eternity to get the shot off, but at least we finally found a way for Sal to avoid hitting the goalie's chest with his shots", said Polanowski. The equalizer was scored by Paul Sampson right off the ensuing face-off.

Brian McElwain, who assisted on all 4 goals in the game, did his best to give the Aces the extra point with one of his patented dumb penalties at the end of regulation leaving the Icemen to skate 3-on-4 to start the OT period. Steve Trostle played well in goal in Dr. Bob's absence including a beautiful pad save (yes, I just used the word beautiful to describe a large sweaty man in a full split) during the shootout to preserve the tie.

"The Black Aces skated hard and play a great game in which we were lucky to steal a point", added McElwain. "I'm positive that before or next game against them we'll be discussing matching their intensity and hustle instead of alternate line combinations should we enter the 3rd period with at least a 5 goal lead."

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