What Would Gary Roberts Blog: WWGRD Can't Put Out the Fire Chiefs, Settle for Tie

It was a bumping atmosphere at Adie Knox arena in Windsor on Wednesday night as WWGRD kicked off their 2013/2014 campaign with a matchup against the Fire Chiefs. Everyone was excited to see new additions Riley Pekar and Brent Lozinsky, and to see how the team would follow up their break-through season that fell just one game short of reaching the championship game last year. Both teams came out flying in front of a capacity crowd at the beautiful arena, but it was WWGRD who got the start they were looking for.

The line of Pancerny, Seaner Micelli and All Swedish Djordjevski, which has shown the most chemistry over the past two years together, was the line that got it started for the boys in blue. No Finish gave the puck to the WWGRD A-Cap Micelli who used impressive speed and skill to get around a defender, and found himself coming in on the goaltender. As the goalie followed him to his forehand, the kid with the golden flow attempted to bring the puck back with one hand and slide it passed a sprawling Fire Chief tendy, but was not able to get enough on the puck. HOWEVER, the Macedonian Menace was in the perfect spot to pounce on the loose puck and pound it into the open cage to give the boys the 1-0 lead, a lead they would hold at the intermission.

A sloppy play in the early goings of the second half would lead to the tying goal by the Fire Chiefs. On a casual play where the puck was played around the boards by the defenseman, captain Marc Berthiaume was unable to corral the puck, allow it to squeek into open ice. Despite the puck appearing to exit the zone, the Fire Chief defender fired the puck quickly back down low to a wide open teammate as WWGRD was exiting the zone, assuming the play had been made by their fearless leader. In all alone, the Woodslee Wall had no chance and the game was tied.

The teams third line would redeem themselves on that same shift though. Mark Micelli carried the puck into the zone and left a drop pass for Captain Crunch, who was looking to atone for his earlier mistake. He carried the puck down the left wing and flipped a pass into the slot to a streaking Michael Nantau, who continued to show his scoring ability and beat the Fire Chief tendy five hole to give WWGRD their lead back. Thanks to the teams video and camera crew (Pekar's girlfriend and her phone), Nantau's go-ahead goal can be seen below.

The boys in blue would carry this momentum and add to their lead only a few shifts later. After hemming the Fire Chiefs in their own zone, WWGRD was able to catch them in an odd man opportunity on a failed clearing attempt. All Swedish Djordjevski got the puck to the smooth-handed Pancerny, who calmly fed a pass to stud defenceman Joshua Covelli. The Italian Stallion made no mistake as he pumped a Stammer-like one-tee into the twine for his first career WWGRD goal. Luckily, since no one would have believe he actually scored otherwise, this goal was also captured on video by the team's camera crew.

Unfortunately things would take a turn for the worse for everyone's favourite UWIHL team, as the Fire Chiefs would start their comeback with just over 3 minutes left. An absolute rocket shot that moved a bit and fooled Johnny Tracey would bring the chiefs within 1, and WWGRD was not able to hold onto the lead much longer. After a scrum behind the net, the puck trickled out front to a wide open Fire Chief forward who had all day to make a move on Johnny and tie the game up at the eventual final score of 3-3.

Reporters caught up to Joshua Covelli after the game to talk to him about finally scoring his first goal for WWGRD. He was light-hearted about it, saying "It was a huge relief to get that monkey off my back, that little shit was starting to build a home for himself back there!" He then went on to say ,"Hopefully this isn't the end of me," and winked at the cameras as he walked away. We then caught up to Dylan Berthiaume, who's line with Lozinsky and Pekar was creating chances all day but wasn't able to find the back of the net. "I thought we played a good 35 minute game, but it just goes to show you in this league if you take your foot off the gas for 5 minutes you can lose a game just like that..." He, like the rest of the team, was staying positive however, adding "on the plus side, I really liked our puck possession throughout the game, our offensive flow was good, we just gotta work on getting shots on goal. Goaltending was great, defense was solid, we just gotta put the puck in the net."

WWGRD waits to hear when they hit the ice next.