Happy Holidays!

The last week before the holiday break, began on Tuesday with 3rd place Your Fathers Moustache taking on 2nd place Secunda Mariners. The Moustache trailling the Mariners by one point, moved into a 2nd place with Secunda after defeating them 5 to 4 in overtime. YFM's Trent Boswick was the hero, scoring 3 goals and adding a helper. Trent's 2nd goal tied the game at 4 with 1:03 remaining in regulation time. He followed that up by scoring the OT winner on a breakaway with 2:03 left in the extra frame. Sean Fraser scored his league leading 23rd goal of the season in just 11 games and Dan Leblanc tallied the Moustache' s other goals. The Mariners had 4 different goal scorers, Steve Widmeyer, Gary Zinck, Jay Casivi, and Derek Taylor, in the loss.

The 2nd game of the night had the Rinkrats moving into a 7th place tie with the Scotian Canadians as they downed Scotian 7 to 5. Trailing 2 to 1 after the 1st period, the Rinkrats scored 6 goals in the 2nd, led by Colin Peters' hattrick. Craig Stevens tapped in a pair including a highlight reel goal, Kelly Serbu and Tony Peers rounded out the scoring for the 'rats. The Canadians, lost their 6th straight game, got scoring from Todd Miles with a couple including a penalty shot goal, Jesse Ferguson, Danny Brewer and Mike MacIssac. The holiday break couldn't come quick enough for the slumping Canadians.

Thursday night had old rivals the Bacardi Rangers taking on the undefeated Dartmouth Alpines. No love lost between these two teams as they combined for 14 minor penalties. The Rangers battled back from a 5 to 1 deficit to snap the Alpines 8 game winning streak and draw to a 5 all overtime tie. Dartmouth did manage to remain the only undefeated team heading into the break, at 8-0-1-0. Bacardi's Reg Bowes buried a pair of powerplay 
goals, while Brian Melanson, Jeff Branson and Scott Allison added singles. League game winning goal leader, with 4, Todd Parker and Graham MacLeod each had a pair, with Jay Washington firing his 6th on the season for the Alpines.

The final game of the first half of the season had the Moose Light Shamrocks win their 4th in a row with a 5 to 3 victory over the Rinkrats. The Moose had five different goal scorers for a balanced attack. Paul Wright and Shane Gibbs each had a goal and an assist, while Sebastien Decaens, Todd Sparks and Steve Snell finished off the scoring for Moose Light. Rinkrats got goals from Craig Stevens, Richard Barry and Colin Peters to end the first half of the regular season.

An update on league fee payments: Secunda Mariners $4,520.00 PAID IN FULL, Dartmouth Alpines $3,150.00, Bacardi Rangers $3,065.00, Your Fathers Moustache $2,475.00, Moose Light Shamrocks $2,100.00, Rinkrats $1,675 and Scotian Canadians $1,000.  The first half payment that was due in October was $2,500.00, I ask that some teams still owing clean up their debt.

Some Christmas wishes for the teams, the Alpines try to remain undefeated, the Mariners a chance to repeat for the Lake City Cup, Your Fathers Moustache finish no lower than third place and get into the second round of the playoffs, the Shamrocks a rematch in the finals, Bacardi Rangers a game with no penalties, Rinkrats regular player turn out and the Scotian Canadians some more wins.

  On behalf of myself and my family, I like to wish all those that participate in the Lake City Gentlmen's Hockey League a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!, see you in 2008.

Kelly B. Saunders