Green Crowned NAHL Champions

Shemp & Commish

It was a season for Green's rookie  coach Tom "Thumb" Flanders that most coaches can only dream of.
To reach the top of the mountain while still in the shadow of Gary "Toe" Blake, who many would say is undoubtedly  the greatest coach in NAHL history, is an accomplishment that puts "The Thumb" up the bum of the doubters. "The critics counted us out when they heard that "The Toe" was gone", said Green's Tom "Shemp" Champagne. " They are giving us the Thumbs Up now", he added.
In what looked like another nail-biter through two periods, the epic battle of Blue vs. Green is now another chapter in the storied history of "The Doug" and the NAHL Thursday night series.
Blue scored first as Andy "BTO" scored his first of two, but, Green answered. The score was knotted at eight apiece after two periods. In the third period, Kenny "Don't Ya Love Em Madly" Bradley shut the door to the Green net and Phil "Commish" Stuart put the Green machine ahead to stay. That is the point where Green's superior conditioning became obvious as the ran away with a 13-8 victory. Blue had nothing left in the reserve tank for the third period.                                    The First Star of the game

Don't Ya Love Em Madly? We do.

honor went to "The Commish" who scored  a pair for Green including the game winner. "Twice in the series I scored what looked to be the game winning goal, only to see it slip away. I was happy to finally get the game winner in the most important game of my entire life", said a jubilant Stuart. After getting off to a slow start, "The Commish" got hot when it was most important; the playoffs. Stuart finished the season with a career high 58 goals which was good enough to win "The Swoop" as league leader in goals. It' just one more trophy to try to find room for in a house crowded with hardware.  The number two star went to Kenny "Don't Ya Love Em Madly" Bradley who came up huge in the third period and turned the tide in Green's favor. Bradley made forty one saves on the night. The third star went to Tom "Harry" Harrison who was inserted into the line up in game six. "Harry didn't register a goal, but the energy he brought to our line up was huge.", said Mike "Hipshake" Farrelly.  For Blue, "BTO", Clint "Eastwood" Cassavaugh and Jim "Heathy" Heath each scored a pair of goals. "We can only learn and grow as a team from this, but right now", it's a little hard to swallow", said a dejected Blue coach Tom "Painch" Painchaud. He took over the helm of Blue when they were in last place in eastern conference. He turned the club around and got them to within one game of winning it all. I'm sure GM Mike "Garbo" Garafalo will be bringing him back next season. It was another unbelievable year in the NAHL and the fans surely got their money's worth. Next thursday night there will be a huge void that will have to wait another six months to fill. I can't wait! I just can't.