Spongee Memories…

2001-02

The WSPHL celebrated its 20th anniversary this season and the media took an instant liking to the darlings of spongee, Apocalypse Now. While doing a story on the league history, the Free Press learned that Apocalypse was the league’s longest surviving team. This created a media frenzy as the team was interviewed and had a photo shoot in the Eaton’s building before it’s demolition. During the demolition might have been more appropriate for a team carrying such a formidable name.

Game One of our 19th season was successful for young and old alike. The Grand Daddy of spongee Rob Moore opened the year with a hat trick, while rookie sensation Mike Sanderson set a franchise record with 5 points in his first ever regular season game.

Pete passed the legendary Gary LeDrew to move into third place in the career scoring list. Bryan Wiebe set Pete up for his 100th career goal, becoming only the third player to reach this Hall of Fame plateau.

Jim Heim became the winningist goalie of all time in Game 9. His 32nd win put him ahead of the illustrious Kerry Fisher. Jim racked up his 37th career win and along the way he has set goaltending records for: games played (73), wins in a season (14), consecutive regular season wins (16), and consecutive games in goal (33 and counting)

Mike Sanderson scored on his third penalty shot of Game 11 vs. X-Men, tying a club record for shots in a season. This game set a record for penalty minutes. (34). Guido took a slashing minor and a 10 minute misconduct, after two additional minors he was handed a game misconduct, giving him a record 26 minutes in one game. Guido was also suspended for 2 games, but Joe was in Florida, so he took the rap.

  • A tie breaking goal with 51 seconds left,
  • an empty net goal in the next game,
  • a miraculous comeback in another,
  • a breakaway goal scored with 5 seconds on the clock,
  • a hat trick goal with only minutes left to clinch the win,
  • …and the "Dolphin Season" was complete, 14 and Oh!!

Apocalypse went into the A-Side for the seventh year in a row

The playoffs opened with a drubbing at the hands of the Rhinos. Guido missed one game, (the only win) because of some lame "she’s having a baby" excuse. Joe, Jeff and Jim scored shootout goals to force a third and final game. In Game 3, Apocalypse were ahead 3-2 after two, but the Rhinos tied it up, then went ahead. Pete tied the score with 1:20 left, but the shootout was not meant to be as the Rhinos scored again with only :48 seconds remaining. Guido took his frustration out in another post-game team footrace.

Roster: Veterans: Rob, Joe and Jim Moore, Jeff Wrobleski, Jim Heim, Guido Sever, Myron Fiks, Bryan Wiebe, Pete Pearson, and Jeff Wilkie. Rookie: Mike Sanderson