Spongee Memories…

2008-09

Despite being picked to finish last by most pundits, the Apocalypse Now Sponge hockey team continuously turned heads throughout the 2008-09 season, posting its best finish since 2004-05. With a record of 7-4-3, the Apocalypse Now finished 4^th (of eight teams) in the division. Apocalypse Now were mostly a veteran hockey team, with players like Guy Sever (age 43), Jeff Wrobleski (age 50), Rob Moore (age 51), Jim Heim (age 43), and Jim Moore (age 40). The younger players included players like Patrick Nikolaus (age 28) and Jason Allard (age 27).

The season started strong for the Horsemen, with an opening night shut-out against the Ratz. It was the first of 2 season shut-outs for Jim Heim which equaled the record set by Kerry Fisher in 1989-90. Heim now has 6 career shut-outs which breaks Fisher’s record for most in a career. The next few games were paced by a see-saw of wins and losses but the team finished strong only losing one of their last 8 games. The hot streak continued into the play-offs as they won their first two games but couldn’t muster any offence in the third game and were eliminated.

Other notable occurrences in the season included:

· Guy Sever won the scoring title with 28 points for the first time since 2003-04. Sever became only the second player in franchise history to reach 300 points, joining Jeff Wrobleski (513), in a 5-0 win over the Drafts on January 18, 2009.

· Tristan Carlson dislocated his kneecap in the first game and missed the rest of the season.

· Jason Allard scored the season opening goal for the second straight year. The record of 3 career season opening goals is held by Wrobleski, Myron Fiks and Joe Moore.

· Myron Fiks notched the 17^th game winning goal of his 10 year career. Only Jeff Wrobleski has more (27). Fiks also saw the inside of the penalty box for the first time in 3 years. He was assessed 9 minutes in penalties, which was more than he had in the last 9 years combined.

· Jim Heim faced the 9^th penalty shotof his career on January 11, 2009 against the Flamin’ Martyrs. which is a new record. He has only been beat once in a game against the Assmen in 2004. The rare penalty shot occurred when Patrick Nikolaus grabbed the stick of a Matryr who was about to breakaway. Referee Craig Stapon called the penalty shot which Jim Heim easily stopped.

· Bryan Finney became the highest scoring rookie (14 points) since rookie sensation Mike Sanderson set a franchise rookie record with 33 points in his first and only year in 2001-02.

· Jason Allard recorded the third hat-trick of his career and the only one delivered by anyone this year.

· 62 pounds of chicken wings were consumed after games at the Pony Coral.

The Play-offs The play-off weekend opened with Apocalypse defeating the 16^th ranked Manatees 9-6. Myron Fiks was out with an eye injury…Finney’s hat-trick was the team’s first in the play-off since Sever did it against Bloodshot on April 7, 2004.

In the next game, Sever’s overtime slap-shot goal lifted the Apocalypse to a 2-1 victory over the Dukes and kept them on the A-side of the play-off tournament. It was Jim Heim’s 15th career play-off win…Jim Moore was playing in his 40th play-off game.

Apocalypse Now advanced to play Clockwork Orange but were the recipients of bad refereeing and bad luck. For many years to come, people (or at least Jeff Wrobleski) will talk about the “disallowed goal” and the “fluke goal” which eliminated Apocalypse from the play-offs.

Roster: Veterans: Rob Moore, Jim Moore, Jeff Wrobleski, Guido Sever, Myron Fiks, Bryan Wiebe, Jim Heim, Darren Warbeck, Patrick Nikolaus, Tristan Carlson and Jason Allard Rookies: Bryan Finney