2023-24

It is the 40^th season of Apocalypse Now and there was excitement in the air. Unfortunately, the air was warm and for the third year in a row there were no games played in December. Patrick Nikolaus was welcomed back after being out for nearly 2 years. Jim Moore was unable to answer the bell due to an undisclosed injury. Jeff Wrobleski returned for his 40^th season. “I have been lucky to play this long and to have gotten a chance to play on the ice with yet another generation. My granddaughter Kianna is now on the family team in the coed league. Even if I am becoming mostly a pylon out on the ice these days as my career is winding down slowly, it’s still fun watching her and my nephews/niece Pat, Jason, & Jessica all playing sponge hockey.” Jim Heim, the 59-year-old ‘chicken rancher from Steinbach’ started in net for Apocalypse for the 350^th time, as they opened the season against the Legion of Doom. The result was a 6-3 loss versus the eventual B-side Champions. Apocalypse then went on a 3-game winning streak until warm weather and no-show teams sabotaged the season resulting in 4 losses and a tie the rest of the way. The final 2 games were cancelled due to warm weather. Emails like this were frequent: “All games are cancelled. The freezing rain has made the rinks like cement and the forecast calls for the rain to turn to snow. A sponge puck will not slide and players spongee shoes may get ruined.” The veterans on Apocalypse couldn’t believe Bobby J was cancelling games because of a bit of water on the ice. This never would have happened in the old Iron Fist Babinsky era. Michael Moore won the scoring title for the fourth year in a row. It has been won 3 years in a row by Myron, Guido and the late Pistol Pete Pearson. The team also set records for futility as they scored the fewest number of goals (33), assists (32) and points (65) in a season. There is an asterisk, however, as only 9 regular season games were played. If 14 games had been played, they most likely would have beat the previous low of 81 points in the 1992-93 season. One bright spot to the season was when Michael Moore scored the first goal in a 3-3 tie versus the Whalers. It marked the 5000^th point in Apocalypse Now history. It was also the 2534^th goal scored in the regular season.

The Play-Offs

The playoffs started off with a win over the Hugh Jammers. Myron Fik scored the game winning goal which ties Guido Sever with 8 career playoff GWG’s. Jason Allard scored the 5^th goal which was the 500^th playoff goal scored by Apocalypse Now. The fun didn’t last long, however, as the Legion of Doom blew them out 7-1 in Game 2. It was the Belgian Club Crusaders in Game 3 who brought out 18 players and used the best of them to knock Apocalypse out of the playoffs with a 6-4 win.

ROSTER: Michael Moore, Jason Allard, Dave Silva, Pete Tavares, Myron Fiks, Jeff Wrobleski, Rob Moore, Patrick Nikolaus, Guy Sever, Jim Heim, Kevin Brass Rookie: Roman Jaworski