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| July 27, 2004
By Jim Anderson
NARCh PRO Division Wrapup
|  Once again, the Tour Mudcats were part of a thrilling championship game at the NARCh Finals. Unfortunately for them, history repeated itself and they took home Silver for the 4th time in the past 5 seasons.
The PRO Division would get shook up when the Mission Pama LA Cyclones upended Mission Helium in their 3rd round robin contest. Brendan Brooks opened the scoring for Helium just a minute into the contest. Cycones answered back with 2 late first half goal for a 2-1 lead at the half. Jerry Osterkamp then stretched it to 3-1, scoring with 7:56 left in regulation. Helium would cut the lead to 3-2 off a goal by Chris Palmer but the Cyclones would take a much needed 2 points and hold off Helium for the win.
This win made the Helium contest vs the Tour Mudcats a win or go home game. Each team had 3 points entering the contest and it would take at least 4 to advance into the semifinals. It was a physical battle from the onset and Helium would get the first lead thanks to a St.Cyr goal. CJ Yoder and Ron Tracy would answer back for the Mudcats with 2 goals in a 2.5 minute span before a late 1st half goal by Helium tied it at 2.
In the 2nd period, Mudcats would take control of the game with a pair of goals from Dan Costanza, just under 2 minutes apart and lead 4-2. Once again though, Heliium would come back, jumpstarted by a one handed backhander, topshelfed, by Kirk French and St.Cyr would tie it at 4 on his 2nd of the game. Tour is a resilient bunch though and they didn’t go quietly as Tracy scored his 3rd of the game, and half, to again give the Mudcats the lead at 5-4 just 30 seconds later. The Mudcats added an empty netter by CJ to pad the lead to 6-4 and stop any hope of a Helium comeback.
When all was said and done, KTEK-Rinkside would take the #1 seed with the Tour Mudcats #2, Tour Beemers #3 and Mission Pama LA Cyclones #4.
KTEK Rinkside was a big favorite in their semifinal against the Cyclones. While the Cyclones had some veteran presence with the addition of Rob Chornumud, they were still a very young team with a nuclueus built around Jerry Osterkamp, Juaquin Chavira, Aman Kler, Tommy Neer and Kris Kransky. KTEK on the other hand had a virtual who’s who of the sport. Starting in goal with Rob Laurie, the guy virtually guarantees a championship appearance. Add Boyd Sutton, Christian Skoryna, Vic Gervais, Taj Melson, Mike Ciolli and Eric Weischelbaumer and its a formidable roster.
It would take nearly the entire first half before KTEK-Rinkside broke the scoreless tie as Sutton tallied with an assist by Ciolli. They would jump out in the 2nd half and go up 2-0 as Ciolli notched his first of the game. The Cyclones would be unable to get anything past Rob Laurie despite peppering him with 11 shots on goal in the 2nd half alone. Palmer added a late 2nd half goal to stretch the lead to 3-0 and provide the final margin.
Pama’s entry into the PRO division, and advancing to the semifinals is a good sign for the sport. Along with the Mission Snipers trip the Championship game at Winternationals, it shows the progress made by some of the up and coming players as they adept to the style of the NARCh PRO game.
The next semifinal would showcase the Tour Mudcats and Beemers. The Beemers would take a 1-0 lead when David Brito scored the half’s only goal.
Mudcats would answer back quick in the 2nd half however, when Jason Cirone converted a feed from CJ to tie it at 1 just 15 seconds into the half. Matt Unger would give the ‘Cats their first lead just 2:22 later before Costanza added one with just over 6 minutes to play and the Mudcats would again move on to a NARCh PRO Final with a 3-1 lead over their Tour compatriots.
In the end the second semifinal was truly a tale of 2 halves. The Beemers outshot the Mudcats by over a 2-1 margin in the 1st half only to see the tables turned in the 2nd and be outshot themselves by a 4-1margin. The Mudcats 20 shots on goal in the 2nd half would be more than the Beemers would tally for the entire game.
After a day of rest, KTEK Rinkside and Tour Mudcats would meet for the NARCh PRO championship.
A capacity crowd was on hand, making full use of the metal bleachers stomping and banging creating noise similar to an NFL game in December.
KTEK Rinkside would jump out early with Vic Gervais scoring off a feed from Boyd Sutton just under 2 minutes into the game. Taj Melson would stretch the lead to 2-0 late in the first half and they looked to be in control.
The Mudcats would come back late in the half though, very late. Jason Cirone would score with less than a second in the first half to cut the lead to 2-1 and give the Mudcats a big lift entering the 2nd half.
Teams would trade scoring chances in the 2nd half and the Mudcats would have a big penalty kill to keep the score at 2-1. As the game wound down Tour continued to press and drew a penalty with just under a minute left in regulation to give them a 2-man advantage with the goalie pulled.
Laurie was up to the task though and lived up to his reputation as the best PRO goalie in the sport at the moment. He would be helped though, off a shot from the left wing that just was pulled wide as time ran down. This half there would be no late goal and KTEK Rinkside would hold on and take their first NARCh PRO title with a 2-1 victory.
High Scorer honors went to Derek Kern, Mission Snipers while Rob Laurie and Nick Kondor, KTEK Rinkside shared Top Goalie accolades.
Also nice to see was many of the players taking the time to give autographs to the kids waiting both right outside the locker room and the entrance to the Championship rink. The impact it has on the kids is tremendous, thanks.
Next up for the PRO’s, Winternationals in Reno, NV....see you there!
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