Spider Hellert Benefit Set For Saturday, April 26

LPGA Golfer Gulbis A Spider Fan!?

Future Spider Cheerleader: Eleanor Duquin

Spider Defensemen Christopher Duquin and his wife are happy to announce the birth of their second child and first daughter, Eleanor Hanley Duquin.

Born last Saturday, March 8 @ 8:55am, little Eli came in the world at a healthy 8lbs, 4oz and 19 3/4 inches.

Mom and baby are doing fine. Reports, as of this posting, have Chris ranked #3 in the current Children's Hospital "Best Nipple Contest" only to the 6th floor night janitor and a parttime orderly named Bruce.

Who would have thought? Rick The Aardvark!

Considering that Peek is an elementary teacher in the Batavia School system, he gets the benefit of the doubt on this one.

For those who are not in the know, Arthur is an animated series for 4- to 8-year-olds that premiered in 1996. The series details the sometimes comic, sometimes emotional adventures of Arthur and his family and friends through engaging stories that explore issues faced by real kids. The series' goals are to help foster an interest in reading and writing, and to encourage the development of positive social skills.

Supposedly the teachers got together last Friday morning and put on a play for the kids. Considering must of our occupations, I am sort of jealous...

However, one has to ponder if he does not dress this way and hit the local bar scene in downtown Batavia on a Saturday night.

When asked in regards to, long time wing-man and best friend Mike Zavarella shrugged his head and said with a whily smirk, "one never knows."

Hellert Visits - Team Dedicates Final Score

(West Seneca, NY) On Thursday, February 14, Valentine's Day (adding even more irony to the story) Spider defensemen Tom Hellert took time from his rehabilitation from major heart surgery and paid a suprise visit to his teamates before their game versus the Wildcats.

Upon his exit shortly before the game, one spider declared, "we should dedicate the score to old 42!" Team Captain Harry Wahl agreed, however noted, that taking the far (home) bench would be best for obvious reasons...

The game was hard fought as the Wildcats played a stiff defensive trap (hear that Tony, A TRAP, A GOD FORESAKEN TRAP!!!)

So, with about 30 seconds left in a 3-2 game and with the Wildcats goalie pulled for an extra attacker, defensemen Richie Tonge scored on a long slow backhander from behind the Spider blueline, making the score: 4-2!

THAT ONE WAS FOR YOU TOMMY!!!!

editors note: with about 5 seconds left, Grundtisch scored another emptynetter, but, considering the crack scoring table did not change the scoreboard, it doesn't really matter now does it??? (until tiebreakers, right Hartz!?)

BULLDOGS: Where Are They Now?

NAME: John "RifleMan" Tyrrell, original Assistant Captain
POSITION: Center
NUMBER: 30
YEARS PLAYED: 1993-1998
BEST KNOWN FOR: 45 second slaphot windup, scoring on own goal in a championship game, gentle till pushed to far.
REASONS FOR RETIREMENT: Burning desire to engage in southern law enforcement.
WHERE IS HE NOW: Sargent Officer John Tyrrell of the New Hampton Police Department. Married with wife Mary Beth and son Matthew. Never has shot anybody (warning shot or two over the head of a running suspect), niether confirms or denies the use of baton, taser, car door, or car fender in stopping the bad guys. Teaches newer officers how to really drive a squad car in high pursuits.
BEST STORY: Upon joining the force, John was living in an apartment building where must law enforcement personnel lived. Took a few days off for a getaway vacation. Returned home and noticed plaster dust all around his bed. Someone had shot a hole (by accident while cleaning a revolver) through his ajoining bedroom wall and through his 2nd generation Bulldogs Jersey hanging on so mentioned wall.

Rebuilding #42 - Hellert's Heart

Tom had a ruptured aortic aneurysm which caused severe pain; massive internal hemorrhage; and, without the prompt treatment, normally results in a quick death. They replaced a large portion of his aorta with tubing. This medical condition called abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is something of a stealth disorder. Patients usually have no symptoms. Neither its cause nor how to prevent it is known. More than 200,000 new AAA cases are diagnosed every year in the United States.

Tommy was lucky - ruptured aneurysms have a mortality rate of greater than 50% (for those patients that even make it alive to the hospital). If an aneurysm grows and ruptures, it’s fatal in 90% of the cases. Since many patients with ruptured aneurysms die before receiving any medical care. Ruptured aortic aneurysms rank as the 13th or 14th most common cause of death, similar to the death rates from emphysema, renal failure or homicide.

Along with his aorta repair, he also had a heart valve replaced with what they call a St. Jude Valve. The St. Jude heart valve was the first bileaflet mechanical heart valve (St. Jude Medical® (SJM)). This valve has a track record spanning 3 decades of excellent results. A mechanical valve is carefully designed to mimic the native heart valve. It has a ring, like your own natural heart valve, to support the leaflets. Like your own heart valve, the mechanical valve opens and closes with each heartbeat, permitting proper blood flow through the heart. If you listen closely, it sounds like the ticking of a wristwatch.

To prevent any blood clots from developing on the valve, which can cause complications, a mechanical valve replacement requires you to take anticoagulation medicine (blood thinners) daily.

Helping out the Hellerts

Last Saturday, members of the Spiders (Wahl, Stayoch, Duquin, Joe Zawada, Peek, Zavarella, Huber and former member Krug) joined a few of Tommy's old workmates to get the Hellert household up to snuff for the winter as Tom recuperates.

Many leaves were raked, some trees are no longer, and a few OV's were downed.

A job well done boys!

Here are a few pictures of the yeomen work that was done.

Officially a SPIDER

I gave Cullen his jersey today. I couldn't wait until Christmas!

Blogging

Blogging is still Fun...
I like Cheese....

GO Spiders GO

Now We Know Why Peek Collects The Game Fee Money!!!

RYAN HARTNETT TIES THE KNOT!!!

HE ACTUALLY DID IT!

Pictured, the newly married Hartnett's, Ryan and his lovely bride Mary.

Saturday, September 22, the wedding ceremony was at the Botanical Gardens and the reception at the Harthstone Manor in Cheektowaga.

Spiders Win American Indoor Summer League Championship

Spiders Triumph in 6-5 in double overtime thriller

It was pleasant day in West Seneca, not to hot not too cold. The ambient temperature at game time was somewhere around 72 degrees. The day was set for Championship hockey….

Today was the day for the #1 Ranked Knockaround guys to face the #2 ranked SPIDERS. The teams had dueled to a 4-4 tie earlier this year but what would this day bring…

The Kguys scored early on a long shot from the point a clean face off win gave them the shot.

But the Spiders battled back and scored one of their own a beauty of a shot by Schlegel. The K Guys rounded out the scoring in the first with a broken play goal that barely made it over the line.

Sometime in the second a nice feed from Fins found Jeff Zawada’s stick and Zawada made them pay for it as the Spiders knotted it at two, the Spiders had control of the game and aside from some minor skirmishes in our zone it was clear the tide was turning….towards our web walking team.

The second period saw a questionable penalty call lead to a short handed Spider goal … Denny steals it at their lie and makes the “leagues top goalie” look SILLY as Denny dekes and shovels it to the roof…. But then on the way to the championship something odd happened … 3 K-guys goals in 3 minutes… not but 1 minute after Dennys tally

The k-guys were smirking and seemed very pleased with themselves. It was at this point the K-guys began counting their chickens (before they had hatched)…. Truth be told the Spiders were stunned for the moment and the bench was quiet during the second intermission. Each one of us wondering if we could get come back in this game… and yet we knew we could “let’s get one quick said one Spider.. we need to get one quick… Harry said stuff too but I don’t think anyone was listening, each of us contemplating our job at hand. It was long time Spider Mike Stayoch that lit the beacon of hope early in the third … just like the voice said “let’s get one early“ Mike came “flying” on the far boards and flipped it past the goalie all while he got utterly hammered into the boards… “you flew like 4 feet into the boards” remarked one spider after the game. As Stayoch grabbed and rubbed his shoulder. With that beginning new hope and step came into the Spiders steps as Mike halved the deficit to 1 goal…..

Denny flies in the corner turns out “no point no point yells the spider defenseman. Denny takes a look to the net draws off a defender and fires a bullet over to Kalinski… SHOT GOAL, Kalinski rips it by the goalie ... the Spiders have tied the game at five the Spiders have tied the game at five… The spiders have tied the game with 12 minutes to go in the third.

Later in the period with about 10 minutes to go a most unfortunate incident happened during a rush in the Spiders zone- a ball ricocheted out off of Hellert’s leg and hit post. There was a pileup in front Kalinski and another guy got tangled up and slammed into goalie Chris Farr and he heard a great POP sound..
Farr was in pain and down for at least a minute…was was next was it broken was it sprains is Farr just a wuss?... all these things went through our heads but the way he was moving … or not moving He had to be hurting…. Rickey got his goalie gear. After a brief spell he got up and gamer that he is he went back between the pipes…..

The Spiders seemed emboldened by his bravery and put the pressure on the next 10 minutes including a 2 minute PP but to no avail... stopped at every turn by what appeared to be a wall of a goalie.

After a few flurries in the K-guys end regulation ended deadlocked at 6.

Overtime was more like table tennis or two fighter feeling each other out during a fight punch counter punch dance no one was pressing full out.

One overtime came and went… a second flowed on through a post here a post there…

Then with 849 left in regulation It was all over the Spider’s out lasted the younger K-Guys when Denny lit Tim Z up one last time for the hat trick…..

That was the ------

GOAL of the Night

I would have loved to tell you what happened but I didn’t see much of it
I would ask Peek but he was getting a Gatorade when we scored it…

So here goes

Denny races up the near boards blows by the K-guy defender and rips it by the goalie and we went berserk tossing gloves and mobbing Lenny…

THE QUOTES OF THE WEEK

1. Stayoch: “Rick, go get me a powerade”

2. Farr: “I heard my ankle go pop”
Hellert: "Don’t worry it’s the ones you can’t hear that you have to worry about”
Wahl: “huh?”
Hellert: “I don’t want him to worry about his ankle”
Wahl: “oh”

3. Unknown Spider: "Their goalie won the goalie trophy right?"
Zav: “Ya their guys won all the trophies”
Hellert: “All the trophies but ONE”
And we all smiled….

4. Kalinski: “So will those pictures go on the Christmas card this year?”
Wahl: “yes on the ornaments.”

5. Fins “Have you had @N@1 $ex with a woman before?"
6. Josh: “that we are the champions thing was one of the gayest things I have ever seen."
Zav- “all it means is we know how to have fun”

7. Wahl: “Stay on your feet Tonge!!!”
8. Joe: "you deserve a stranger tonight!”
9. Fins: “I’m a dirty man.”
10. And finally, No one can forget .. “the screaming seagull”… especially if you have tried it…

STRIPES REPORT

Richie can get cut down from behind slammed face first into the boards but if I get near a guy and have my stick on a guy I get 2 minutes….
The K-guys can pull ball after ball into their body ( hockey ball that is) and not get a delay penalty…I don’t know…………we won (woohoo) so I guess I shouldn’t complain

SCRATCHES

Dave Chan… He is done walking … couldn’t make the flight up …
Peek DNQ scratch
Wahl (eyeball)
Ryan Hartnett- had to set up chairs for his stag – (Harry has tickets)
Badding- DNQ scratch

Three Stars of tonight’s game, voted on by members of the media and anyone who says something after the game.

1. Denny – 6 goals and 2 assists, Iv’e never see him hustle more or move faster….
2. Farr- he mad a lot of nice saves and played on “potentially a broken ankle (heck we didn’t know at the time)”
3. Fins 3 assists he played ½ the third and both overtimes…

Regular season STATS
PP 0% (2-2)
YTD 56% (14-25) 1-3 - 2 man adv, 1 SHG against

PK% 100% (1-1)
YTD% 96% 24-25 (1-1, 7min adv) (1-1, 5 min) (2 man 4-4)

PPGoals
Denny (4)
Tongue (3)
Fins(3)
Grundistch (2)
Janos (1)
Jeff Zawada (1)

SHGoals
Fins (3)
Denny(3)
Wahl (2)
Stayoch (1)
Tongue (1)
Joe Zawada (1)

BY THE NUMBERS - PLAYOFFS ONLY
7-8 on PK, 3 SHG 2 by Denny and 1 by Stayoch
3-5 on PP, Goals by Denny (3) and Joe Z

Denny 3 G (13) 1A (4)
Kalinski 1G (2) (2A)
Jeff Z. 1G (1)
Joe Z (1G)
Fins 3 A (8)
Stayoch 1 G (3) 1A (3)
Tonge (1G)
Hellert (1A)

Let's Finish the Summer First

One more game left--- it's us against the Knockaroundz, last time we met we tied 4-4 that was without Richie, Peek, Zav, Fins and Chan.

Remember we scored one and they called it back on the "infamous" 60-ft is better than 3 feet high stick call.

Like DuQuin said after the game when asked what we happened-
"We missed Ricky and Mike."


5:30 PM est lets come with our A game and we will triumph.

Signing off

Victory belongs to the more persevering
Napolean Bonaparte

Hockey Fall '07

Hey all,

I took a look at the schedule, as it stands today, for the Fall '07/Spring '08 Spiders season and did a little analysis since Harry and Tom said it was lopsided..

This is what I came up with:
5:30 - 4 games
6:30 - 5 games
7:30 - 6 games
8:30 - 3 games
9:30 - 3 games
10:30 - 4 games
11:30 - 3 games

Out of a 28 game season I think this schedule is pretty good.. We can't get away from the 10:30 and 11:30 games so I think we got a good schedule.

Hopefully it stays this way!!