Ashley’s Ruination dominated in their semi-final match-up with Black Ops Tuesday night, cruising to a 5-1 win marked by raw emotions. Riding high on a 5-3 win, Black Ops skated through warm-ups with swagger, and a surprise tactic.
“Those guys asked about Number 28’s (Jason Spence’s) shoulder pads,” said referee DJ Olzewski. “If he has pads, they don’t contain any hard plastic, so I sent him to the locker room.”
“That was a nice bit of gamesmanship,” said GM Mark Woods. “But our equipment guy handled it.”
Ruination started with a short bench as a result, but that didn’t stop them from jumping out to 2-0 lead with goals from Steve Pouliot and Brett Vogel at the end of the first period.
That’s when the trouble began.
Justin DiCenso found himself the target of the Ops’ abuse most of the game. A running conversation punctuated by physical play landed him and Ops #77 into the penalty box, where the two continued their discussion. “Don’t try and smooth things over!” bellowed a defiant DiCenso when confronted on the ice.
“I like his style,” said Spence later of DiCenso’s fiery rhetoric and play.
Black Ops scored five minutes into the second on a controversial goal, with No. 13 poking one past goaltender Rusty Barron seemingly after the whistle had blown. “The ref blew the whistle long before the guy shot it,” said an outrage Pouliot. “He only called it a goal after skating up and saw the puck in the net.”
Ruination quickly answered back with Pouliot’s second goal of the night. Ops received a bench minor, most likely after complaining about the assist awarded to defenseman Mark Woods. “I’m pretty sure I was on the bench when he scored,” said Woods. “So, they may have a legitimate beef.”
Following Vogel’s second goal on the power play, the Ops goalie received a ten minute misconduct for comments made to the referees. “I very nearly tossed the goalie,” said Olsewski.
Any hope of a comeback was dashed when Vogel picked the defenseman’s pocket in the third, swooped in behind the net and dished a nice pass to returning forward Josh Pohlmann to make it a 5-1 final. The loss is especially bitter considering the Ruination went 1-2-1 versus the team in black.
“It’s kinda fun losing to those guys all season and then crushing them in the playoffs,” noted Spence with aplomb.
Ruination moves on to the championship game Saturday, where they will most likely face Goon Squad for the opportunity to play an exhibition game with the Tier II C-league champions.