Just what the doctor ordered…that poop doesn’t
stink; it dominates
“Dr. Rob” and the Poo Bears emerge as the most complete team during the regular season and sweeps through the playoffs with a dominating performance in the Finals, leaving no doubt after the first period, in routing Tommy Guns by a 6 – 1 score. They never trailed in this game as they score three late first period unanswered goals and never look back. Poo Bears wins in a blowout letting their opponent know their S^%T is the real deal. Meanwhile it was a completely S&%T#Y situation that Tommy Guns found themselves in as they simply played like crap and never recovered!
Heading into the Finals during the regular season, Tommy Guns may have led the overall league in goal-scoring, but when playing head-to-head, Poo Bears had the edge in their games with a 2 – 1 record, while outscoring them by a 12 – 9 goal differential. Everyone was anticipating a very close game between two evenly matched teams. If there was any edge going into the Finals, it favored Poo Bears, with their depth on defense as well as a more balanced offense of secondary scoring; whereas Tommy Guns was more top heavy loaded up on the first line.
The first period played out like most Finals do with a feeling out process, before teams settled in and just started playing. It was 0 – 0 most of the period, with neither team generating any real scoring chances. What was noticeable was watching Tommy Guns not try to break out from their own zone deep into the Poo Bears defensive zone. Instead, they kept moving the ball to the white clearing line in their defensive zone only to just keep dumping it in deep to the corners and not forechecking. In the first seven minutes, this must have happened about six times. It was too easy for the Poo Bears defense, with no sustained forechecking, to simply retrieve the ball and move it quickly back up and get on the forecheck. With just over two minutes to play in the first period, the game’s momentum changed on an unforced defensive turnover, as Pat Pirone received a gift turnover behind the defense, walked in, faked left then right and slid a shot five hole giving his team the lead. This opened the floodgates for Poo Bears. At 1:04, Rob Sheridan received a pass from Pedro Fontes and Marty Makarewicz to score in close extending the lead. With twelve seconds left in the period, it was Rick Cassano who scored (yes THAT same Rick Cassano who had a total of 0-goals scored all season) as he was set up by Pedro. At the end of the first period, it was a 3 – 0 game with Poo Bears leading and outshooting their opponent by a 13 - 3 shot differential. Yes, that is no mistake, Tommy Guns only generating 3 shots on net!
The second period played out more of the same, as Poo Bears keep their foot on the pedal and never let up, while Tommy Guns generated a few more shots (but nothing that was going to change this game to their favor). This period was the Rob Sheridan show as he simply took over this game single-handedly, making sure that his team never eased up. At 3:08, Rob was set up again by Pedro and Marty to break this game open. This was followed by Rob scoring on a power play at 0:44 left in the period, on a heads-up sweet pass from John Hines at the point, who delayed his shot to find Rob open in the middle who walked in and roofed a shot far side. The rout was now on! Six seconds after that, Tony Fosco found himself open in the middle of the rink near the blue line and beat the goalie with a slapshot to break up any shutout attempt. At the end of the second period, it was a 5 – 1 game for the Poo Bears who were outplaying and outshooting their opponent by a 24 - 10 shot differential, with this game well in hand.
As the third period started, one got a sense that this game was already over, as it was a one-sided game so far. Just over a minute into the period, Leo Trombley was set up by Rick Cassano and Todd Bryson to essentially seal the fate of Tommy Guns with a five-goal lead and the clock now running without stopping. A historical note concerning Leo is when his wife Adina is there watching him play in the Finals, Leo wins, while Adina is an undefeated spectator. There would be no dramatic comeback by Tommy Guns. There would be no collapse by Poo Bears. As the period played out and the clock ticked down to zero, captain Dave Costa made good on his pre-season quest to “make Rob Sheridan great again!” The final score was Poo Bears dominating Tommy Guns by the lopsided score of 6 - 1. The final shots had Poo Bears with an impressive edge of 32 – 14.
On the way to the Finals, Poo Bears the number 1 overall seed, swept through the competition, as they overcame a one-goal deficit in a tough game against Capo-Zero, to storm back with three unanswered goals pulling away 3 – 1 in the semifinals. Leo Trombley led the way, scoring 2-goals, while Rob Sheridan scored 1-goal and added 1-assist.
For Tommy Guns, the number 3 seed, their high-powered offense led the way in their quarterfinal game in a rout over Cam-A-Lot, as they scored four unanswered goals in the second period to pull away in a rout. Mike Duggan led all scorers with 1-goal and 4-assists, while Patrick Spencer scored the game’s first two goals and added 2-assists. In their semi-final game, Tommy Guns controlled the game to go up 3 – 1 late in the third period as Mike Duggan scored 2-goals and added 1-assist, withstood a furious comeback by First Responders tying the game with two goals in the last minute, as well as getting outplayed and outshot 7 to 1 in overtime, until Paul Firicano scored the game winner.
For his overall scoring leadership throughout the playoffs, especially in the Finals, Rob Sheridan earned himself the Playoff MVP award. For Rob, it was his first championship in the Over-30 league since 2004, and his first since returning back to playing full-time. Not bad after a twenty-one-year absence.
Congratulations Pat Pirone. With his 16th career championship, Pat now is tied with Tony Bono in second place overall, one back from tying Ed Nigro for the most championships won.
Congratulations to rookie Seth Ford on winning his first-ever championship. Also, to captain Dave Costa on hitting the trifecta and winning the Winter 2025, Players Jamboree 2025 and Spring 2025 championships.
Congratulations to the Poo Bears team on winning the Winter 2025 championship of the Over-30 league. With their “poop” emoji as their team logo and brown shirts, they didn’t give a crap about what others think, as they let their play on the rink do the talking. Players include: Captain Dave “trifecta” Costa, John Hines, Naz, Seth Ford, Rob Sheridan, Pedro Fontes, Rick Cassano, Leo Trombley, Marty Makarewicz, Pat Pirone, Todd Bryson and Sean Roach.
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