Mentha Shine

Sunday, March 22, 2009

New Jersey Rockhoppers Defeat The Brooklyn Aces

New Jersey Rockhoppers are taking part in the final playoff of the Eastern Professional Hockey League Championship Series with a 4-3 overtime win against the Brooklyn Aces held at the Aviator Arena. Matt Puntureri scored the winning goal against the Aces on Saturday night.

The Aces started off strong with a 0-1 lead scored by Dan Carney. This dynamic quickly changed when in the first period; Pat Serpico opened the scoring and tied the game with his quick work, hitting the puck fiercely into the net. “Pat Serpico had it huge. The second goal gave us all the momentum to grab the lead. His goal was fantastic. That would have been the game changer for me.” said Brian Gratz, head coach of the Rockhoppers.

Nick Niedert, Rockhopper goalie, stopped 15 out of 16 of the shots, even though they had the added advantage of having retired Canadian professional hockey player, Ron Duguay from the New York Rangers playing along with the Aces. Duguay has come out of retirement to promote the Madison Square Garden charitable organization by playing a game for both the Aces and tomorrow for the Rockhoppers. "Ron Duguay is a great guy. The boys wanted to show a level of respect,” said Gratz. Duguay played the entire game without wearing a helmet.

Serpico thrived with more unbalanced scoring after he made another solid goal passing by the Aces’ goalie Miro Recicar.

A dog pile of both teams occurred after a fight broke out amongst the players. After minutes the referees broke up the fight when two players went down on the ice to battle it out. “Tempers were flaring right at the end of the game,” said Coach Gratz. This caused four penalties, in which two were cancelled out since both teams were penalized. From the Rockhoppers, both Matt Puntureri and Dustin Henning were sent to the penalty box. Quickly after the last minute of regulation, CJ Tozzo used a screen to put the Aces back at an equal score with the Rockhoppers. Puntureri was also able to return to the rink from the penalty box.

“Obviously, we were trying to protect our goaltender; he’s the backbone of our team. One thing led to another we were trying to pull the other team off our goaltender,” said Gratz, he continued, “I don’t think the referrer made the right decision, it should have been even up all the way around. This left us in a bad spot. They ended up scoring a power play goal out of it, which was disappointing. At the same time it shows character of the team that they are willing to stand up and fight for one another.”

With only thirty seconds left on the clock for overtime, Puntureri faked out the Aces and shot the winning goal. “It was quite a lucky play. The defense made an awful play and the goalie did as well. Luckily, I found a hole and swept it in there putting us in the play-offs”, said Puntureri.

The Aces had already secured a place in the play-offs. “Well obviously we didn’t get the turn out we wanted,” said Chris Holmes of the Aces, he continued, “We didn’t want to lose the last game this season, but we will see these guys next week. We hope to take a two for one and win the Eastern Professional Hockey Series.”

Brooklyn Aces and New Jersey Rockhoppers are scheduled to play again next Thursday for the Eastern Professional Hockey League Championship Series.

Ron Daguay known for his hockey hair and for this (sexy?) sasson jeans ad:

Saturday, March 21, 2009

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." Albert Einstein

The weather is rapidly getting warmer in Boston. I'm going bike shopping.
Quad bikes is a nonprofit bicycle shop that fixes up hundreds of abandoned bikes found on campuses and resells them for cheap to the Boston community. Quad bikes says their mission is to encourage people in the area to understand, use, and appreciate bicycles through bicycle repair.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Number 40

Playing pee-wee hockey is a rite of passage for most of my male cousins. Matt, 24, has played competitive hockey since he was seven years old. Today he plays up to six times a week in a local New Jersey league.

At the age of 16, he was drafted to Guelph, Canada to play while living with a host family. After high school, he moved to Winston Salem, North Carolina where he played with a semi-professional league for three years.

Hockey runs deep within my cousin and the rest of the family. My family has dreamed of producing a great atheletic player since he was a baby. His father named him Matt Vincent Puntureri so his initials would be MVP. Now laced up in shiny new skates and gloves, Matt's dream to take another tentative step into playing major league hockey is almost a reality. There is talk about him being drafted to play in Germany or The Netherlands over the summer.

Skates scraping on ice is a sound innate to my family, but not to me. I'm brushing up on the rules and tactics of the game before watching him play on Sunday. From what I'm told drinking lumpy hot chocolate and the smell of cheap hot dogs smothered in warm ketchup also part of the fervor. Especially when its enjoyed among my dutiful aunts, uncles, and cousins who will be shivering and cheering in the stands next to me.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Nobody Eats in LA

I love the liveliness of Echo Park. I walk and wait for Emily to call. On the left side of a convenient store, a robot shakes hands with a caveman. On the right, a keyboard typing by itself rests on a desk. My curious feet have taken me into this store to grab a pack of gum. I gaze to a slushy machine with a sign that reads "Out of Order Come Back Yesterday", past the poster with facial hair styles throughout history, to the green walls of the studio with kids being tutored. The sign above the clerk reads "Time Travel Mart." The products are a bit off. I stumbled into 826LA. Excitedly, I looked around snapping shots to show my Boston 826 colleagues. Loz Feliz and beyond, this place has character.

Its a glass noodle that drips over the edge of my mouth. I catch it with my tongue before Emily sees. I worked up an appetite watching her 19-piece-jazz band perform during their practice. We are at Toi in Los Angeles. The walls dance with music paraphernalia while they appropriately play The Fall. Its two in the morning and the Thai food is still freshly served. A mechanical dragon stretches his neck over my head. Another bite of brown rice looms toward me. I've never tasted fried brown rice. Not only does it taste of sesame oil, but there are bits of sesame seeds in it: that pop and get stuck in between my teeth.