Game 3 Of the CIHL season marked the beginning of Clay Laughren’s 2 nd campaign as leader of the Tigers and Mal Turner’s unprecedented 3rd season in the Raptors Black and Red (Vegas odds-makers are predicting a 15 point drop in point production for the Bucket-Midget with the departure of Steve “PIMs” Clark to Bluer pastures). Laughren has again put the weight of the Tiger’s success on Tommy Sullivan’s broad but fragile shoulders and has added Young Guns Kevin Yu and Jeff “Thundercat” Millard in hopes of getting some more goals for what was last year, the leagues second-lowest scoring team. Dave “Bled-Tiger-Red” Campbell was unceremoniously dumped by an ungrateful Laughren due to Campbell’s inability to attain more than 1.9 points per game in the 2005/06 campaign. Leo Feng was also absent from the 06/07 Tigers line-up. Feng has retired in order to concentrate on his career and leadership skills in the high-caliber “Open Division”.

Laughren’s management savvy was proven as the Tigers came out hard and fast. The first of two quick goals came off the stick of Dave Chapman with the helper by Millard, 1:35 into the game. Millard was able to pot another behind a shaky looking Jeff Cuvilier who had left a gaping hole between his pins (A. Dan “Little” Definney). The Raptors recovered towards the end of the 1 st, when Murray Richardson jammed one past rookie net minder John Osmar after some gritty work but Muck-dget and a helper by Paul Bray.

The game’s pace slowed at the beginning of the second until seven minutes in when Tinderpuss was able to solve Cuvilier again and cast doubts on preseason scouting reports about the highly-touted net minder (unassisted). Budget took a cue from his younger roommate and beat Osmar 4 minutes later with assists going to Richardson and Bob Ford, who both must have touched the puck before Mal started his shift.

The CIHL’s top local player, Kevin Yu, was able to close out the Raptors with the final two goals of the game coming at 12:45 of the second (A. to Laughren) and 13:20 of the third after undressing Cuvilier and popping the water-bottle for the second time in a row. Dan Definney’s assist on the play, as well as Snarf Millard’s play early in the game and a solid game by Brent “-Over” Huizinga, are clear indications that roommate Turner’s summer-long, fireside hockey lectures are perhaps of some value. Maybe Budget should move some of his teammates in.

Three Stars

1 – Snarf

2 – Osmar

3 – Turner, I guess, sure as hell couldn’t pick Sulli-who

Dave Campbel