As the steam rose off the fresh-cut ice, the true die-hard fans of the CIHL hoped that the last match-up of the evening on this second Sunday of CIHL hockey was to be a tooth and nail battle between two teams with a lot of potential to do great thing in this new 4th season of the International Division. Little did they realize that only one of the teams would fit that bill and make a game of it tonight.

Pitting the Rhinos, under the management of standout defenseman, Jean-Pierre Grimard, against the Tigers, under veteran CIHL team-leader,Clay Laughren, both teams were looking to juggle rosters and come up with the right line combinations to bring home a winner. By all account, the Rhinos gained the upper hand in that regard, with the triumvirate of Drew Ross, Alex Whalen and Mike O’Neil dominating play on offense with strong support on the blue-line by veteran Grimard and newcomer Mike Fox, in what would turn out to be a 4-1 Rhino rampage.

The first and second saw little scoring as goaltending took center stage. Second year CIHL goalie, Andrew Tingley took on the burden of facing his former Tigers with ease and did the red, white and blue of the Rhinos proud all throughout the game. Tingley held steady on offense by Tigers speedster Kevin Yu, and shut the Tigers down for two straight periods. Also strong, but lacking support was Tigers newcomer, John Osmar, with a strong effort between the pipes, but little support in front of the net. Osmar definitely had more rubber to chew on throughout the night, but shone in the first, giving up only one goal, a bullet to the low left corner by Mike O’Neil (assisted by Alex Whalen) and one in the second, on a strong shot from the point by Grimard, tipped into the top of the net by Whalen. Although the Rhinos seemed a little on edge, lacking bench management by taking two minors for too many men on the ice, they went into the third with a commanding 2-0 lead.

Despite the two-goal deficit, the Tigers did little to generate a spark in the first five minutes of the third. Rhinos second-liners Rich Krahn and Mike Fox provided more than enough insurance to seal a Rhinos victory, with Krahn going top shelf at 2:50 (assisted by Mike Fox and Winston Lee), and Fox putting together a standout individual effort to find the twine at 4:01. This was the “beter-late-than-never”wake-up call the Tigers had been waiting for, since a minute and twenty-four seconds later, veteran Tiger’s defenseman, Tommy Sullivan, burst d across the blue-line to skirt the Rhino’s defense to cut along the far boards and net what was to be Tingley’s only goal against all night. Barely a minute and a half later, it looked as though the Tigers were going to try and make a game of it, when center, Kevin Yu, rang one off the right post. But the Tigers’ rally stopped there. When the final buzzer went, the scoreboard told it all: The Rhinos, under Grimard, capitalized on the opportunities afforded them, while the Tigers failed to generate much of anything at all, except for snow around Osmar’s net.

Three stars:

Alex Whalen (game-winning goal and 1 assist)

Mike Fox (1 goal and 1 assist)

Andrew Tingley (1 goal against)