The race for third and fourth heated up this past Sunday night as two league-founding archrival teams met for what was to be a clash of veritable titans. The question on everyone’s minds was undoubtedly which of these teams would come out on top.

The Bears took the ice with up-and-coming sub-goalie, Peter Liu, between the pipes. Facing the Tigers’sharp-shooting trio of Jeff“TC”Millard, Kevin“The Pocket Rocket”Yu and David“I Didn’t Shoot John Lennon”Chapman on offense and arguably the league’s hardest shot with defenseman, Tommy“Don’t Call Me Alice”Sullivan, net-minder Liu was look ed sure to have his work cut out for him on this night.

The game took a slow pace in the opening minutes of the first, with both teams trading attacks end to end with Liu and Tigers ’tender, John Osmar, looking sharp and freezing anything that came their way. The Bears did manage to open the scoring at the four-minute mark on a sharp, tic-tac-toe passing play from Jessie“The Body”Morden and Jason“The Cage”Roy that saw Bob“I Got Hands”Macleod put the puck past the Tigers’tender for the first goal of the game. Aside from this single burst of exciting play, it was an evenly - matched, subdued first period.

Action heated-up in the second with both sides putting a little more muscle into their play , keeping the refs busy with having to lay down the law. Tiger captain,“Stone-Cold”Clay Laughren took what would be the first of his two penalties of the night with a call for tripping Bears rookie Mike“Why’s Everybody Got It Out For Me Tonight”Thornburn. As Thornburn clearly had the best of Laughren and looked to be assured of a breakaway chance on net, Laughren laid the wood on Thornburn to take him down and be sent to the box for three.

The Bears were not to be outdone when captain, Greg“The Hipman”Walsh laid a whole lot of hip-check on a very unsuspecting on Tigers defenseman , Xiao Hong. To his credit, Walsh earned the respect of the time-keeping bench for what was officially recorded in the CIHL record books as“Three-minutes for good old-time hockey play”. That kind of thing might go down well in the goon leagues of Medicine Hat or Red Deer , but not in the Chinese-Taipei Ice Hockey League under the watch of co-head referee Mal“I Get Hit In The Face Every Game Too”Turner.

Tiger s’power forward, Jeff“TC”Millard, decided to take advantage of the change in pace to pot two quick ones at the thirteen-minute mark of the second. The first came on a point pass from Tommy“ AKA Alice ”Sullivan to Dan“ The Definer ”DeFinney, who handed it off to TC for the goal. TC, whos e nickname stands for“ Thunder- Cat”, but should realistically stand for“ Too Cool ”given his great play in the first three games of this season , was not to be outdone when he stripped the Bears defense of the puck and got his second of the night to put the T igers in the lead. The Bears, not taking this lying down , replied with Steve“Big a low, Canadian Gigolo”Clark, capitaliz ing on a blue line turnover by the Tigers to go top shelf on Osmar for the equalizer just a minute later.

The Bears looked set to take the lead, as the Tigers took consecutive tripping penalties at the five-minute mark in the third to put them at a two-man disadvantage, and came very close on a Mike“The Hammer”Milone slap shot that found the back of Osmar’s net, only to have the goal called back because fellow Bear, Jason“The Cage”Roy happened to be sitting atop Osmar in the goalkeeper’s crease. Arguing fiercely that Osmar had laid the lumber on him, hence the reason Roy was perched on the goalie’s head when the puck went in, T he Cage took severe objection to the call, and will surely be registering a complaint with fellow teammate and co-head official, Steve“Bigalow”Clark, about the call, but it went down in the books as no goal.

All even at two after regulation time, this took the game to yet another in what has be a slate of shootout decisions in this young CIHL season. The teams traded goals in the three-shooter round to come out even at one a piece on successful efforts by Tigers’“Pocket Rocket”Yu and the Bears’Justin“Don’t Call Me Timberlake”Menzies. Onto sudden death, the Bears looked set to take it when Mike“Where Is The Love”Thornburn beat Osmar short side, only to have Tigers’captain Laughren come back with a solid deke to even things up again. It was finally, Chapman, that guy that didn’t shoot John Lennon, that sealed it for the Tigers on a solid effort to best Bears’goalie Liu in the sixth round of the shoot-out to seal the much needed extra point for the Tigers.

Three stars:

Jeff Millard (2 goals)

John Osmar (A whole lot of rubber and only 2 G.A.)