The question of the day seems not to be whether the Bears will make it to this season’s league final, but rather which team will have the stones to actually make a game of it for them. Surprisingly, in Sunday’s triple-header closer, the Wolves looked like the team who just might be able to do it.

With both benches on the short side after the holiday season, expectations for an exciting game throughout all sixty minutes of play were low to say the least. Both teams took the ice with seven skaters a piece and the word around the rink was that weary legs would succumb to make the second and third a snoozer. To the hearty pleasure of the few die-hards who actually stuck it out to watch the last game of the night, this was very, very far from the case. Both teams hit the ice with gusto and kept the pace on high octane throughout.

The Wolves threw down the gauntlet at 8: 50 in the first on a goal by John Deng. Credit goes to Peter Chang and Joe Henley for their work in setting up Deng on what seemed to give the Wolves a good lift to carry them through an otherwise scoreless first twenty minutes of play. The Wolves were rewarded with a power play when Bears forward, Jason Roy, was sent off for tripping late in the period, but the Bears stepped up the defense to get the penalty kill with ease.

Things really broke loose in the second as Bears defenseman and last year’s league MVP, Steve Clark, momentarily put aside his fond thoughts of Philippine sunshine and finely mown fairways to pot a short-handed goal in what would be one of three on the night. The Bears, having got caught up in a shift change, sent Duncan Cameron to the box to serve a bench minor for too many men on the ice. Cameron, excited at the idea of having finally popped his PIM cherry, was sadly disappointed to when scorekeeper Tommy Sullivan expressed his reservations about whether bench minors actually count towards an individual player’s PIM totals. Chin-up, Duncan; we’re sure you’ll find your way to the box on your own steam someday!

The Bears’ woes were further addled when Jason Roy took his second three-minute minor of the night on a call for contact deep in the Wolves’ neck of the woods. What looked like a golden opportunity of the Wolves, with a two-man advantage, pretty much went unoticed. What it did see was Cameron come out shortly there after and take advantage of a Wolves minor by Peter Chang to make the score 2 -1 in favor of the blue and whites. Cameron deftly got his stick on a pass by teammate Dave Hann just long enough to put the puck past the sprawling Wolves’ tender. Play looked to be going their way, as Hann again dished off, this time to Steve Clark, for another Bears’ tally just a few minutes later. Clark took the feed from Hann and squeezed a backhander top cheese over sprawling Wolves’ goaltender, Andrew Lunman, thinking he might do best to challenge the forward with a poke check.

Down by two, but by no means out, Wolves top pick, John Long, sounded the rally cry for the pack, digging hard and eventually dishing off to Roger “the Finisher” Needham to put the Wolves back in the game. Needham’s presence would not go unoticed in this stanza, as he racked up 3 minutes for a neutral-zone trip on the Bears’ Hann.

Though the power play was scoreless, the Bears’ did find a bit of insurance on Steve Clark’s third of the night with an almost identical backhander over a yet again sprawling Lunman from close in to find the top of the net. Lunman’s exasperation with Clark could be heard all over the rink, as he clearly had the angle on Clark, but the forward managed to burry high from very close in.

A last effort by Wolves’ center Roger Needham, on passes from John Long and John Deng, barely a minute later looked to set the tone for what may be a Wolves’ come back. They did their best to put the pressure on the tiring Bears for the remaining four minutes of the game, but could not get the puck deep enough to get a serious shot on net. When the buzzer sounded, it was the Bears who took this one for yet another “W” and continued claim to top spot in the league.

The Shannon Three Stars:

Steve “the Mad Hatter” Clark (3 goals)

Roger “the Finisher” Needham (2 goals)

Dave “Such a Fine Boy” Campbell

(for staying out of the box with his Mom and Dad in the crowd!)