After going through a pack of other peoples’ smokes, a three hour bus ride, and two hours of sleep, Shark sniper Ronan Wilson scored four goals in the opening game of the day. Needless to say Wilson’s sleep deprived regiment was quickly adopted by fellow Shark teammates in preparation of their second game of the day against the Rhinos.

The Rhinos, without their leading scorer Mike O’Neill (groin) in the lineup were in tough against the high powered run-and-gun offence of the defending champion Sharks. Rich Krahn, though invisible for most of the game, popped up occasionally wearing his usual speedo attire to perform pirouettes and triple soucows but veteran official Steve Clark would have nothing of it and Krahn was left only with a crush on Kurt Browning. .

Opening the scoring was Wilson from Matt “Mr. Apple” Stever on a nice tic-tac-toe play by the Sharks’ first line started by Peter Wu. Nearing the end of the first frame the Sharks took advantage on a powerplay with Peter Wu converting on a nifty pass n’ play where every Shark on the ice touched the puck.

The Sharks added two more in the second period with Wilson getting in on both goals giving him two goals and two assists in the game. Three minutes into the final period Wilson snapped a nice wrister to complete his second hat trick of the day with assists going to Steve Mossing, and Matt Stever. A couple minutes later the Rhinos were finally able to garner some offence and solved Sharks goalie Greg MacIntosh on a two on one with Eric Chang scoring from Dave Morrison. Just a minute later the Sharks reestablished their five goal lead after Kevin Kennedy hit Best Local Player Award front runner Hubert Lee with a two line pass that sprung a two on one with Alex Peng scoring the goal.

With little help Rhino goalie Andrew Tingley was left to fend for himself like a Taiwanese stray dog and it showed on the score board. With 15 goals on the season Wilson is tied for second place with Mike Thorburn in the overall race for the Rocket Richard Trophy and is sixth in the league in scoring. The Rhinos, however, do not have one player in the top twenty which may be one of the reasons they find themselves living in the bunker with a measly four wins.

3 Stars

1. Ronan Wilson (5 points)

2. Matt Stever (4 points)