Puckers Luxembourg

DAY AFTER DAY 2023/2024

PUCKERS WIN THIRD IN A ROW!

The Puckers pulled off their third win of the season, but it wasn't an easy one to achieve.

Puckers were off to a fast start against the Strasbourg A Griffons after Torge Schwandt, Puckers new recruit from Tornado, ripped a shot top corner from a nice feed from Cam Knowlton, another Tornado off season transplant. The remainder of the period was back and forth until the Puckers were able to capitalize on a power play with less than 3 minutes remaining in the first period. Mike Mekhaeel working the point fed the puck down low to Sean O'Driscoll who made a tape to tape feed to defensman Joe Dudek who snuck in the back door to fire the puck into the net. Thirty seconds later, the same line scored again with a nifty apple ðÂÂÂ by Frédéric Leduc who found Momo Lutov at the far side post to one time it in.

Just when the Puckers looked like they were going to steamroll another team for the 3rd straight game, the Griffons scored 4 unanswered goals to take the lead over the Puckers by a score of 4-3 with less than 6 minutes remaining in the 2nd period. The Almighty Puckers were humanized for the first time this season and stung with shock by the relentless hustle of the Griffons. A "Time out" was called by Captain Sean O'Driscoll and the team huddled together to regain control and decided to tweak the lines.

Less than a minute after the time out Philip Dahlgren found Mike Mekhaeel camping out all alone in the slot to make a dagger snipe to the lower left corner equalizing the game at 4 a piece. The Puckers stopped the bleeding and then took the lead 19 seconds later with Mekhaeel, untouched in the slot, firing a shot to the bottom right corner after collecting another beautiful pass from Dahlgren who got a nice cycle pass from Austris Ulass to start the play.

The Puckers turned the momentum tables around on one shift and took the 5-4 lead into the third period. Two minutes into the 3rd period, it was Cam Knowlton who fired the 6th Puckers goal after getting a sweet dish from Matias Mäenpää (another former-Tornado pick up).

The 12 Griffons who came to battle the 8 time NorthEast Division Champion Puckers did not give up and were determined to go down fighting...they made it a one goal game with less than 8 minutes left in the contest. However, it was Mekhaeel registering his 2nd assist after launching a hail mary pass to Ulass who deked the goalie on a breakaway and put the icing on the cake. The Puckers won 7-5.

Mike Mekhaeel was awarded the Puckers Hard Hat with 2 goals and 2 assists. The Puckers remain undefeated with a 3 wins a 0 loss record. The next Trophee Federal match is away at Strasbourg Griffons on Sunday, November 12.

Puckers play an LHL Match at home on Thursday, November 9th against the U-20 Hurricanes.

GO PUCKERS GO! GO! GO!

Teamwork at its Best!

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way.

The Puckers epitomized that very definition of teamwork last Sunday evening in Strasbourg.

The Puckers played their fourth game of the Trophée Federal season on the road and came up with a sound 7-2 victory over Strasbourg Gryphons...the same opponent that made the Puckers work hard to comeback and earn their 3rd victory of the season a couple of weeks ago.

This time the Puckers went in and set the tone by taking a 2-0 lead off goals scored by Nick "Maurice" Aubin and Austris "Bardownski" Ulass due to nice juicy apples from Mladen "Momo"" Lutov and Philip Dahlgren, respectively. The Puckers took the lead and never relinquished it the rest of the game.

Strasbourg scored their first goal with 6 minutes left in the first period after the Puckers were caught with three men deep in the offensive zone which resulted in a 2 on 1 and a score.

During the last game between these two teams, the Puckers went into a lapse and let a 3-0 lead convert into a 3-4 losing scenario. The Puckers were determined to not let that happen again and came out flying and peppering shots on goal in the second period. The Strasbourg goalie came up big by saving everything, EXCEPT the prettiest tic, tac, goal combination between Lutov, Aubin, and Captain Sean O'Driscoll. What a sweet thing of beauty.

Taking the 2 goal lead of 3 to 1 into the third period, the Puckers rallied together in the locker room and said tonight we play a full 60 minutes without any let down...the old Puckers came out and competed like vintage forms of themselves and won the third period 4-1 getting goals and assists as follows:

G: HINKULA, A: Mekhaeel

G: Ulass, A: Mekhaeel

G: Dudek, A: Aubin, A: O'Driscoll

G: Dahlgren, A: Ulass

Pauli Silta-Mattila held his ground in net and only conceded 2 goals. A solid game for Pauli.

The Puckers Hard Hat was given to Teemu HINKULA (#42) for his most improved player with, stellar defense and offensive pop!

The Puckers play their next Trophee Federal match at home on Saturday at 20:15. On Tuesday, November 21 Puckers play their first LHL match of the season against Tornado (2022-23 LHL Division 1 Champions) .

GO PUCKERS GO! GO! GO! GO!

Puckers are on a roll!!!

Puckers win their 5th Trophée Federal league game in a row with an 18-0 victory at home against the Belfort Lions. The Puckers are now sitting in first place in the North East Division with 5 wins and 0 losses.

The Puckers had 4 players finish with hat tricks (3 goals in a game) which may be a first time accomplishment in Puckers history:

Cam Knowlton

Nick Aubin

Mike Mekhaeel

Philip Dahlgren

Meanwhile the following players had multiple assists:

Mladen "Momo" Lutov (4)

Austris Ulass (3)

Sean O'Driscoll (3)

Nick Aubin (3)

Torge Schwandt (2)

Puckers goalie, Yann Livolant, got the Puckers their first shutout of the season!

Cam Knowlton got the Puckers Hard Hat for his great play and teammanship.

Next game is an LHL match against Tornado on Tuesday, November 21. It will be the Puckers first LHL match of the season.

Big thanks to volunteers and Jussi Mattila for the pics!

https://flic.kr/ps/4393bP

Every season has its ups and downs

From a Tuesday Low to a Saturday Night High!

Puckers lost their first LHL game of the season last Tuesday to Tornado Luxembourg by a score of 9-1. This defeat brought the Puckers team back to reality that in Luxembourg the younger, faster, and fresh with loaded new recruits Tornado team is the #1 team in the country. The Puckers tried playing a tight defensive game, but Tornado found ways to get quality shots off from the slot by scoring at least 6 of their goals from the slot. Vesa Hirvonen, the Finnish player who is well known by the Puckers and even trained with them in Metz over the summer, was playing wing (normally he is a defenseman) and ended up being a Puckers Killer with his 3 goals and 3 assists.

Tornado stacked up during the off-season with their new recruits (2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Latvian, and an ex-KHLer). A whole new team full of speed and high hockey IQ, and octane fire power. This has risen the tide of all the players who remained with Tornado and the Youngsters joining the team from the Huskies organization. The only thing the Puckers can endeavor to do this season against Tornado is to keep the game tight defensively and achieve a respectable score differential in the next match. 9-1 was not what the Puckers had in mind and will need to devise a gameplan and training regimen to do better next time. Austris Ulass got the lone Puckers goal of the game to break the shutout and Patrik Hedberg (former Tornado player) got the Puckers Hard Hat for his stingy defense as he and Olli Kankare were the defensive pair that only gave up 1 goal out of the 9 Tornado scored in the match.

For pictures of the match (thanks to Tom Krause), go to the following link:

https://www.icehockey.lu/gallery-38159v4/galleries/10828

On Saturday night, the Puckers took on the Grand Ducs as part of the first of 3 official Puckers Nation Derby matches (1 Trophée Federal and 2 LHL matches). Saturday's match was a Trophée Federal battle and the Puckers were looking to redeem themselves against the new Lux Senior team who were coming off a big win of their own (8-4 victory over Beaufort Knights) . The Puckers came out buzzing taking a commanding 4-1 lead after the first period off of goals by:

1) Sean O'Driscoll (assisted by Aubin and Lutov)

2) Philip Dahlgren (unassisted)

3) Nick Aubin (assisted by O'Driscoll)

4) Travis Dominski (unassisted)

The Puckers started the second period with complete dominance and game taking a 6-1 lead halfway through the period with goals from:

5) Cam Knowlett (assisted by Mekhaeel and Dahlgren)

6) Torge Schwandt (assisted by Leduc)

The game was slowed down with an errant penalty call by the officials who called two minutes for batting a puck down with a highstick and where the stick did not hit any other opponent. The Puckers lost a bit of focus and ended up playing the last six minutes of the period shorthanded.

The third period was won by the Grand Ducs 1-0, but again (as was the case in the first and second periods) the puck possession and shots were clearly in favor of Puckers who all in all never felt threatened by the Grand Ducs to forge any sort of come-back. Both teams ended up with 10 penalty minutes each so no malus given. There was an awkward moment in the third period where a goal scored by Nick Aubin in the slot was nullified due to a high stick that nobody saw, but then again people are anxiously awaiting the video footage of the match from Luxembourg Hockey Video Master Liam McEvoy. Link will be provided in the comments once available. In the meantime, here is a link to the pictures of the match (thanks to Jussi Mattila):

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB4Grv

The Puckers had 6 different goal scorers and Boshua on defense, who was recipient of the Puckers Hard Hat, to help propel the Puckers' winning streak to six games and continued possession of first place in the Trophée Federal North East Division.

Puckers next games will be as follows:

LHL game: Friday, December 8th at Beaufort Knights

Trophée Federal game: Sunday, December 10th at Mulhouse