No Shell games in easy 8-3 Title Win.

Shell - Summer champs

What's that old Who song, "Won't Get Fooled Again?"

Even though all teams went 6-6 this season, nobody is surprised the Gold team took home the hardware.

Do you Believe in Miracles?

YES!! answered the boys from Shell as they thought THEY were the underdogs taking on the Big Red Machine on Friday.

"No, we're the team nobody respected," said Phatt Deskin. "You all need to come up with a different catch phrase."

The mighty Red Russian team was taken down by a bunch of ex Squirts and Pee Wee's.

With Rene playing like Jim Craig the underdogs came from behind to beat the favored Red Team.

"Jon "Fetisov" Morin, George "Kasatonov" Anderson, Pat "Kharlamov" Deskin and Kaptain Rick "Mikhailov" Armand were defeated by Billy "Brooks" Osbahr's gang of young Americans," said one Shell player who spent much of the year on the Cold List.

"I kind of expected this type of overused symbolism from Andy Long," said Rick Armand. "Did he watch Miracle again this Thursday night?"

Chris Caruso opened the scoring when he tipped a Jon Morin shot from the point into his own net.

That was a powerplay goal, and it gave Citgo an early 1-0 lead.

Both teams would take a Too Many Men penalty in the first, as guys were scrambling to get in their ice time before the Captains shortened the bench.

(Poor Speed only got two shifts, and the only time he touched the puck is when it hit him while sitting on the bench.)

But just before the first horn sounded, Trevor Hanson was spoon fed by Andy Long, and Trev scored with 5 seconds left in the period to tie the game at 1-1.

It was still a game at this point, and was for another few minutes before the Shells exploded for four straight goals for a 5-1 lead.

Shell though got a bit cocky, as they started to figure out who would stand where in the Championship photo. And that let Citgo score two goals in the final 44 seconds of the middle period to cut the lead to 5-3. We still had a game.

Rene would slam the door in the third, looking particularly dashing by stuffing Rick Armand on two straight breakaways. Cough, cough, Cold List, cough cough.

Citgo was going all out looking for the pair of goals needed to tie the game, and that left Brion O'Connor back alone like a bar of soap at a Grateful Dead concert.

Shell scored three times to extend the lead to 8-3. Phatt's six goal game was all but a faint memory now as it was Long who would skate around with the Cup on this day.

After the game Mike Uretsky was writing in assists on the scoresheet.