The Battle On Long Island Recap

This past weekend we kicked off our 2022 season.  Before we break down the divisions we would like to thank Rapid Fire Arena and the people that helped us make this tournament possible.  Jay Muro and Mr. Monfredo.  Without them none of this would have been possible.  They welcomed us to the facility and helped us out to ensure the tournament went as smooth as possible.  We will most certainly be returning to this staple of the roller hockey world. 

Friday we opened the tournament with the mens division and we could not ask for a better first game.  Black Ice and the East End Blaze had a great battle that resulted in a 2-2 tie.  Both teams played very defensive and the goalies stood on their heads as well.  Black Ice would go on to win the Mens A championship against the Hockeymutt.com AKA Tour Roadrunners.  BlackIce and Hockeymutt.com would not get to the championship easily.  Both Impact teams had great semi final games but just fell a bit short in the end.  

After round robin play we split the divisions so the bottom four teams we placed in the Mens B division.  The semi final game was between The Labeda New Boot Goofers and The East End Blaze.  Labeda would come out on top 3-0 but the Blaze is a much younger team that performed very well against a more experienced and bigger team in the Goofers.  The Blaze showed nothing but heart and also were never afraid to get down in the corners against the bigger boys.  We all expect bigger things to come for the Blaze in the future.  The Goofers eventually went on to win the Mens B division championship 2-1 against the Super Sniper Ace Dragons Featuring $.  And No...  That is not a typo.  That was the teams name.  

Just like the mens division we split the 30+ division into an A and a B division after round robin play.  The 30+ B championship was between Wheel Talk and The Ugandan Champions.  The final score was 4-1 in favor of Wheel Talk but the score did not depict how close the game actually was.  Both goalies played great and it was a fun game to watch.   All championships games were live streamed and are posted on our youtube channel to watch at any time.  

The 30+ A division championship was a preview of the Pro championship.  The Long Island Aces played Black Ice.  They opened up the division with a 4-2 game that went to Black Ice.   The championship was a very similar game.   The final was 4-1 in favor of Black Ice but both teams would see each other again a few hours later.

So now for the Pro division.  It was no surprise that Black Ice went undefeated in Pro but the Aces were giving them a run for their money all weekend.  We also have to shout out NY Supreme and Bobb'ys Boys for playing in this division because both of those teams were put together days before the tournament and both consisted of some players that never played at the pro level.  One game really left a great impression for the players of NY Supreme was their semi final game against Black Ice.  On Saturday Black Ice beat Supreme 8-0 in round robin play but the semi final between those two teams would be much different.  Supreme was extremely short haded with only 7 skaters and all of them playing multiple divisions and some played a game right before this semi final.  Black Ice cam out to a quick lead and it was not looking good.  But Dan Perepezko stood on his head to make a few huge saves and the players worked extremely hard to defend against a very strong Black Ice Team.  Supreme was able to get a pair of goals in on Black Ice and finished the game 6-2.   The other semi final game was between The Long Island Aces and Bobby's Boys.   The score of this game also did not depict how even the game was.   Bobby's Boys hitting 7 posts and Alex Parisi making some amazing saves like he did all weekend led the aces to a 5-1 win to punch their ticket to the final.  

The Pro championship was the game of the weekend.  Unify Champion Black Ice vs The Long Island Aces.  This game was the actual Battle On Long Island.  Black Ice coming in as the favorite against an up and coming Aces team.  The aces had to face a bit of adversity before the game even started with the loss of one of their top scorers.  That did not stop the rest of the Aces from giving everything they had to keep the game at 3 - 1.  A huge part of that goes to Alex Parisi who made some unbelievable save that you will be able to see on our youtube channel very soon.  A late call in the game gave Black Ice a power play that allowed them to hold the one goal lead to the end.   

Congrats to our champions and a very sincere thank you to all the teams and players and fans that came out to make this weekend so great.  We hope to see you guys in June at our next tournament at Highline Arena in Jersey.