Grape-Nuts get soggy in AHA summer hockey

Aug. 30, 2013

A group of C3 Spiders and C3 Wingmen paired up along with the D1 Silverbacks goalie to play Level 4 (C3-equivalent) summer hockey. With a cereal brand theme, the aptly named Grape-Nuts did their best not to get soggy as the summer ice.

While summer hockey usually means short benches and creative (when not indifferent) officiating, instead the Grape-Nuts got overcrowding on the bench, as well as in the penalty box thanks to the suprisingly different officiating.

The team went 6–4–2–0 in the regular season, locking up third place (out of eight), with half of those 12 regular season games ending in one-goal margins keeping the die-hard summer hockey fans interested to the final buzzer.

In the single-elimination playoff format, the Grape-Nuts beat the Cheerios (Nighthawks) in the first round 3–1, then succumbed to the Corn Chex (D1>C3 Mastodons) in the semi-final 5–2.

For the L5 title, the Crispy Critters (C3>C2 Mastodons/C3 Royals) continuied their first-place dominance through the playoffs to over the Corn Chex (D1>C3 Mastodons) 3–2.

In the stat leaderboards, the Grape-Nuts made a few appearances:

• Point leaders

  • Brandon Latack (12; tied for 7th place)

• Goal-scoring leaders

  • Brandon Latack (6; tied for 8th place)

• Assist leaders

  • Sean Murphy (7; tied for 4th place)
  • Dave Lavigne (7; tied for 4th place)
  • Steve Johnson (6; tied for 9th place)

• PIM leaders

  • Dave Lavigne (12; tied for 5th place)
  • Zach Tolstyka (10; tied for 8th place)
  • George Farner (10; tied for 8th place)
• And goalie phenom John Fleischhacker finished in 3rd place (but second place among full-time goalies) with an 90.81 save percentage and 2.62 goals against average.

See full division leader stats.

In all, a fun summer, and a great way to beat the heat, even if the humidity occasionally led to clouds forming inside the rink.

Season recap

• Standings
• Scoreboard
• Stats

Standings