The Florida Eels Elite Team Accepted the Challenge and Came Back on Sunday to Defeat the Tampa Bay Juniors who handed them a stiffing loss on Friday night. The Eels re-gropued and did what good teams do. Faced adversity head on and came out with a clear and convincing win Sunday 8-3 over that same Tampa team to avenge Friday night’s loss.

 

The Florida Eels GM Frank Scarpaci issued a challenge late Friday night to his Elite team after they suffered a stunning loss to the Tamp Juniors 8-2 up in Tampa.

 

GM Scarpaci echoed in dramatic fashion:

 

“we will not play this way on Sunday. The Hallmark of our is we back check as hard as we fore-check and that simply was not the case on Friday. We had no urgency in our game. They were indifferent in the forecheck and no sustained pressure. The intensity I demand was not there. The compete level was equally absent. NO WAY SCREAMED GM SCARPACI. He explained, It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

 

“We will be a different team out there.

No, you won’t simply come down and shoot on my goalie. No, you won’t stop me from shooting on your goalie. No, I won’t forsake stone gap control. No, I won’t be subdued on the the back check. No, I won’t stall on the forecheck and no I won’t be complacent. No, I won’t have a neutral complete level. This is our house Our rink and I will set the stage here” This challenge has been issued to all of his players who want to play in the playoffs…..Each player on this Eels team owes it to himself and his teammate to be the best he can be. We ask for 60 minutes. To lay it all on the line. The goal and mission is right there. Win the 1st round of playoffs and head to Boston for Nationals. That is the big prize. But we cannot take the remaining regular season games for granted,

 

Every player and every team can have an off day. A bad day. It is human. Professional hockey players have off days. In fact, one of the greatest coaches in Football said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi.

 

 

Well folks the players took this challenge to heart and responded in each and every department. It was a new team so to speak and not with any Premier players. They came out on fire. But emotions alone did not do it. They backchecked shutting down Tampa’s aggressive high-flying offense. They covered the slot with low guys. They covered low post in the crease. They played solid defense. They had nice clean breakouts. They exploded on their own scoring 8 goals of their own. Geeze. Tampa scored 8 goals on them two nights ago. They limited Tampa to 3 goals Well Tampa had 8. Well one could say they did all of the things they should have done. Play hockey the right way. Yes, Head Coach Sanchez went on to say “this is actually the way we CAN play. We did this in Boston against the Northern Cyclones and won. This is a very talented team. And we can beat the good teams. The best teams” Our boys got off the track and we had to make some adjustments and all good teams go through this . Lucky for us we got things going right away and against the same team who handed us our embarrassing loss.”

 

Scoring for the Eels went as follows in the 1st period:

Ryan Boyd (3) ASST: Ian Friz (3), Corey Altieri (2)

Ian Friz (2) ASST: Daniel McCormick (3), Cade Swygert (28)

Tampa tied it up 2-2 by the end of the 1st

In the second period things stared to open up for the Eels:

Mason DeMeyere (6) ASST: Ryan Boyd (4), Corey Altieri (3)

Gage Dill (21) ASST: Jake Court (45), Pavel Timochko (6)

Trevor Voyda (9) ASST: Jake Court (46) (PP)

The score was now 5-2 going into the 3rd and the flood gates opened even more. The Eels smelled blood and went for it. But maintained their focus. No cheating for offense. Keep it start and maintain our system. In the 3rd the Eels added 3 more while the Juniors added one.

Gage Dill (22) ASST: Jake Court (47), Thomas Zebley (10)

Jake Court (27) ASST: Cade Swygert (29), Georgy Samodelkin (13)

Trevor Voyda (10) ASST: Thomas Zebley (11), Jake Court (48) (PP)

 

Final 8-3 Eels Elite

In net for the Eels was Tom Steere who faced 26 shots. The Eels fired 46 on Tampa’s goalie.

 

Next week the Eels travel to DME on Friday and back home for Sunday’s game vs DME

 

Way to Go Eels. Way to respond GM Scarpaci says with a smile Very proud of my Elite team. They accepted the challenge faced adversity and overcame it the way great teams do.