World Pond Hockey Championship: Part II

...Continued from Part I

On Sunday morning, in the 10:00 game, the Danglers beat a team from Fredericton, New Brunswick. In Round 2 at 11:00, the Danglers dispose of a team sponsored by Plaster Rock’s Mullins Furniture. In Round 3 at noon, they defeat a team representing Manitoba. One more victory and the reunited Warriors will vie for the vaunted maple wood version of the Stanley Cup.

Although the four friends are in good shape from playing in hockey leagues in and around Boston, they’re getting tired from playing so many successive games. There is less than half an hour to get from one rink to another because each game starts on the hour. The other teams making the play-off run have the same problem, but the Danglers also suffer from overconfidence. They expected the games to be more competitive, so they let up—against the wrong team. The Frozen Four from Washington DC are putting up a fight. At halftime, Corny, Coop, Gobies, and Robbie have only a 12–7 lead. The scrappy bunch from the Capitol City then outscore the Hub City foursome in the second half, but the Danglers escape with an 18–17 victory. They don’t have time to dwell on the narrow victory because they need to towel off, hydrate themselves, and then scoot over to the center rink for their fifth game in five hours for pond hockey’s equivalent of Super Bowl Sunday (without that annoying Media Week).

More often than not, Super Bowls prove to be more hyperbole than anything else. Not the Patriots’ last two victories, I realize, but history has produced many blowouts.

This final pond hockey game proves to be neither a lopsided victory nor a nail-biter, as the Danglers emerge victorious by about a two-touchdown margin, against Saddler’s Bruins, a Plaster Rock team that won the inaugural tournament in 2001.

So now, the Pats aren’t the only World Champs in New England. Never mind you’re one of the few people who have ever heard of the Boston Danglers—not to mention the World Pond Hockey Championships. Now you know four guys who don’t mind if nobody pays attention. The former Warriors and friends forever are planning to defend their championship next year, just like the Patriots.

Update: February 11, 2008

Well, that was then and this is now. You're aware the Patriots stumbled in the big game last week against the Giants. The Danglers, re-named the Easton (MA) Express and comprised of Mark and Darren Cornforth and Rob and Mark Atkinson, were undefeated in this year's tournament--until they encountered the Wheat Kings yesterday. According to today's Canada East's Telegraph-Journal, the foursome from Quispamsis, NB toppled the four-time champs, 15-10.