Well folks, I can’t make this stuff up. After giving some bigtime props to Gord Johnson last week for his first goal of the season, doesn’t he go out there and score again this past weekend. If anyone parlayed this on their ScohaBet app, you must’ve won some serious bucks! Great job, Gord, let’s keep this damn streak going this upcoming weekend.

 United Division:

Leafs 5 Blackhawks 4: A rejuvenated Hawk club did everything but get the 2 points in this thrilling game. Leafs scored 2 goals in the last 2 minutes to escape with the win thanks to a crazy one by Jake Alexander with 51 ticks left on the clock. Looked like a Hawk defenceman bumped into their goalie Sandro Morrone but who knows. The Blackhawks deserved a better fate in this one but fell a bit short. Steven Ross had a pair for the Leafs while single snipes went to Nick Grivich, Angelo Fidanza and Alexander. Hawks had goals from Ron Cybalski with a pair, and Chris Baliva (or not) and Andrew “I can see for” Miles. This game was a Hamilton Place performance of the ballet hit Nutcracker compared to the game that followed… good greef.

Flyers 4 Bruins 1: This game turned into a Medeival Times dinner and show in a hurry as the Flyers set the tone against the Bruins top players. In the end, the game was called with about 7 mins left due to arena curfew rules. League is still looking at the game tapes so I will wait til next week to comment. A quick heads up, the league has a LiveBarn account to record each game. Flyers had a pair of goals from Ryan Haslam and singles by Andrew Fedoruk and Sean Riley. Bruins lone goal was scored by Jordan Campbell, his million and sixth of the season.  

Masters Division:

Sharks 4 Senators 3: This game had a bit of everything. Sharks were missing a million guys, the Senators blew it in the last 2 mins and ya, give the guys in teal credit for pressing late in the game. Game sheet says Sharks #6 had the last 2 goals but there isn’t a #6 so that’s the way this game went. Andy Rossit and Jay Hofman added singles for the winners.  Sens had goals from Henry Marfisi, Steve Watt and the blog guy in a losing cause. Sharks creep within 2 points of the division lead with the victory. Plenty of season left but these guys are playing some good hockey despite missing guys each week.

Leafs 4 Bruins 4: Bill “aluminum” Foley scored with a shade over 6 minutes left as the Bruins tied the Leafs 4-4. Al Herron also scored his 300th career hockey goal, this includes any ball hockey games played with a soggy tennis ball from his youth. Wayne Sliwinski and Eddie D’Ostilio also lit the lamp for the guys in yella. For the Leafs it was Sean Pesce with another goal, this guy is starting to find his groove in this damn league, Larry “ballroom” Litzgus, Ken Wiersma and Jeff Davis with some pretty impressive goals. Leafs were missing Peter Fantauzzo and Steve Horner who probably could’ve got an assist from his sofa at home if we gave him a chance.

Grand Masters Division:

Blackhawks 4 Flyers 3: Serge Santinon everyone. This guy only scores clutch goals from what I have heard through the media. Serge had the game winner with 5 minutes left and the Boss of the Braided Bungalow Richard Pacquet looked after the saves to get the win. Dennis “from the far away land of” Klander dropped a hatty for the winning side, his 21st hat trick of his illustrious career. Flyers filled the penalty box all night including a tripping minor to Jimmy Albanese who quickly apologized to the player but still had to sit in the box and feel sad. That’s what makes Jimmy a great guy, folks. Legend. Dave Walker, Alastair Kermack and Rob Nacha (cheese) had the goals for the guys in orange.

Kraken 2 Sharks 2: Stick tap to Terry Hughes for filling in for the Sharks. Len “plant” Potts and the previously mentioned Gord Johnson scored for the Sharks while Paul Buzzelli and who else but Steve Kivell replied for the Kraken. Buzzelli was flying out there. Kraken were missing Kelly Rintjema and his recent goal scoring streak while Dave Jarvis was a late scratch for the Sharks.

Bruins 1 Stars 0: 4 hooking penalties were called in this game.  Might be a SCOHA record, more hooks than I will see this weekend while ice fishing in Winnipeg, lemme tell ya. Nick Polimeni, speaking of clutch goal scorers, had the only goal of the game with a bit over 14 mins left in the 2nd period. J.J.MacNeil turned aside 16 shots for the shutout while at the other end of the ice, Barry Walker made several 5-star saves but his contact lens acted up for that one shot he missed. Stars captain Chris Barratto had the team over to his garage where he set up a screen and played Gretzky: Hockey My Way on his VHS player to get the guys in a goal scoring frame of mind for this weekend. I say they get out of their current slump Sunday, lock it in.

 PREMIUM PLUS TOOL WORKHORSES OF THE WEEK:

UNITED: STEVEN ROSS  

MASTERS: BILL FOLEY  

GRAND MASTERS: DENNIS KLANDER  

 Well that’s a quick wrapup of this past weekend’s action. I am off to ice cold Winnipeg for ice fishing and the Leaf game, have a great rest of the week, catch up soon.

Chris Marttila

SCOHA Blog Guy   

Well folks, That loud cheer you may have heard through the gallows of the Liuna 4pad Arena Sunday night were in fact the 5 fans of the Grand Masters Sharks as SCOHA mainstay Gord Johnson lit the lamp for his 1st goal of the season. They jumped up off their seats in unison letting out an ear-piercing scream as the puck crossed the line. Afterwards, they all went up to the canteen for some celebratory cordials as they chatted about the snipe with some Shark players. That said, let’s dive into the whole weekend of action that went down in Scohaville.

Hey folks, Welcome to 2026, the year of the Fire Horse according to the Chinese horoscope. A fire horse? Ai says it signifies intense energy, enthusiasm and transformative change. Well if that holds true, the 2nd half of the SCOHA season should be one for the ages. Attendance and merchandise sales are up, we are now on all the Ontario betting sites and TSN is in the last phase of discussions to acquire our broadcasting rights from cable14 for an eyebrow raising $49 for 5 years. Details to follow.

BREAKING NEWS: As we went to press this morning, rumours were confirmed that SCOHA alumnus Paul Cleary will be making his season debut for the Grand Masters Sharks this Sunday at 7pm vs the Blackhawks. Great news, Paul! So happy you are back! Can’t wait to see you and say hi!

Well folks, better late than never. Get ready for another cold snap this weekend, good thing the heat is on at the aren… oh nevermind. Guy Shaver held a bake sale last weekend at the end of his driveway to try and help the rink fund a new heater but I guess his version of mincemeat pies didn’t sit well, especially with the British players in the neighbourhood.

Well folks, another few weeks until the big guy tries to get down your chimney. Better late than never, here’s this week’s abbreviated recap of last week’s action:

Well gang, the United Division games this past weekend were nuts, absolute nuts… I was lucky to catch the action live and meet some of the fellas up at the watering hole. Good bunch of guys, hope they can bring in a few buddies next year so we can have 6 teams. That Jordan Campbell rookie on the Bruins, skates around like that Wayne Jetski guy. Someone stop him, good grief.

I heard over the weekend that Grand Master’s veteran Ron Cooper will be inducted into the 80+ Oldtimers Hockey Hall of Fame on March 28TH, 2026 in Kitchener! This is a remarkable accomplishment and we all congratulate him on this honour. Did you know that Ron first laced up his twirlers at the ripe age 3. He then played minor hockey in Sunderland from 1945-47, in Whitby from 1948-59, various Stelco pickup leagues from 1961-2025 and has been a mainstay in SCOHA since 1997! Details of the gala evening will be posted soon. Well done, Ron! Most of us won’t even be able to bend down to tie up our skates by the time we are 60!

Well folks, Mother Nature is about to hit shuffle on her winter playlist. Good thing we have Guy Shaver on standby with his shovel ready to clear the arena parking lot in time for this weekend’s games. A few guys still haven’t noticed their new tattoos from the big Collingwood Tournament a few weeks ago but I’m sure they will figure it out eventually. This past weekend saw the intensity ramp up in all three divisions. Let’s put aside our differences and recap the action.

Well folks, looking forward to changing the clocks back in the spring, this dark at 4:30 stuff isn’t sitting well.

Well folks, winter is here. Enough said.

Well folks, here’s a fresh new SCOHA blog out of the oven. We will recap this past weekend’s action and give props to some of our SCOHA hockey heroes whether they deserve it or not.