Team Jagr (White) 13 vs. Team Carter (Black) 8
Friday, January 23, 2004

And to ring in the 2004 year, the MDHL sports a new series, new teams, new faces... ahh, the smell of fresh competition in the MDHL... on the same day as a blockbuster trade in the NHL our two team naming themes are born... Jagr vs. Carter, white vs. black, finesse vs. grit, overpaid vs. underpaid, yada yada yada... new rookies and retournees make the series roster featuring Derek Lowe, Gon Yip, and Jeff Ho while new captains are voted in with Ron Pong and Jason Lai leading Team Carter and Allen Leung and Chris Archibald leading Team Jagr... the latter fielding a power line of Stampvincent-Archibald-Wong to strike fear in the hearts of all skinny Asian skaters in attendance... Team Carter counters with a reunited line featuring the Chang twins and a hopeful rejunvenation of Anthony Chang's dormant offense as of late...

Sadly Team Carter suffered a no-show to start their series fielding nine players (no) thanks to the miscommunication on the Oye/Ho player split... regardless it was a close game for the most part as Team Carter attempted to keep pace with the power line on the other side and did an admirable job to tie things at 8-8, thanks in part to the stellar sub duty from Tom Jong and some sweet wheels on defense... meanwhile, Team Jagr had too much talent to lose, including some surprise showings by Stan Quan and Dave Cheung with renewed vigor playing on a line with captain Allen Leung as well as two key goals from the blueline by Jason Chu... stuck at 8 goals and down a man on D, Team Carter could muster no more and let the game slip away in the latter stages... the defining moment may have been the full-out wrist shot by Fraser Stampvincent which managed a few ricochets and ended up skittering into the net in slow-motion like replay mode... on a sombre note, losing goalie Norm Chan suffers a neck injury and while completing the game, will miss the following week to recuperate... let the series heat up in the meantime!

MDHL 3 Stars:

3 Allen Leung... young captain makes his teammates better and leads his team to victory.
2 Tom Jong... Leetch-like skills from the blueline and a force all night.
1 Jason Chu... two goals, dealt out a slash and fearlessly blocked some shots... involved to say the least.