St. Louis Bar and Grill victorious over Oriana for championship

June 6, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Eric Jay
Fans from all over Bolton made their way to the local arena to witness St. Louis Bar and Grill take on Oriana in the championship game of the Bolton Senior Hockey League.
It was an absolute nail biter, as both teams gave it everything that they had. The teams took to the ice and began their pre-game rituals as the arena shook from the enthusiastic crowd cheering for their favourite team. The referee blew his whistle and the starting line-ups took to the ice. The puck was dropped and the game was on.
It was an intense start to the game, with both teams skating hard, back and forth for the first half of the period.
St. Louis finally broke the ice. Milo Naccarato corralled his goalie’s rebound and made a break out pass right onto Jody Spagnol’s stick. All of a sudden Spagnol and Gus Koursousis were on a two-on-one, and they took full advantage. Spagnol faked a shot, freezing the goaltender and defencemen, then slid a pass across to Koursousis, who fired the puck into the back of the net.
Oriana was eager to respond, as they applied offensive pressure for the last few minutes in the period. It paid off, as Dave Wonfor fired the puck from just inside the point. St. Louis net-minder Tony Melia stopped it with his blocker, but the rebound went right to Jim Macdonald, who snapped the puck top shelf to tie the game with just over a minute left in the first.
Oriana kept their late first period momentum going as they scored early in the second. Wonfor set up Matt Marentette, who then fired the puck just inside the offensive zone, a shot that went screaming passed the glove of Melia. Oriana now had a one-goal lead, a lead they would hold on to for the rest of the second period.
St. Louis was looking to knot this game up as they went to work right off of the draw in the third. The puck was dumped into Oriana’s zone, St. Louis’ Naccarato won the race to the puck. He took it behind the net and wrapped it around to a wide-open Spagnol who tapped it into the back of the net to tie this game up. The teams battled back and forth until the buzzer went off to end regulation. But the game was not over — time for overtime!
There was an intense air that was traveling through the arena as the teams took to center ice for the final time of the season. This was do or die. Both teams had a handful of chances but it wasn’t until late in OT when one of those chances had been capitalized on. Oriana held the puck in the offensive zone and were firing heavy shots at the net. St. Louis’ John Pitsadiotis blocked a point shot and the puck bounced out to the neutral zone. Teammate Donny Baldasarra picked up the puck in stride, dished it off to d-man Paul Parete just inside the blue line, then drove to the net. Parete faked the shot, then sent a saucer pass along the blue-line to Pitsadiotis, who fired a thundering slapper at the screened Oriana net-minder Mike Lewis. With Baldsarra battling in front of the net, Lewis didn’t have a chance. Pisadiotis won the game for St Louis Bar and Grill!
It was an incredible season of hockey for all six teams in the Bolton Senior Hockey League. Everyone played their hardest and had a great time meeting up with their buddies every Wednesday night for a friendly game of Canada’s favourite sport.
Thank you to all of the league sponsors, including Four Corners Bakery and Eatery, Inside Out Chiropractic, 365 Integrated Solutions, Steve Niepage Construction, Oriana Financial, and of course St Louis Bar and Grill. 18-champs - 5.5