Ghetto Classic 2011

Friday night the Ghetto Classic began ... our second annual event but really our first time running an actual tournament with more than 2 teams ! The Ghetto Blasters opened the tournament playing the Chart Attack Hack ... our only prior meeting led to a 3-3 tie and we were expecting this team to do much better as they had added a couple good skaters we know . Once the game started the result was going to look bad , we jumped all over them and ended up beating them 11-2 .

The second game of the evening was the real treat for me and my co-host Chad Dobbin ( Chip Dubois ) . It was the first game we had organized that was not a Ghetto Blaster game . It was probably the best game of the whole tournament as the Bloody Knuckles and The Animals fought hard for a 2-2 tie game . This was a 6 team tournament so on Friday there were only 2 games played , and then we went to The Midpoint to be entertained by DJ Standfast . That night the bar served up some Southern Fried Chicken and Chili Cheese Fries YUM ! Quite a few of us showed our faces at the bar and some of us got piss tank drunk .... one of us even slept behind a dumpster :)

I slept at Chips place, he lives directly across the street from the arena ( thanks bro ) . Unfortunately this was our last time holding an event and using Chips place as Ghetto central as he has to move in the next couple months :(

Day 2 started off great . Easy Company showed up and played their game and i was standing outside during their game when the Sgt. Rock guys showed up . The Juice showed up and i started to wonder how good they will be now that they are stacking their team .... then Jeff Marek shows up , he is with someone with a ginormous smile on his face . Going over to Jeff i ask him who is this ? He looks really familiar , and with that Jeff Marek smirk he answers that it is Brad May !!! First thing i said was MAYDAY ? He looks at me calmly and says yes . WOW .... unfortunately i did not hound him for a pic and he only showed up to play against my Ghetto Blasters . We were nervous , this guy had a great career in the NHL for years .

Basically what i figured was that the winner of this game wins our group and goes automatically to the semis . We wanted this game as we have never beaten Sgt. Rock , but they have Brad May .... once the game started we seemed to play off that energy , i can almost say that that was probably the best game we have ever played . We totally controlled them and went on to a convincing 6-3 win ....and we were all really happy for this . Now it is time to get smashed , thanks to our beer sponsors Mill St. & Labatt's courtesy of The Midpoint . There were about 11 cases of beer when the day started ... there was 0 when we headed to the bar at the end of the day ( around 9 pm ) . Every team one by one came by to the barbecue we held in Chips backyard and gobbled up all 120 hamburgers ... it truly was a great day ! Thanks to all the teams that showed up , but really still can't believe we had the chance to play Brad May :)

Semis were on Sunday at 10 & 11 AM . Chip woke me up at 9:15 and honestly i still have no clue how i made it back to Chips couch on Saturday night .... lets just say i was as drunk as i would have been if this was a tournament with Rainer LOL ! The match ups were Ghetto vs. Chart in rematch and Easy vs. Sgt. Rock . The Ghetto game was actually our teams 100th match which meant alot to me as an organizer . We went on to win 9-0 , i got a shutout AND an assist , i don't get many .... Easy Company manhandled Sgt. Rock and got themselves into the final against us . There was a 1 hour break between games and the rink staff gave us a double zamboni run to make the ice better , thanks goes out to them also ! Lets just say that the Final was not the fairy tale ending for the Ghetto Blasters , with the first goal being scored on by my d . We lost 5-2 but the main point was reached as everyone had a great time !

I have been hounded to do another tourney soon , but i think i should keep this to a once a year deal for now ... it is alot of work but it was totally worth it . CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Easy Company , great tourney !