Crackers complete turnaround

The Crackers, who finished in next to last place during regular

season play in the Patrick Division, rose to the occasion last week to

win the division’s postseason tournament.

Combining a balanced scoring attack with the strong play of goalie Chaz

Grant, the Crackers defeated the Cheap Shots, 4-2, in the tournament

final at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center in Huntington Beach.

Matt Jicha, Matthew Sandoval, Cody Jones, and Scott Taucher all got into

the scoring act, with both Taucher and Jones each also netting assists as

the Crackers rebounded from a fourth-place finish regular season finish.

Grant stopped 24 shots by the Cheap Shots, who were held to a single goal

through two periods of play.

Anthony Capriccio scored off a Chad Romers assists, and Romers scored the

final Cheap Shots goal off a Ryan McAlister feed.

Goalie Tyler Bixman also was sharp in goal with 20 stops for the Cheap

Shots, who finished in second place during the regular season.

In other tournament finals:

LEMIEUX DIVISION

Extreme 5, Blades 4

James Lin scored two goals in the final period to give Extreme the win

and the division championship.

Extreme, who beat out the Blades by one-half game for the regular season

title, also received a pair of goals and assist from Robbie Kleinberg and

Matt Carter, and goalie Jeremy Nelson withstood a heavy assault on goal

by the Blades to record 32 stops.

Kris Ehret scored twice, both Scott Willis and Jon Wissel each added

single scores, and goalie Casey Becking was equally as impressive in the

net with 29 saves.