The Jogsports Ice Jackets trumped the Sport Corner Snipers 7-2 to win the 2013 TWHL ice hockey championship in Bangkok earlier this month with Jacket goalie Jason Cotsmire making a number of key saves to earn the victory.
The match was a replica of game one in the three-game series as Jogsports dominated that game too, winning 8-3. Game two belonged to Sport Corner who controlled and won that contest 5-2.
Jogsports – the 2013 TWHL champions.
There were two uncalled for hits in the final championship game; first Jogsports captain Geoff McIntyre levelled Sniper skipper Rob Taylor at centre ice, and then Sniper Brett Fillmore followed up and crushed Anun “Kak” Kullogin, a player literally half his size. The referees assessed minor penalties to both, but many in the stands thought that the infractions both deserved major penalties because of the ferocity of the hits.
In the game itself, Flying Farang A-teamer Michael White, playing on the squad’s “Veteran Line” with Geoff McIntyre and Scott Murray, led the way with three goals. Thai star Tewin “Thor” Chartsuwan had two goals and two assists and Scott Whitcomb and Mike Swager each added single tallies.
Jogsports Anun Kulligan in action.
Ice Jacket captain Geoff McIntyre assisted on two goals, and aside from the hit on Taylor, had an outstanding series, controlling the play whenever he was on the ice and earning his first TWHL championship.
Jesse Starosta and Rob Taylor scored the Sniper goals and it was evident that Sport Corner was missing the presence of Philly speedster Ernie Menold, who missed the whole championship series because of work related/family issues.
The consolation champs this year were the overall champs last year, the BNH Blades. Their series with Sole Mio mirrored the championship series as BNH took games one and three with scores of 6-4, and the ‘Raging Bulls’ took game two, 5-3.
The Veterans Line.
BNH was a bit of a mystery all year as they never seemed to gel the way they did the previous. Losing former captain Charley Argue for the season (he returned home), and David Blomquist (injury) and Michael Nightingale (work issues) for most of the campaign definitely hurt their cause.
But in the last game of the season they did look like the champs of old, as GM Stephen Sproule led the way with a goal and three assists and David Blomquist and Devin Michael each had two goals. Adrian Myers led Sole Mio with two goals and replacement Bruce Turiff added a goal and two assists for the Raging Bulls.
Sole Mio was an enigma too all year long, as their best players (Captain Adrian Myers, GM Joe Lamantia, Remo Nyffenegger, Jason Salituri and Thai national Moo Tengsakul) could match any other teams’ best, but many times they showed up to games with just seven players and you just can’t win continually with so few players on your team — eventually fatigue sets in.
