Welcome to the Slugs Ice Hockey Website
Welcome to the Slugs Ice Hockey Website
Sometimes in life there occur moments that cause such strong emotion that the human mind is completely overwhelmed. This is a somewhat rare emotion for this author; but it happened on Saturday night in West Philadelphia during the 1st Annual Brad Fox Charity Game. While watching a few Slugs and Blueliners reminisce about their memories of a dear friend in the tribute video that was played before the game, I was overcome by emotion several times, brought on by my own personal memories. Ofc. Brad Fox had a charisma about him that indelibly etched itself into our collective memories. Whether it was Mike Slattery's story of his unique entrances' to the Slugs locker room before games (funniest part of the video by far), or Andrew Rebuck (aka Bucky) remembering how he was motivated to better himself; he created a lasting and truly positive impression on this team of misfits.
The game was held at the Class of '23 Rink at The University of Pennsylvania at 7pm this past Saturday. From the very start it was a fiercely contested match, with both teams trading goals in the first period. Charles Root (aka Butchie; and no, we didn't know who that was either when the Flyer's very own Lou Nolan announced his goal) slammed home the first Slugs goal after some solid pressure in the offensive zone by his line. A few minutes later the tables were turned, with the Blueliners scoring a nice goal off of a pass into the slot. The score remained knotted at one a piece when the buzzer sounded at the end of the first period. Despite the best efforts of the Blueliners, who were stymied again and again by the solid defense and hard back checking of the Slugs, as well as the tremendous play of goalkeeper Frank Guille.
The second period began with a bang and got pretty chippy, with some solid hockey being played by both sides. Butchie lit the lamp again early in the period, but again the Blueliners had an answer, scoring and knotting it even at two. There was a large amount of extracurricular activity in the period as well, with a scrum in front of Frank Guille resulting in a major and game misconduct penalty for a Blueliner player and Frank being injured. He was replaced by T.J. Schreiber, who manned the pipes solidly for the rest of the game. The second period finished out with an excellent play by another Schreiber, T.J.'s younger brother Brian, who established position in front of the Blueliners net and deflected a beautiful shot from Lou Tomasetti down between the legs of the Blueliners goalie. This left the score at 3-2 in favor of the Slugs going into the third period.
During the second intermission, several of the celebrity guests came out, including: Steve Morrison, Nick McIlwain, and Kathy Romano from the Preston and Steve Morning Show on 93.3 WMMR, Jim Watson, Paul Jolovitz aka Jolly from WIP, Lou Nolan, and Sean from the dirty thirty. There was also an auction during the intermission, during which the Slugs own Matt Fusco placed the winning bid of $600 for a signed Flyer's jersey, as well as a signed authentic NHL referee jersey that he can use as a target the next time he goes to the range to qualify.
The third period was a solid period of classic shut down hockey by the Slugs. There were a few nail-biting moments where the Slugs goalkeeping came up with some big stops to keep the Slugs on top; and with only a few minutes left in the period Brian Maturo slammed home a rebound and gave us some breathing room with a two goal lead. With less than a minute left the Blueliners pulled their goalie and put on some solid pressure in the offensive zone, resulting in a defensive draw for the Slugs. The Blueliners won the draw and snapped home a quick goal through a screen with less than thirty seconds left on the clock to bring the score back within one goal. But that was as close as the Blueliners got, with the author clearing the puck back into the Blueliners end off a nice face-off win with five seconds left to seal the victory.
As both teams lined up for handshakes all of the emotions of the game just seemed to wash away; win or lose, we were only here for one reason: to honor the memory of a fallen brother, son, father, husband, hero, and to help his family.
The event was a huge success and on behalf of the entire Slugs organization, would like to thank all those that attended and/or had a part in the success of this game, as well as the Blueliners organization for inviting us to play. We look forward to seeing you at next year's rematch!
Dan "Chewy" Lydon #13
The day was filled with excitement about what was about to happen. One thing was for sure, the Slugs and the Blueliners were at the Virtua Center Ice, home of the Philadelphia Flyers. Head coach Peter Laviolette and Assistant coaches Kevin McCarthy and Joe Mullen were going to skate the teams through a practice leading up to the Brad Fox Memorial Game. As we sat in the locker room waiting for the ice session to start, Coach Laviolette came in bearing gifts like Santa Clause. We were given Philadelphia Flyers NHL practice jerseys in order to make this seem like a real practice.
After warming up on the ice, forwards wore orange and defense blue. Coach informed us that we were getting the treat of an NHL style practice. To start off, two laps, and they better be fast. After that we were put through drills. Each drill started off with an explanation followed by a demonstration. After some of the explanations we did what we Slugs would normally do. Deferred to the self proclaimed "God of Hockey." As the drills started it was evident that the District 5 team, prior to Coach Bombay changing their names to the ducks, would have beaten the Slugs. We even had one dope hit Lavy with an errant puck. While practicing, the smiles were ear to ear and the laughter was loud. Lavy would skate up and start a conversation. A jester, which made me think he really cared about helping this great cause.
In the end, it ended like it always will for us. We remembered our friend and brother Brad Fox. We laughed; cracked jokes and even a few of us had Lavy laughing. I must say it was a once in a lifetime experience, well for Malarick, considering the rest of us were signed to replacement player, AKA Scabs, contracts. In all the day was a wonderful event. I am sure Brad was watching from above, embarrassed, and telling all his new angel friends he really didn't know any of us.
The Slugs would like to thank the Blueliners for giving us the oppurtunity to skate with them. We also would like to thank the Philadelphia Flyers organization for hosting the Slugs. Now lets get the deal done so we can have some hockey.
The Slugs recently lost one of our own: K9 Ofc. Brad Fox of the Plymouth Township, who fell in the line of duty on September 13th, 2012.
Brad was a stalwart two-way defenseman who could skate like the wind and fire a puck at the speed of light, at whatever he wanted to hit. His easy smile and infectious laugh filled our locker room with mirth game after game; even after tough losses he would convince us that everything would be alright...after a few post-game buckets of Miller Lite of course.
He will be sorely missed by this squad of misfits and derelicts but he will never be forgotten.
Donations:
Fox Childrens Fund
C/O Continental Bank
661 W. Germantown Pike
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19401
Rest in Peace #5
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Welcome to the home of Tri-County Police Hockey Team (aka the Slugs)!! We are a group of men and women, primarily comprised of Police Officers from the counties of Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery. We also have firemen, and Pennsylvania State Troopers. Don't hate us, rosters are hard to maintain with shift-work.
2/22/2014
Slugs vs Philly PD
Time: 1230hrs
Location: Iceline Quad Rinks, West Chester, PA