No Captain, No Problem
The Express have found their new team strategy to be working quite well – scratch their captain Mike Cuomo. The Express were without their captain in addition to Matt Dunn and Elizabeth Curry while the Invaders were without their leading scorer, Ivan Strut, along with John Connolly. The Express jumped out in front with a Matt Lourie goal. Tey Brady tied the game for the Invaders soon after. Sugar Land managed to regain the lead when Ryan James scored late, but was short lived as Space City defender Don Rhodes scored the unassisted goal. The Express kept the tempo going as Ryan James scored another goal to give Sugar Land the 3-2 lead going into second.
Doug Rarick took the game to its third tie when he scored in the opening minutes of the second period. The Space Invaders kept the pressure on until late in the period when the depleted personnel started to show and the Express could take advantage with their numbers. The last three minutes featured two goals from Ryan James giving him a total of four goals for the game and second goal from Matt Lourie. The assault ended with The Express going into the third period with a commanding 6-3 lead.
Penalties on both sides of the ice opened the game up for grabs, but the strong Express defense prevented any Space City late game strides. Sugar Land’s Scott Burmann sealed the deal with the game’s final score. Ryan James led the Express with four goals while Kenneth Sutton made his mark by contributing three assists. Sugar Land mentioned after the game that the absence of Mr. Cuomo was “healthy” for the game’s success. Whether this message was in relation to his current status of health, or the outcome of finally walking without him as a crutch remains uncertain. Sugar Land gets the big win with a score of 7-3. The Express play the Hitchhikers next in a classic cross-town rivalry game on March 19th at Memorial City.
