Longtime Kings goaltender Ed Solovey has announced the summer 2010 season will be his last. Over the years Ed has proven to be a solid goaltender, stealing more than his share of wins for the Kings when the defense took a night off. Having Ed between the pipes gave the Kings a lot of confidence to do things like having a defenseman join the rush and then get caught up ice on a transition, or send ill-advised clearing passes up the middle. With Ed the Kings won two division championships and are perennial contenders whenever they play.

Ed’s going to finish out the playoffs with us, and said he’d be around for spot starts if needed. The Kings want to thank Ed for the years backstopping us, and we wish Ed the best of luck in his future, hoping he won’t be a stranger to the rink.

Tuesday August 31, 2010 – Dedham

The Kings ended a disappointing summer season on a high note, with a strong team game to win over Check Republic 5-3. The Kings got on the board early, after a few good chances narrowly missed, Pete connected with John on the doorstep, who got his own rebound past the goalie. The Kings cashed in on a 5 on 3 power play with a goal from Bryan from the right point for a 2-0 lead; the lead wouldn’t hold and Check Republic scored two times before the period ended to tie the game. Early in the 2nd Greg and Paul got behind the D, but Paul got robbed by the goaltender who flashed a pad to kick out Paul’s onetimer on the right crease. Paul got it back later in the same shift to take the lead again. John got the eventual gamewinner early in the third when he got behind the defense again and went stick-side, and Bermy got into the scoring with a nice feed from Jeff high in the left faceoff circle, where he wound up and fired stick side again. Check Republic got another goal with half a second left in the game on a power play to close out the scoring. The Kings had some running around going on in their own end, but fortunately not too many great chances came of it, and Ed was up to the task on more than a few occasions. It was a good win; we rematch with Check Republic next week for the play-in game.

Hey Kings,

The playoff schedule is up on the NESHL website. We play Tuesday Sept 7th at 9:00pm in Dedham for the play-in vs. Check Republic. If we win, we make it to the double-elimination round starting Sept. 13th vs. the Maple Leafs.

Sorry for the lack of updates guys, been plenty busy when I’m not playing hockey.

The Kings lost the last two games by a combined score of 19-5. A grand total of 15 skaters over two games couldn’t hold off Eastcoast Bulldogs or the Pirates. Last week’s game, a 10-4 loss, was competitive for the first half, with the Kings battling back from an early 2-0 deficit to tie, but the Bulldogs scored 4 times in about 4 minutes to run away with the win. In last night’s game the Kings kept it close for the first part of the first period, but couldn’t keep up with a deeper bench for the Pirates. Despite the cheap shots and cheap showmanship by the Pirates, the Kings had some good passing going on for a lot of the game, and Jeff broke the shutout on a power play goal that went tic-tac-toe around the crease from John and Paul. Jeff almost had another one in the waning seconds as the Pirates goalie went sprawling to his left, only to reach back across the crease with his paddle and stop Jeff’s shot on the empty net.

Thanks again to the guys who turned out for the games. See you in two weeks.