The drama leading up to the Tigers versus Maroons game started early Monday morning and lasted until 10pm when the final buzzer sounded. First overall pick in the 2022-23 MNL draft, Sugar Shawn Hardy was called away for work opening up a sub replacement spot for the Maroon line up. GM Brian ‘Birf-day’ Boy Pearcy worked the phones all week lining up a suitable replacement for his super star and he thought he had found that player in former MNL’er Chris Pfister. “It seemed to be a fair sub for Sugar” said Pearcy “I mean the guy has already played multiple games this year for the North Stars” referring to him subbing for fellow first rounder Brett Knybel. Chaos broke out in the Ivory Tower immediately after Pearcy announced his confirmed sub for the evening’s match up as Tiger GM Jeff Skillman vehemently objected. As other members of the Ivory Tower ignored the dispute, both GM’s argued their cases over the morning hours. The quarrel would last until the late afternoon as Skilly objected to Pfister filling in. “Pfister is a huge upgrade over Sugar and I am not allowing that on my watch” commented the Tiger GM. All around good guy and Co-GM Doug E Fresh observed the negotiations from afar noticing the growing tension amongst the teams. He suggested the Maroons bring in their legal council Zach ‘Small Print’ Hartkop for advice on the matter. The lawyer drafted a document and served the notice to RAllen at Tiger World headquarters. The following is an excerpt contained within… ‘There has been legal precedent set this 2022-23 season that allowed the North Stars covenant to Pfister in lieu of the Golden Brett”. The case had been made that if Pfister was authorized to sub for Brett earlier in the season then he should be an option in this case as all available subs were drafted after Sugar. According to league rule 10.1.2.5 subsection (a) and verified by the MNL judiciary committee president Jeremy Drager “The skill level allowed for a substitute player shall be lower than the absent player’s draft position and down”. In the end, Skillman refused to concede to Pearcy and suggested that he use newcomer Brett Knybel as the replacement. “Skillman was obviously scared that us playing with Pfister would be a blood bath” said injured Maroon player Keith Wood. Fellow line mate Alex Kruso had no problem motivating the Golden Brett in a passionate pre game speech. “Fuckin Skillman thinks your way worse than Pfister” Kruso barked toward his way. “Lets go out there together and shove it up his ass”.

The intensity of the game matched the vim and vigor that was building up all day between the two clubs. This game was more than just another date on the schedule. Both teams now had a mutual disdain for eachother and were energized for the contest. Lending to the atmosphere, ice conditions were miserable at best. Due to zamboni issues the ice surface was not flooded prior to puck drop. “Don’t tell anyone but I pulled out a spark plug before the game” laughed power forward Hal Doherty. “I wanted to bring the pace of the game down to my level and it worked perfect, just like slower teams grow the grass long in a NFL game”. Skating on that surface was like skating on Lake St. Clair. From the first shift both team knew the game was going to be gritty and volatile. Sub Brett cut sharply to the goal mouth and made contact with Tiger goalie Andrew Keila drawing his ire. “The guy has a history of running goalies… it’s bullshit” said tiger sniper Peso who later in the game was penalized for just giving Clawz a snow shower. “Fuckin Troy is the worst referee I have ever seen and he shouldn’t have been doing our game because he has a vested interest in who won” Peso added. Most faceoffs for the rest of the game had pushing and shoving post whistle. The Maroons would jump out to a 1-0 lead as Bin pushed in a rebound in the first period. Skillman would back up his words by scoring a very nice back door goal tying the game. With six minutes remaining the Maroons tilted the ice in the Tiger zone and maintained puck possession. The play would develop as the Golden Brett would riffle a shot/pass towards the goal where Bin had posted up for a redirect tip through his legs and past Keila for the game winner. “It was a huge win for us tonight” said offensive defenseman Judge on the Labatt blue party Deck. “Our teams definitely don’t like eachother so it meant more beating them and sticking it to Skillman and that goon Pelot”.

Dickie Dunn