As the Chaos arrived at the stadium for this week’s match-up against their bitter rivals the Sharks, they once again faced the challenge of taking the ice without all of their skaters. Missing from this week’s action were Rusty “Nails” Powers, Lou Difulvio, Joe Lochi, and Jason Venters. However, the team received a surprise boost when Steve Kilberg returned to the Chaos lineup. Kilberg was activated from injured reserve on Thursday, just in time for the game.

“We had been in serious negotiations to sign Peter Forsberg, but when we learned that Kilberg would be coming off the IR, we decided to hold off,” said Defenseman/General Manager Steve Richter. “We are confident we made the right call.”

Despite having only 8 skaters, the Chaos jumped out to an early lead, repeatedly crashing the net and keeping the Sharks on their heels. The team built up a 7-0 lead, before the Sharks broke into the scoring column during the second period on a somewhat controversial penalty shot. As time ran down in the third period, the Sharks managed to add a second goal on one of the more bizarre plays of the year, when a slap shot hit a Chaos skater near the boards and deflected into the net.

The final score of 10-2 reflected another dominant effort by the Chaos. All-Star Goalie Pat Avery again delivered a nearly flawless effort, only giving up two fluke goals. The team also received balanced scoring with Scott Richter, Joey Kemp, and Jon “Ringo” Ringhofer each delivering 2 goals and additional scores by Steve Kilberg, Daniel Dye, Bob Nelson, and Tony Bebber. Bebber’s goal came on a laser beam pass from Defenseman Steve Richter.

Head Coach George Avery was unable to attend the game as he was headed out of town on another important scouting trip. However, he did phone in from the airplane for his usual postgame news conference. One reporter asked for details about this current trip.

“This is a key scouting trip, and I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for playmates…I mean potential linemates who might help the team,” said Avery. “You never know where you might find one. So, I will be sure to look in every grotto I find while we’re out in California visiting the mansion…ice rink, I meant ice rink. We hear there are lots of potential skaters in Holmby Hills, so we will likely be spending a lot of time there.”

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Filed under: Humor, Outside the Office by Tom Wozniak