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Brantford (Dominion Centre) – The darkest saddest days in Icemen history following the loss to the lowly and pathetic Smoothdolphins on home ice in a weekend friendly matchup lastest for all of three days. This was bigger, better, more impossible still.

Beat Brantford Nytes in a National Cup Game? How could they? Some of Icemen’s players felt it couldn’t happen and, after it did, they were at a loss to explain.

But, proving a team concept sometimes can overcome even a vast disadvantage in talent, Icemen stunned League I.1 powerhouse Brantford Nytes on Tuesday with a 1-0 victory that shook up the National Cup Tourney’s remaining 32 clubs and puts all teams on notice that anything can happen in this event.

Bulgarian-born Bozhidar Stoichkov scored the only goal of the game and goalie Martin “Berlin Wall” Elsner turned aside 31 shots in an upset that came only three days after the Icemen lost a friendly match to the Smoothdolphins.

Asked if he thought beforehand this was possible, Icemen forward Thomas Attiger said, “Are you crazy, man? With the players the Nytes have, it would be impossible.”

It wasn’t. “It took a lot of courage to do this by some players who were asking for autographs from those Nytes players a few years ago,” Icemen Head Coach Roman Heath said.

Call it inconceivable. Call it incredible. All the adjectives fit.

Cheered on by 2800 fans in the Nyte’s Dominion Centre, hundreds of arena-rocking fans cheered on the local Brantford squad as they fired 31 shots at Icemen goaltender Martin Elsner who once again displayed how he earned the moniker “Berlin Wall”— the Icemen took 7 penalties, and only put 10 pucks on the Nyte’s net but the Stoichkov shot at the midpoint of the second period after some tough grinding and cycling by relative Icemen newcomers Heikko Pismennoi and Francisco Javier Torres was all the Icemen would need today.

Nyte’s goaltender Steve Locke must have gotten bored in his net during this contest, finishing with 9 saves on only 10 shots.

“We had another unbelievable game, actually a perfect game, and we needed that to beat the Nytes, we lulled them to sleep, and finally caught their goalie napping” said Icemen defenseman Johnathan Wise.

Icemen team management is excited to advance to round 6 in National Cup action and hope to draw an opponent with a large capacity arena to maximize revenue for the organization. Icemen are the only III.1 division team to move on to the final 32. The extra revenue will help the team compete in a very competitive division.

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