Sherwoods March Aids Team in Victory

Walpole, MA – In the year 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's led his famous spring campaign through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia during the American Civil War. Employing audacity and rapid, unpredictable movements on interior lines, Jackson's men marched 646 miles in 48 days in an attempt to stop the Union from reinforcing its troops. Last night, history repeated itself as Thomas “Stonepuck” Sherwood marched 5 miles in freezing temperatures, in his one-man attempt at reinforcing the Penguins in their battle against Analog.

With nothing but grit and determination, Sherwood left his seat at Gillette Stadium, and painstakingly fought against the onslaught of cars and the driving snow to join his team in its time of need. While many players bailed on the Penguins for such reasons as ‘being in Canada’ or ‘being too drunk’, Sherwood refused to let the Patriot game get in his way, and marched himself to Iorio to save his team in its plight. Now known as ‘Sherwood’s March’, this historic event and incredible determination gave the Penguins 8-men and ultimately a 2-1 victory over Analog.

“It was really stupid in retrospect,” admitted Sherwood who had been rushed to Norwood Hospital to be treated for frostbite and dehydration immediately after the game. “I have lost all sensation in my extremities, and think something may need to be amputated, but I couldn’t let the team down. I didn’t want to be like Bilbo, Dimock, Moura, Wilmot, Lutfy and Shore who had no good excuse but just decided not to skate. The team needed me so I did what anyone who cares would do; I marched 5 miles in blizzard conditions, with drunken Patriots fans swerving at me on Route 1, and made it to the game in time to help my team to victory!”

The extra man gave the Penguins 3-subs and allowed the team to play an aggressive, uncompromising brand of hockey. Youngblood started the game off with an early goal giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead. Analog stormed back to tie the game at 1-apiece, however it never stemmed the Penguins determination.

“They tied it up but we never quit,” stated Roode 3 after the game. “I mean you are on the bench sitting next to Sherwood, whose is wrapped in a silver heat blanket and has intravenous tubes coming in and out of nearly every vein in his body, how can you quit? We knew he may not make it to the 3rd period, so we wanted to put on a good show while he was still alive anyway.”

But make it to the 3rd period he would, even when Analog’s #15 came onto the ice in a drunken stupor, and managed to quickly erode any good sportsmanship that Analog had built up over the course of the game. However, the Penguins managed to stay the course and played their brand of real man’s hockey.

The Penguins kept the puck in the offensive zone for a good portion of the game, but it came down to the final seconds for the Penguins to get the winning goal. Almeida took a pass from Tragakis on the left boards and skated in and slipped the goal past the goalie with 15-seconds to go in the game. The victory puts the team above .500 for the first time in the season, although technically at 4-4-2 the team was already above .500. As noted by a Roode 1, however, 5-4-2 looks much better and therefore is ‘officially’ above .500.