After four years of frustration, Spanky’s bandy club finally put all the pieces together, defeating Sirius 16-12 to capture the 2010 United Sates Indoor Bandy league (Rocketball) title and the prestigious Cannon Cup. With defending 5 time champion Brite Air losing to Sirius in the semi-finals in a thriller, Spanky’s players saw an opportunity to make a run at the Cup and defeated the Plymouth Eels to reach their first cannon Cup final. Spanky’s came ready to play and took the early lead in the match and held it through the entire first half. But Sirius, led by Jack Hillen, (who plays for the New York Islanders in the winter) young dangler Chris Student, and veterans Kurt Steinbergs and John Kuzara, came on strong in the second half and eventually tied the score 10 to 10. Sirius battled hard to take the lead, but could not break through Spanky’s tough defensive shell and some costly turnovers by Sirius allowed Spanky’s to counter attack and build their lead with three unanswered goals at the end.

With some outstanding recruiting by manager Todd Blackstone, Spanky’s finally had the depth to challenge the other teams in the league who always seemed to have more firepower. Spanky’s was led by Jamie McBain and Mike Carmen, who have been with the club for the last few years. McBain is in his third year of summer bandy, and played at the end of last season with the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL. Carmen has been playing bandy for four years and just finished a four year career with the Minnesota Gophers. Spanky’s manager Todd Blackstone added Kevin Deeth and Ryan Thang who played hockey with Notre Dame last year and also Tyler Ruegsegger of Denver U. All this firepower showed as Spanky’s finished a strong second in the league standings and then ran the table in the playoffs.

League Commisioner Tom Howard was pleased to crown a new champion and along with everyone else, is happy to see all the top talent that not only Spanky’s brought to the table but in the entire league as well. Howard started the indoor bandy league in 1985, and said he has never seen such a talent pool as this last season. All this talent can only help to strengthen the overall USA bandy program.