When you're nWo, you're nWo -> 4 life...
That was the decision that stood in front of Ale "Big Poppa Pump" Tarantelli during the summer when he made the decision to stick with the nWo instead of rejoining his pals on the Deadpucks for the 2023 HNX season.
"It was an easy decision, really", said Tarantelli. "I get to stay with the nWo and I get to shoot on my buddy Rawch (Deadpucks goalie Rachana Tray) this season".
And boy did Big Poppa Pump relish the opportunity.
Tarantelli and Julian Lai both scored their 1st career HNX hat tricks as the nWo recorded their first win of the season by stomping on the Deadpucks, 10-6.
While high-scoring games are no strangers to HNX players, it's somewhat surprising it's taken over 200 career regular season games for Hollywood (Julian Lai) to score his first career hat trick. Tarantelli has managed to obtain the feat in almost 100 games less.
Both teams played with an incredibly shortened bench as a vicious case of "I'd-rather-be-doing-something-else" broke out.
Despite this, the game was rather entertaining through most of two periods where the Deadpucks held their own, capitalizing on a strong game by young superstar Andrew Ross who also netted his 1st career hat trick. The Deadpucks ended the second with a 6-5 lead.
But things quickly went downhill for the Deadpucks after Tarentelli redirected a shot from the point by nWo defenceman, Bryce Fong, that tied the game early in the third period.
The nWo would add four more unanswered goals - including the game winner by the "Bad Guy" (Ron Nguyen) - that put the game out of reach for the Deadpucks.