Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Nickname: "The Statue"

 

Movie Star. Table Hockey: The Movie, YEAR

 

NYCTHA's Inaugural "Original Six" Tournament
Roger participated in the NYCTHA's Inaugural "Original Six" tournament held in September 2006. He finished in 4th place of 15 players.

 

NYCTHA Inaugural Season
Roger also participated in the full NYCTHA Inaugural regular season, finishing in fourth place.

Looking at the charts, Roger's Win % Progression. He started off in the .600's up to .800's then went downward, downward. He missed a league date, a month. When he returned his next four rounds of play were each progressively better (.700 to close to .900), then a dip for two rounds down in the .600 range before his season's best round, above .900, peaking as most players would desire, at the end of the season.

 

In parallel, the gap between his goals for and against was good at the beginning of the seaon then about merged, no gap, at round 5. After that month off, he returned and kept a pretty good gap of about 2 goals except for rounds 13 and 14.

His average finish, placement, for each regular season date was 2.8 or 3rd place. Of the twelve rounds he participated in over the five dates he played he: finished above .800 on five occasions, seven times had one of the two or three best goals for averages, three times best goals against averages and most shutouts once. Overall, he finished with 14 shutouts for, and only four shutouts against.

 

Roger was defeated in a Best of Three for Third Place at the Inaugural NYCTHA "Original Six" tournament by Greg Scoma. After six games head-to-head, Roger was 2-3-1 against Greg Scoma. In the sixth game against Scoma in January 20, round one, Roger lost soundly to Scoma, 1-5.

 

But, like every great player, Roger corrected something, because he then rattled off five wins in six more games against Greg, finishing the season with a 7-4-1 record against him, which carried into the playoffs.

 

His season series against John Power was quite even going 5-4-3. Neither player holding an edge for any length of time against the other during the season.

 

The only other player to do well against Roger was Lou Marinoff. Lou dominated Roger, as he did every other player in the league. Roger, however, had the closest goal differential against Lou, 2.10 (among players who'd played Lou more than a few times). The next closest player to Lou was John Power at 2.77. As a credit to Roger, Lou lost only three regular season games all year, two of those three were to Roger.

 

Roger completed the season with an average finish in the standings each league date was 2.8 (3rd).

NYCTHA Inaugural Season's Playoffs
Whoever completed the regular season's in one of the top five positions earned the right to compete in the Elite Division and a bye going into the playoffs. Roger finished the regular season in fourth place.

 

His Quarter-Final opponent in the Elite Division, in fifth place, was Len Mecca, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. While Roger won their regular season series 4-1-2, Len was 1-2-1 in their last four games (losing one of those games by a goal) and more significently, Len did this during Roger's strongest performance periods of the season. This seemed to indicate that their Best of Seven Series might be close. But, Roger swept their series in four straight games, all by two goal margins, except Game Two in overtime.

 

In the Semi-Final opponent was Lou Marinoff, the league's top performer during the regular season. Lou pounced on Roger winning the first two games, 6-0 and 5-2. But, like any prize fighter from Brooklyn, Roger got up off the floor, dusted himself off and came at Lou. In Game Three, Roger took Lou into overtime where Roger won, 5-4. Roger was warmed up now. In Game Four, Roger on occasion had the scoring lead and had Lou on the ropes. Could Roger win Game Four to tie the series? Wow! Lou pulled out the victory, 5-4, and as I recall in the closing seconds. In Game Five, deep into the game it was 0-0. Roger and Lou played a hard fought game, but again Lou ekked out what he needed to win, 3-2 and took the series four games to one. Roger could hold his head up high having beaten Lou three of the  four times Lou had lost all year.

 

Finally, Roger played Greg Scoma to determine who would win Third Place in the Elite Division. Playing at such a high level against Lou, Roger was ready for Greg.

 

Adding to the drama, seven months earlier these two played against each other in another battle for Third Place, the NYCTHA "Original Six" Tournament, September 2006. In that tournament, Roger was ranked third and Greg, a relative unknown, fifth. In that series, Greg took Game One convincingly, 5-2. Roger, adjusted and came right back winning Game Two, 4-2 and forcing a decisive final Game Three. But the wheels came off for Roger as Greg won handily, 8-3. So, Roger was more than prepared skill-wise and incentive-wise to play Greg.

 

In the Elite Division's battle for Third Place, Roger won Game One 4-2 and then as if to add an emphatic punctuation to the end of a great season, great playoff run and this re-match, Roger Owens shutout Greg Scoma, 2-0, to win the series and the medal for Third Place overall.