Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s Neon finished their regular season run with a convincing 4-0 win over Captain Eli Schonbrun’s Blue, and that result vaulted the former from the six seed to the three seed, and kept the latter from capturing the two seed. A regular season win (convincing, or not) is a good thing, improved playoff seeding is also a good thing, but a playoff win is a great thing, and Blue hoped to serve up some piping hot playoff revenge as two overseeds battled for the right to (immediately) turn and face top-seeded Purple. A scoreless first gave way to a very scoreful™ second, with Captain Schonbrun first to act, scoring a goal of his own at 9:12 (Josh Tran & Shawna Hamon), then providing the lone helper on Josh Tran’s tally just sixteen ticks later. Brendan Jew (5:53) and Kyle Snyder (4:10) tacked on unassisted padding later in the period, and John Kushneryk gave Neon no foothold to climb back into the fray prior to the second break. In fact, Kushneryk (21/21) would leave Neon with no goals at all and (if you’re an advanced mathematician like your humble author), thereby no chance to prevail. Captain Schonbrun’s second of the game at 5:52 (Hamon) in the third was the fifth nail in a one-nail-will-do coffin, as Blue cruised to a 5-0 win to avenge their regular season loss to Neon and eliminate Vankoughnett & Company from Cup contention. Don Tran (24/29) shouldered the loss, but can take solace in knowing that even a goal or two in support would not have mattered…he and his mates were outdone in large part by his counterpart’s clean sheet. Neon exist the playoffs just ‘out of the medals’ in fourth, while Blue grabbed a seat, swigged some Gatorade, and readied themselves for a battle with Purple…
Blue did not fair much better against Purple than they did against Neon in the regular season, dropping a 4-1 Week Five meeting to the Cup favorites in spite of perfect attendance on their side, and an absent Trevor Vick on the other. Schonbrun’s ‘Blue Schelbies’ hoped for a second scoop of revenge in the playoff rematch, after shaking out the lactic acid buildup from their first match, and preparing to take the court again to face Captain Teglia’s rested and ready juggernaut. While I don’t know that we have ever studied this phenomenon, the ‘tired team’ tends to acquit themselves quite well in the second game of Week Four playoff play. There’s something to be said for the mental and physical warmup that the first game provides, I suppose. Whatever the verdict in that unaired episode of Myth Busters may be, neither side managed to break the scoring seal in another scoreless first (we may have a new trend, folks!). The second period saw just one shot find twine, with Tim Vick’s second of the playoffs at 7:03 (Captain Teglia) representing the first ball past Kushneryk all night. JK’s 21/21 in the opener was child’s play compared to the TWENTY-SEVEN shot onslaught he faced through just two periods of play in this one, but…sometimes even one goal is enough to carry the day. Kyle Snyder found that ‘one goal’ for Blue, converting at 8:32 in the third (Captain Schonbrun & Hamon) to put both teams on even footing with a ticket to the Final waiting for whichever team could make the final 8:32 count in their favor. While neither side could find a second goal in that span, the 34-16 shot ledger made clear that Purple was on the front foot and pushing hard to end things, lest they subject themselves to a shootout against the hottest goalie in the universe. Captain William ‘Big Willy T’ Teglia did end things, finding the overtime dagger at 4:38 (Owen Perks & Sadie Hellstrom), and sending Kushneryk (33/35) and Blue out of the playoffs with bronze around their collective necks, 2-1. Call it what you will, but Teglia earned the POTW nod over Blue’s super human netminder. As the POTW blurb notes…’to the victor go the spoils’, and Teglia certainly spoiled the night for JK and a very impressive and fun-to-watch Blue side. It’s on to the Final for Purple, and the storylines are ripe and ready-made for this one. Purple have lost just TWICE all season, but both losses have come by the hands of those spunky seven seeds, Brown. The two will face off for a third, and possibly fourth time this Sunday, with Cup glory waiting for winner, and a not-so-silver-lining silver medal for the other.
