The playoffs are upon us…
The first matchup of the 2026 summer playoffs featured rookie captain Eli Schonbruns Blue Schelbies looking to stoppa veteran captain Jeremy Copps Coppa Troppas. The two teams finished the season tied with 8 points so with no clear favorite it was anyones game to win… or lose(Or Draw?). It would be the Blue Schelbies striking first under a minute into the 1st, with dragon boat racer Brendan Jew scoring his first of the playoffs. Despite the two teams having significant offensive power it would be the lone goal of the first period and it would be well into the 2nd before the bearded wonder himself Eli Schonbrun would make it 2-0 for the Shelbies. The Coppas finally answered the Beard and the Dragon (get it Bearded Dragon) a minute into the 3rd when Chris Fiore (Jim Lagrossa) would net his first of the playoffs to pull Orange within one. It would be a repeat of the first two goals a mere 80 seconds later when both Brendan(Adam, Jason) and Eli(Kyle) would each score another increasing the Schelbies lead to 4-1. The Albatross aka Justin Hepler would give the Troppas their 2nd of the game with a quick wrist shot from the circle but it would be a case of too little too late and with Jason Lee’s empty netter the Schelbies would crush Oranges game one inspirations. I’m sure Eli liked when he saw from his team in its convincing 5-2 week one win over a very offensively talented Orange.
Game two was no wild duck hunt, as Carl Vankoughnett’s Super Malkios squared off against Zach Siemers’ Puck Hunt. The regular season meeting ended in a convicing Neon win over a Kalenless Grey so not really a good indicator of what may occur in the playoff meeting. The Super Malkios Joe Mailki would strike first and early with a quick shot a mere 38 seconds into the game to give Neon the early lead. A few minutes later, a Puck Hunt line change turned into a hunting accident, allowing Super Malkios Parsa to race in on a breakway to lift Neon to a 2-0 lead. No scoring in the 2nd but the teams did exchange penalties. Not to be outdone by the 2nd period penalties, the teams once again exchanged penalties in the 3rd period, Ryan Karns with a trip reminescent of a soccer game and Puck Hunt with the dreaded too many men. Despite a lot of chances neither team would end up scoring on any of the 4 power plays in the game. WIth about 2 minutes to go Craig Russel (Sean Kelly) netted his first of the playoffs and gave grey a lift of spirit and momentum as the Puck Hunts would Hunt the Puck and search for the equalizer in the final minute. With a draw deep in the Neon end and with the goalie pulled Puck Hunt were hungry, but it was not meant to be and after a small scramble and partial clear to centre ice the aging Neon squad was able to find the empty net to increase its lead to 3-1 where it would finish moving Neon onto game two on the winners bracket and grey on to face the loser of the Pink vs Brown matchup.
