It’s a bit of a twisted existence serving as a ‘double agent’ in our humble league. As a goalie for one team, and a forward or defender for another, there is obviously potential for some ‘conflict of interest’ elements in any given matchup for one of your two teams, but when your two teams face each other, the laws of the universe dictate that you cannot be two places at once, and the laws of the SDFHL dictate that you will be suited up for your non-goalie team, competing against your ‘other teammates’, and shooting on your substitute at the other end. John Kushneryk is very familiar with all of these dynamics by now, having served in this double capacity for several seasons, but the playoff meetings are the real ‘Sophie’s Choice’ collisions, and John would be both a winner and an (eliminated) loser no matter who prevailed in the Week Three opener between Captain Eli Schonbrun’s Blue and Captain Zach Siemer’s Grey. The former smashed the latter 6-2 back in Week Four, but Grey came in still riding the ‘anything is possible’ rush after a very crazy and very late comeback to eliminate second-seeded Pink the Sunday prior. My new favorite obsession, the ‘scoreless second period’, was preceded by a scoreless first, as neither team’s offense could solve either goalie stand-in (Will Heinl in for Blue in lieu of the aforementioned Kushneryk, and Mason Holcomb in for Grey’s Jon Cima). Kalen Hunter finally broke the scoreless tie at 7:49 in the third (Elyse Shattuck), but Kyle Snyder answered for Blue with an unassisted strike less than a minute later. Josh Tran’s unassisted goal at 4:16 gave Blue their first lead of the game, but Grey drew from their late heroics playbook again, as Hunter’s second of the game at 1:52 (Sean Kelly & Zach Siemer) left the ledger level at 2-2 through three. So, for the first time (!) in nine Summer League 2026 playoff games, we would see extra time. It took just 2:07 of that extra time for Captain Schonbrun to find a loose ball and deposit it behind Holcomb (15/18) (Snyder) to keep Blue alive and kicking, and kick Grey to the playoff curb with a 3-2 OT win. Heinl (16/18) collected the win for the happy/sad Kushneryk, with his ‘Puck Hunt’ team now on the scrap pile, and his ‘Blue Schelbies’ gang now moving on to penultimate week of playoff play.
Another elimination match served as the creamy Week Three middle game, with Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s Neon clashing with Captain Jeremy Copp’s color cousin Orange. Ironically, neither captain would be on hand to go, fight, win (or lose) with their mates…clearly a conscious, cowardly decision on both their parts. I kid…Carl is the only coward here. The soldiers (who actually care about their team’s playoff fate) soldiered on, however, and Private Ryan Karns drew first blood early for Neon, notching his second of the playoffs at 8:41 (Chris Malki & Wendy Enright). It would NOT be a ‘scoreless second’ in the second game, thanks to Justin Hepler’s fourth of the post season campaign at 3:30 (Steph Palomo Schmidt & Andrew Wong). So…the proceedings were proceeding just as the two teams’ regular season statistics would have you imagine, with the second lowest scoring team in the league (Neon, with seventeen…if you subtract Captain Carl’s goals) struggling to pull away from the team with the lowest regular season goal totals (Orange, with fifteen). Couple those no-ffenses with the second and third best defenses through the regular season, and the moral of the story is ‘take the under’. The 1-1 tie held through the first half of the third, but an unassisted, seeing-eye point blast from Gary Peters 4:20 broke that tie and restored the one goal edge for the (slim) favorites. Peters would earn first star of the game honors for that goal, which would stand as the game-winner thanks in large part to the game’s second star, Don Tran (19/20). Matt Henderson (16/18) was saddled with the hard-luck loss, and Orange were shown the playoff door with the tight, tense 2-1 loss. Neon will hope to have ‘Cowardly Carl’ back at the helm in Week Four, as they battle for their playoff lives against Blue, then (should they survive that game) look to bash their way past Purple and on into the Final to face the waiting Brown.
Our Week Three cover team, Captain Bryan Ossa’s ‘Dookey Kong’, were up next, hoping against hope to repeat a feat that no other team in the league had managed to that point…beating Captain William Teglia’s ‘Willuigis’. The attendance asterisk was big and bold for Purple in the slice of ancient history that was the May 10th first meeting between these two, with Owen Perks, Trevor Vick, and Tim Vick all out of the lineup in the 3-2 loss. Those players would ultimately account for eleven of Purple’s thirty goals, and 26/67 total points produced by the top seeds through regular season play. It’s likely overlooked that there was a (perhaps slightly less big and bold) attendance asterisk for Brown in that first showdown, as well, with both Jon Zygelman (later replaced by Matt Rogers), and Mark Nagy out of action. Three months later, with shifted lineups, and the ‘aura’ of playoffs in the air…Purple still stood as favorites in this rematch based on their nine game win streak coming in alone, but Brown had to feel like they had at least a slight psychological edge, with the knowledge that they were the only blemish on an otherwise perfect wire to wire Cup crusade for Purple. When Perks once again failed to appear as warmups wrapped, that ‘slight’ edge was sharpened like that of a fine blade. Leah Gonzales produced the first cut with that blade, slicing home her first of the playoffs at 9:34 (Chris Koziol & Mark Nagy), and Vance Morra doubled the damage with a perfectly placed wrister at 4:06 (Josh Wirt & Mark DeGraffenreid). The ‘shifted lineups’ alluded to earlier in this recap included DeGraffenreid playing defense (!) for Brown in the absence of both Matt Rogers and Greg Wirth. While one would rightfully assume he was on the court for both Captain William Teglia’s goal at 3:17 (Trevor Vick & Tyler Winstead), and Sadie Hellstrom’s tying tally at 0:25 (Teglia & Grant Goins), I can proudly confirm that he (I) was not. NOTE: This is no slight to Ossa and Nagy…I just think it is a miracle that I made it through this game as a ‘plus’. Personal pride and ponderings aside, Purple’s surge shook Brown’s two goal lead away like an Etch-A-Sketch, and left the upstart seven seeds questioning their fate. Any such faltering faith questions are often expertly handled by one Mr. Josh Wirt, and Wirt had an answer again, converting just SIX seconds after the Hellstrom marker to restore Brown’s lead through a wacky, wild, Kool-Aid style first. The second period was…wait for it…scoreless (!), with Mason Holcomb (21/23) turning aside all remaining Purple challenges as the clock wound toward zeroes. With Will Heinl (12/15) pulled for an extra attacker, Wirt won a defensive zone draw cleanly to Morra, who promptly airmailed the ball the length of the court and into the empty net. Wirt earned first star of the game honors for his 1 and 2 (and what I believe to be a PERFECT faceoff win percentage, to boot), but Morra’s two goals, including the exhale-inducing long range curler to ice the 4-2 win for Brown earned him the POTW nod. Purple’s second loss to Brown has them relegated to Week Four play, where they await the survivor of Neon v Blue. Should they prevail this Sunday, it will be one final date, and possibly two final games with Brown with the Cup on the line on August 23rd.
