Our Week Three cover team was well rested coming into their matchup with Captain Bryan Ossa’s ‘Dookey Kong’, powering past Pink in Week One, surviving a harrowing bye week that no one enjoys the following Sunday, then doubling down on the downtime with a long holiday weekend. Ossa & Company opened their season with a narrow win over a Purple team that was without much of their punch, then became another Kalen Kasualty™ in a 4-2 Week Two loss to Grey. A bounce back win would keep them in the top half of the standings, while a loss would flip them to the shallow end of the slate (or deep end, depending on your preferred metaphor for struggle/peril, here). Brendan Jew put Blue on the board first, converting a defensive turnover into offensive paydirt at 8:20 (Captain Schonbrun), but Vance Morra was quick to respond for Brown, wristing home the equalizer at 7:12 (Chris Koziol & Mark Nagy). Blue racked up a staggering 20-7 edge in shots over the first two periods, and just as Brown was enjoying a brief respite from the onslaught with Jason Northrup off for holding, Brendan Jew notched his second of the game shorthanded at 5:19 (Josh Tran). Mark DeGraffenreid blasted his team’s second off the far post and in with 2:44 to play in the middle period (Josh Wirt), and while the shot totals and ‘Mojo Meter™’ had Blue way ahead in this one, the score remained knotted at 2-2 through two. The call and response scoring pattern continued in the third, with Shelby Shattuck blasting home a point shot to wrest the lead back for Blue at 6:58, and DeGraffenreid finishing a two-on-one rush with Wirt to bring Brown level once again at 5:52. The already absurd shot disparity widened in the third (ending with a 32-10 advantage for Blue), and while Mason Holcomb had been breakdancing and head-standing all game to keep his team alive, the levee finally broke in the final half period of play. Kyle Snyder shifted into ‘enough is enough’ mode, steering into the attacking zone and depositing the game-winner at 4:06 (Captain Schonbrun), Jew completed his hat trick and broke the game’s ‘scoring pattern’ at 3:51 (Jason Lee & Shattuck), and Snyder added insurance at 1:58 (Josh Tran), turning a tense, tight tilt into the convincing win that the shot totals would have you suspect, 6-3, Blue over Brown. Holcomb (26/32) was nothing short of heroic in the loss, while John Kushneryk (7/10) enjoyed what would ultimately be a nice rehab start in his first action of the season as Blue’s last line of defense.
The next match on the slate was…a major mismatch, with Captain Rob Gaudio’s Red powered down in the absence of Darin Cerasuolo, Dan Jurgens, and Sean Bathgate, and with Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s Neon fully assembled and ready to replicate their Week Two winning effort and keep pace with the other ‘perfects’ in the pack (Grey and Blue). This game was certainly something to behold, and the real spectacle was our POTW, Nick Meglich. In a season without the ‘big name goalie’ likes of Perks and Kelly, Meglich has certainly proven to be a, nay…THE game-changing goal-stopper in the game. As good as he has been in recent seasons, this was another level, entirely…to the point where every player from both teams was pausing to marvel/comment on the Megician™ and his sublime slight of glove and blocker. Neon outshot Red THIRTY-SIX to FOURTEEN in this one, and yet the game would end in a 1-1 tie! What’s more…the lone goal Meglich would allow was at least as controversial as it was crushing for Red (at least at the time). Scoreless first and second periods saw Neon carrying the play to the tune of and 18-9 shot advantage, but Meglich carrying the day, and keeping his team primed for their first win (indeed, first point) of the season. At 4:39 in the third, a Vinny Santora shot struck Meglich’s glove and produced a loose ‘popup’. Wendy Enright collected the ball out of the air with a clean touch, then swept it into the net to finally break through for Neon with what looked to be a surefire game-winner. Dissent and discussion bubbled from there, with Red asserting that Enright had made contact with Meglich’s glove, thereby interfering with his ability to pluck the loose ball from the air and complete the save. The officials deemed the goal valid, and Red looked like certain losers for a third straight game to open their Summer League campaign. With time winding down, Red’s desperation deepened, and somewhere in that final fighting flurry, Captain Rob Gaudio found the ball on his blade, and snapped it past Don Tran (13/14) to tie the game and send a ripple of relief through the Red ranks. Neither goalie would concede a second goal, and Meglich’s 35/36 night would finally steal a point for Gaudio & Company, now sitting just one point free of the cut line at 0-2-1.
The last two recaps are on the way soon…
