Two winless teams entered, one winless team emerged, as Tie Dye shed their ‘Loss Dye’ ways with a 2-0 win over Purple. Captain Joe Malki finally solved his captainly counterpart in the first minute of the third period. Yes, Chris Tran continues to be brilliant in vain…now for a second season in a row. He stopped 22/23 in the loss, while Sean Kelly collected the 17/17 shutout at the other end. Tyler Winstead found the empty net in the waning seconds to cement a crucial two points in the standings. Both teams remain in the cut line danger zone, but with just one point in hand and four games to play, it is now or never time for a Purple push. Scoring more would be a good start for the only remaining winless side in the league. With just five goals in five games, it hasn’t mattered/won’t matter how great Captain Tran has been/will be. A win against Black this Sunday would do wonders for the woefully winless, while Tie Dye can lick their chops at the prospect of a two game win streak as they set to face off against fellow 1-3-1ers, Royal Blue.
Captain Kevin Dinino’s crew definitely embodies and exemplifies the SDFHL ideal of parity. With the exception of a Week Three Royal Blue smash job, their games have been very close, hard-fought, back and forth affairs. Week Five brought no change to that pattern, as Orange battled Pink to a 2-2 tie, featuring one to one scoring-in-turn and a last minute, goalie-pulled equalizer. London Peters scored first for Orange early in the second, Captain Chad Goins answered early in the third, and Peters restored the one goal lead with five minutes to play. Mara Bernd was sent to the box for interference with 1:26 remaining, and Dale Stuzka found the back of the net about a minute later to steal a point in the standings for his team. Both teams sit in solid playoff position with seven points, with Pink holding an additional win, and Orange holding on to a ‘0’ in the loss column through five weeks of play. Both teams face a tough challenge in Week Six, with Pink taking on 4-0-1 Red, and Orange squaring off with 3-2-0 Maroon.
Melissa Busby rebounded nicely from a house of horrors Week Four performance, backstopping Green to a big win over a favored Black side. Her 9/11 nipped Matt Henderson’s 8/11, as Sadie Hellstrom’s first career SDFHL goal midway through the second proved the game-winner. Jordan Pynn had Black on the board first with his first of the season on the power play, but Jason Remple netted his first two goals of the season to reverse that lead by the first intermission. Dan Jurgens continued the J theme by knotting the score early in the second before Hellstrom’s winning strike gave Green the lead for good. Speaking of J’s, Josh Wirt collected two assist in the winning effort, and Jurgens and Jordan assisted each other to a two point total. The 3-2 win for Green moves them above the cut line, and should give them some confidence heading into a tilt with their upstairs standings neighbors, White. Black remain smack in the middle of the slate at 2-2-1, and will hope to improve that standing against ‘the fat kid’, Purple, in Week Six.
Another week, another win for Captain Nick Adkins and Red. Brian Sheptycki converted a Tom Darlington assist into a 1-0 lead for White late in the first, but it was all Red from that point on. Julie Ott evened the score in the second, and Melissa Busby netted the game-winner early in the third…that is some hot girl/girl action! Connor Miller’s empty-netter seemed even less manly with that backdrop, but it all counted in Red’s 3-1 win over White. Captain Adkins’ 19/20 performance improved his league-leading goalie numbers to .942/0.80/1 SO. His team remains atop the standings at 4-0-1…all but mathematically assured of an extended season with four games left to play. White’s season has been up and down thus far at 2-2-1. They are certainly hoping for an ‘up’ this Sunday against Green, who sit just below them in the standings at 2-3-0. EDITOR’S NOTE: OK, can we take a poll…who would rather read slanderous Busby sarcasm, instead of this vanilla ‘honest journalism’? I bored myself typing it, but I am trying to be ‘nicer’. I’ll take your votes and thoughts on MB (Melissa Busby) the MB (message board)…thanks.
Captain Jon Salt came into Week Five riding one of the driest spells of his life (goal-scoring-wise…I don’t get into his personal life). He picked the right time to moisten things up (TWSS), scoring twice, and assisting on Wendy Enright’s game-winner in his team’s first win of the season – 4-3 over Maroon. Both teams were brutally short-benched…reportedly no subs for Maroon, and just one for Blue, so it is a wonder that seven goals were scored…I’d just be curled up in a ball in the corner, huffing and puffing. Captain Brett Cohen put his team up 1-0, and scored to make it close late in the third (after Jon Zygelman cut the lead to two), but Salt’s pair, Enright’s GWG, and Patrick Fusco’s second of the season were enough to get the job done in front of Nick Adkins (18/21). This win was not for his team, of course, but Adkins had a great night, and filled in more than admirably for the (still injured) Alex Theis. Chuck Bender absorbed his third loss of the season with a 12/16 outing. Maroon face an intriguing challenge in Orange this Sunday, while Royal Blue look to pen chapter two in their cellar to celebration saga in a big match with Tie Dye in the late game.