Point Eh
Champagne & OJ
Finals:
Orange rolled into the Final as the favorite ‘home team’, in spite of their lower seed, by virtue of having dispatched challenger, Grey, 5-1 just two weeks prior. The absence of Chuck Russell, David Schlatter, and Kevin Dinino had to put the pole sitters a bit on edge, and many argued that it might be the edge Grey needed to pull off a double dip upset special. A late first period strike from Jim LaGrossa (assists to Jordan Pynn and Elyse Shattuck) made that possibility seem all the more possible, and a scoreless second kept the tempo and tension simmering. It wasn’t until 3:47 remaining in regulation that Eric Herrmann broke loose, and broke the scoreless drought for his side, leveling the ledger at 1-1. Both goalies were solid to spectacular throughout, with Chris Tran (20/21) refusing to relent after allowing the LaGrossa goal, and Parsa Mostafavi (25/26) shaking off a nasty pileup/collision in the crease in the late going to preserve the tie, and push the game to overtime.
Overtime bore no winning fruit, so it was off to the shootout, with either an encore clash for all the marbles, or a Cup-raising moment waiting in the wings. LaGrossa and Herrmann were both stymied in the first round, then Rob Gaudio and Gary Peters both converted in the second. Jordan Pynn, Josh Tran, Justin Stege, Ian Crooks, Elyse Shattuck, and Wendy Enright all tried, but failed to solve Tran and Mostafavi, and it was on to sudden death shootout! LaGrossa and Herrmann, the regular season co-scoring champs with 19 points apiece…do or die…all on the line. LaGrossa…no…not enough to best Tran. Herrmann…the much ballyhooed badass, and empirically the greatest player in SDFHL history…GOAL…game over…Orange over Grey in sudden death shootout, 2-1. It was an incredible season, and an incredible game from both sides. Congratulations to Orange, and kudos to Grey on pushing to a phenomenal (albeit, futile) finish to a great playoff run.
FACE/OFF
Playoffs Week 4:
Our 25th anniversary season has been an homage to all things 1997, and the definitive pinnacle of art and culture that year was the timeless work of cinematic excellence that was/is the movie film ‘Face/Off’. Orange and Grey can only hope to deliver the same powerhouse performances that Travolta and Cage blessed us with in the year of our league’s birth, 0 AD (After Dale). The scene is set, the cameras are ready to roll, and the action is set to unfold in a thrilling one (or two) hour epic/preposterous thrill ride this Sunday…
The family drama was shaken out of the Salt v Salt playoff battle to the death by virtue of Captain Jon’s absence, but there was still plenty of drama stirring in this, the third and final installment of Atomic Blue v Pink. A scoreless first led to a (mostly) scoreless second, with Carl Vankoughnett finally breaking the drought with a solo effort at the 2:57 mark. Sean Kelly (25/26) and Nick Vacchio (24/25) were the story for their respective sides, as Vankoughnett’s strike stood as the lone blemish for either netminder with time ticking past the halfway point in the third. Matt Gottfried put Pink on the board at 3:56 (from Joe Nguyen), bringing an already very even game to an officially even keel at 1-1. Regulation was not enough to declare a winner, and overtime fared no better at deciding things, so it was off to the shootout. Dan Jurgens converted where Zach Salt failed in the first round, but Carl Vankoughnett converted, and Matt Gottfried could not answer in the second round. Mostafa Azab and Joe Nguyen traded blanks, before Matt Rogers put the underdogs on top in the fourth round (capitalizing on Zach Siemer’s miss). With Steph Palomo Schmidt’s no goal in round five, the only saving grace for Pink would be a Kaity Gottfried conversion…she did not convert, and Nick Vacchio and Atomic Blue hung on to complete the 2-1 upset shootout win over Pink.
There is no rest for the weary in the fourth and final weeks of SDFHL playoff hockey. Atomic Blue was the weary, but no less hopeful Cinderella, and Captain Jeremy Copp’s ‘Steel Crazy After All These Years’ the midnight chiming clock tower. A furious first frame saw Brandon Olsen put Grey on top (from Rob Gaudio and Andrew Wong), Zach Salt level things less than a minute later (from Matt Rogers), Rob Gaudio put Grey back in front less than thirty seconds later (from Olsen and Jordan Pynn), and super sub, Steph Palomo Schmidt, tie a 2-2 knot with 2:01 to play. The scorers settled down, while Nick Meglich (19/21) and Nick Vacchio (14/16) settled in, keeping both nets empty through the next period, and the next period after that. Overtime…*crickets*….it would be another game, another shootout, with a punched ticket to the Final on the line this time. Jordan Pynn and Zach Salt could not find a way in round one, and Jim LaGrossa and Carl Vankoughnett were stymied just the same in the second. Rob Gaudio finally found twine in round three, and a Mostafa Azab miss put the pressure squarely on the remaining two Atomic Blue shooters…Matt Rogers, and Steph Palomo Schmidt. Neither shooter, nor their Grey counterparts (Justin Stege and Hima Joshi) could solve their respective opposing goalie, and so, Gaudio tucking one ball past Vacchio tucked Grey into the SDFHL Sprummer League 2022 Final with a crazy close 3-2 decision, and tucked Atomic Blue into the ‘close, but no cigar’ file.
Grey advance to the Final as the top seed, but come in as the ‘away’ team in a rematch with Orange. Captain Joel Gattey’s ‘GO, OJ, GO!’ embarrassed Grey in Week Three of the playoffs, after bowing to Grey in the regular season 5-3 (albeit, with the two ‘big guns’ out of the lineup). Get your popcorn, and your pompoms ready, because, one game or two, this is sure to be a spectacular finale!
Getaway
Playoffs Week 3:
…and then there were six. The first two weeks of playoff fat cutting left us with six lean, mean, hockey machines, including our Week Three opening pairing of Atomic Blue and Green. The two teams were equally ‘meh’ in the regular season, with Green entering as the four seed at 3-3-2, and Atomic Blue struggling mightily, then rebounding to a modest 2-3-3 record. It is no surprise that the two tied 2-2 back in Week Five, and handicappers were a bit handicapped in attempting to handicap the rematch, as a result. Well, the rematch did not disappoint in the close-as-can-be department, as one period, then a second ticked by with neither team managing a marker. It looked like the scoring drought would last through regulation, but Jon Zygelman finally broke through with just 1:53 left on the clock (from Mostafa Azab and Carl Vankoughnett) to give Atomic Blue a late 1-0 lead. Zach Salt found the empty net just 0:35 later, bringing the score to a final 2-0 resting place…Atomic Blue over Green. Don Tran (16/16), and super sub, Cory Brin (16/16) even faced the same number of shots in the narrow nail-biter which knocked Green out of the playoff picture, and sent Captain Chad Goins’ team on to the fourth and penultimate playoff phase. They will need to down second-seeded Pink, then immediately rally to get past top-seeded Grey if they hope to stay alive to face three-seeded Orange in the Final. That’s a one-two-three gauntlet that no one expects them to survive, but Stranger Things is not just a popular show on Netflix…
Poking a bear is proverbially (and literally) a very bad idea. Pink established themselves as one of the most dominant teams through the regular season, finishing with a 5-1-2 record, the third highest goals for (21), and the lowest goals against (12). The major reason for the former number is Captain Jon Salt, who racked up nearly half of those goals (9), and factored in more than half of them (11). The latter number is thanks in large part to Sean Kelly, who led all goalies in the regular season with a Kelly-esque .924/1.50. So, losing 3-2 to backdoor playoff bumrushers, Atomic Blue, in Week One of the playoffs, and having to watch little bro, Zach, celebrate that shocking win is your ‘bear poke’ here. The ‘bear’ took it out on the innocent (Lime) in Week Three, after watching that same Atomic Blue team advance to Week Four play in the first game of the night. Salt tore off a hat trick in the first period, added a fourth in the second, and assisted on Joe Nguyen’s tally late in the third to rage lead Pink to an easy 5-0 ousting of an outmanned/massively outgunned Gold. First year player/first time captain, Will Heinl, proved he has drafting/leadership mettle, but his team ultimately fell victim to the aforementioned ‘bear’, and a bare bench (no Omar, Sheptycki, or Cohen). Nick Meglich (17/22) could not keep up with the quantity and quality of Pink’s shots, while Sean Kelly (19/19) was Sean ‘Freaking’ Kelly, keeping a ‘clean sheet’ (as the fútbol folks say) for the billionth time in his career. So…the big rematch…Atomic Blue v Pink…brother v brother…it’s all on the line. Nope…rumor has it that ‘the bear’ will be not be there! This not only takes the wind out of the drama sails in the Week Four tilt, but may also means that Pink may well find themselves dead and gone in Week Four.
It is (very) well documented that Orange features a pair of ‘bears’, and that (poked or not) they will rip your head off and chuck it into the nearest lake. Mercifully for most of Orange’s opponents this season, the ‘bears’ have rarely made a joint appearance. Such was the case as Orange set themselves for a battle to the death with top-seeded Grey, with a ticket to the Final on the line. No David Schlatter meant that Jordan Pynn, Parsa Mostafavi, and the rest of Grey’s resistance would have half the headache, and twice the likelihood to prevail and push on to the big show. Enter ‘The Shadow Bear’, Josh Tran…a very good, very capable player, but one who had managed just one point (a lonely assist) in seven regular season games, and who had nothing to show for two previous playoff outings. Tran was actually the story at both ends of the court for Orange in this one, as Josh scored the game-winner in the first, then dropped two more in the third to complete the hat trick, while Chris shut down Grey with a 21/22 effort. I should note that Eric Herrmann was still very much a factor in this game, accounting for a goal and three assists, but a big part of what makes him scary is that he also makes his teammates scary. He assisted on two of JT’s tallies, and Wendy Enright’s first of the playoffs to help power Orange to a boat race 5-1 bouncing of one seed rivals, Grey. Brandon Olsen scored the lone goal for Captain Jeremy Copp’s side, (very) temporarily cutting the lead back to one in the first, but the law offices of Tran, Tran & Herrmann just had too strong a case in this one. Orange now have a week to rest and relish their big win, while Grey lie in wait for the winner of Atomic Blue v Pink, with a chance at redemption for this lopsided loss on the line in the Final.
Slice As Nice
Week 2 Playoffs:
With the usual field of eight now set, Week Two opened with half that field sitting on one loss, and half looking to remain unbeaten. Captain Joe Malki’s ‘Tranaconda’, and Captain Steph Palomo Schmidt’s ‘Pearl Chen’s Summer Tour’ found themselves in the former camp, hoping to survive their first scrap in the Losers’ Bracket trenches. It was Papa (Chris) Malki who led the way throughout, and led off the scoring for Green, accounting for the lone goal in a furious (yet, near-futile) first period that saw his side rack up FIFTEEN shots. The tide turned swiftly in favor of the underdogs in the second, as Harsh Wanigaratne and Steve Goncalo scored at 9:28 and 8:18 to move White out to a one goal edge. It was Malki again (Chris), then more Malki (Joe, on the power play) to wrest the lead back for Green later in the frame, and at this point, all signs pointed to round six of the Week One parity parade. Nope. Nick Vacchio went off script and put Green up by two early in the third, but Josh Wirt cut the lead back to the customary thinnest of margins a little over three minutes later, and the race to the finish line was on. Well, as ‘natural hat tricks’ go, this one was pretty lame (no disrespect). Vacchio’s empty netter pumped Green’s lead back to two, and his second empty netter put White down and out for good, 6-3. It certainly wasn’t the blowout that the final score made it out to be, but it did take an ultra-valiant fill-in effort from Zach Siemer (31/35) to keep it close. Don Tran (25/28) was no slouch at his end either, but the real story you can trust is that White never really managed to pose a threat to anyone but ‘Karnsma Police’ (RIP) this season. White become the second team on the playoff scrap plie, while Green live on to face the next lowest remaining seed in #7 Atomic Blue this Sunday.
The second game on the slate featured the other duo in the ‘do or die’ camp, as a (still) stunned and (now) steeled Pink faced off against the people’s champion, Lime. Knuckles whitened on both benches, as neither side could seem to solve the stellar shot-stoppers in the personages of Sean Kelly and Don Tran (subbing for legend in his own right, Alex Theis). Two scoreless periods elapsed, when Captain Mark Nagy finally broke the scoring seal on the powerplay to put Lime on top 1-0. It was Dan Jurgens who was in the box for Pink when that strike was struck, but Jurgens redeemed himself by assisting on the counterstrike from Joe Nguyen less than two minutes later to bring things level with half a period to play. All good things must come to and end…even the playoff run of my stone cold lock Cup favorite….actually, especially that…must definitely come to an end. The end took the form of…who else, Captain Jon Salt himself. The Pink captain converted a Matt Gottfried feed to build their first lead — a lead that Sean Kelly (15/16) and company would never relinquish…2-1, Pink over Lime. Don Tran (19/21) absorbed the last loss of the season for his surrogate team, who were one-two punched out of the playoffs in (very) tight losses to two of the toughest teams. ‘SubLime’ can certainly hold their heads high for their consistent level of compete from season start to finish. Local fatso and Lime super defender, Steve Linke, wistfully remarked that “this team almost made me forget about my crippling obesity, and the fact that I will be 80 next week”. Reporters quickly reminded their (super) elder that he is, indeed, very fat, and that he turned 80 a month prior…but who’s counting? Where was I…oh…Pink push forward as the highest-powered bottom in the Loses’ Bracket, and will look to sweep the leg on a Sheptycki-less Gold this week.
Captain Joel Gattey’s Orange is, well, named after a man who got away with murder. In that spirit (and, in hindsight), it can safely be said that Gattey himself ‘got away with murder’ at the draft table. Eric Herrmann is a clear first overall pick, but David Schlatter was a relative unknown…a dice roll…an x factor back on draft day. Well, if he is still a ‘relative unknown’ to you, then you haven’t played against him. The fact that this beast is on the same team, let alone the same line as Herrmann…historically sick duo from hell. Mercifully for opponents, that duo has only appeared together in five of eleven games for Orange thus far. Unfortunately for Atomic Blue, half of amazingly awesome is still either amazing or awesome, and Schlatter was one or the other for sure in a powerhouse playoff performance that pushed Orange on to the Winner’s Bracket Final. Wendy Enright had the lone assist on Schlatter’s game-winner midway through the first, Chuck Russell doubled the lead with help from Ian Crooks in the second, then it was Schlatter unassisted, and Schlatter from Enright again to cap the scoring in a 4-0 Orange roll over Atomic Blue. In the glare of all of the offensive star power, it’s easy to lose sight of the steady defense, and the netminding heroics that have brought Orange to this point. Chris Tran stopped 26/26 to stamp out any threat of a close contest, and a Hermann-less Orange moved on with relative ease to face their top-seeded rivals, Grey. Atomic Blue still have second life in the Losers’ Bracket, where they will face a team they tied 2-2 in Week Five, Green.
Captain Will Heinl’s maiden voyage at the helm of an SDFHL ship has been mostly smooth sailing. However, as any sailor can tell you, the seas can be rough and unpredictable, and you just have to hope that your crew stay onboard and healthy. After losing Jerry Gonzales to a knee injury at the end of the regular season, Gold was able to enlist the services of Dale Stuzka, and his presence helped the five seed overcome in a Week One thriller. Stuzka provides smarts and stability, but the man hoisting the main sail and manning the cannons is clearly Brian Sheptycki. Without him, Gold may find themselves sinking…and that was the case against the dread pirate, Grey(beard). Jordan Pynn wasted no time putting the favorites in favorable position, striking six seconds in to set a grim tone for Gold. Elliot Hicks tempered that tone later in the period, but Rob Gaudio turned it back up to make it 2-1 in favor of the one seed through one. Gaudio then assisted on Brandon Olsen’s game-winner in the second, before adding a powerplay goal early in the third, and an empty netter to complete the hat trick in the waning minutes to seal the 5-2 winning deal for Grey over Gold. Stuzka recorded his first point in a Gold shirt, providing the lone helper on Vinny Santora’s third period marker, but it was not nearly enough to get Gold near enough on the scoreboard to make this one interesting. Grey’s formidable firepower made it a long night in nets for Nick Meglich (15/19), while Parsa Mostafavi (11/13) continued to put shine on his Calder campaign with yet another win, helping his team cruise through to a Winner’s Bracket showdown for the ages with Orange. Gold will once again be without the services of their super sailor, Sheptycki, and hope not to find themselves Shep-wrecked in a life or death scrap with Pink.