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!

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.

The four and five seeds squared off in 3:30 showdown to kick off the Week One slate. With five games scheduled for the first time in SDFHL history, this early start time would all but guarantee that all games would wrap before lights out, even if (scoff) every game went into OT and/or shootout. The first period saw furious back and forth action, with Brian Sheptycki putting Gold up one just 0:11 in, Nick Vacchio responded just 0:26 later, then added a second at the 8:10 mark. Ezra Cohen evened matters at 2-2 minutes later, but Chris Malki snatched back the lead for Green to close out a wild first frame. A scoreless second saw Nick Meglich (36/39) add eleven saves to his impressive nightly total, and both goalies kept things clean all the way through the third, as well…well…almost clean, and almost all the way through. With just 0:05 left on the clock, Vinny Santora converted a sparkling feed from Brian Sheptycki, sending his bench into a frenzy, and sending the first game of the night into overtime. The five minutes of bonus hockey produced no winner, so it was on to the shootout. Recent Jerry Gonzales replacement, Dale Stuzka, and Chris Malki came up empty in the first round, Ezra Cohen and Nick Vacchio were sent off scoreless in the second round, then Brian Sheptycki and Captain Joe Malki matched markers in the third round. It was the regulation hero reprising his role in the fourth round, as Vinny Santora cashed in to give Gold a 2-1 edge. Tom Darlington failed to match Santora on his turn, and a blank-blank round from Sadie Hellstrom and Jeanine Stuzka meant that Gold would finally, incredibly, prevail 4-3 in a marathon thriller over Green. So much for the early start…one game in, and the 4:30 game would now be starting at about 5:05…tick tock…

The second game was much of the same…very close…too close for regulation to decide. Pat Gladstone picked the right time for her first goal of the season, and that time was 0:05 remaining in the first. ‘The Matts’ (DeBerry and Gottfried) collected assists on that goal, and ‘The Gottfrieds’ (Kaity and Matt) assisted on Captain Jon Salt’s early second period goal to make it 2-0, Pink. Carl Vankoughnett cut the lead in half minutes later, and Mostafa Azab brought Atomic Blue even early in the third. Sean Kelly (20/23), and Nick ‘The New Wayne Wong’ Vacchio (15/17) kept things level the rest of the way, and we were on to OT for the second time in as many games. Mercifully, this one didn’t stretch deep into OT and beyond, as Luke Wolmer netted the game-winner on the power play just fourteen seconds into extra time (assists to Zach Salt and Kyra Forsyth). The 3-2 overtime Atomic Blue win over Pink was certainly a stunner, and will no doubt also haunt Captain Salt’s Thanksgiving table for years to come. The two seeds now find themselves on the Loser’s Bracket side of the fence, after losing their first game since their May 1st opener. Atomic Blue stride on to the Winner’s side of the picture, and will look to topple three-seeded, Orange to continue their sneak attack on the throne this Sunday.

On to game three…now running over an hour behind…tick…tock. Enter Blue and White, the first ever participants in a ‘play-in’ game in league history. Blue won their first two games of the season, then slid into a deep funk to finish in the eight spot at 2-5-1. White…the only team with a worse record at 1-6-1, but also having collected their only regular season win at Blue’s expense. Alan Razoky was in his old first round form in this one, accounting for all three Blue goals (with Mark DeGraffenreid providing all three primary assists), but White had an answer for every Razoky question. Josh Wirt, Harsh Wanigaratne, and Jeff Chen each provided one of those answers to bring regulation to a close with YET ANOTHER tie. Cory Brin (17/20) was almost twice as busy as Chuck Bender (8/12), but the important number is overtime goals against. Brin won that battle, as Wirt got loose and delivered the last nail in Blue’s Sprummer coffin with 0:18 remaining, playing White into the playoffs with a 4-3 OT win. It was clearly never really meant to be for Captain Ryan Karns and ‘Karnsma Police’, while White’s ability to beat them was the key to the ‘real’ second season…starting right away against top-seeded Grey…

Shockingly (sarcasm), it was another tight, nail-biting tilt between a rested Grey, and a worn, but warm White. If you’re scoring at home, this game started closer to 8:00 than 7:30…it was originally scheduled for 7:00…tick…tock. A scoreless first bled into a scoreless second, and White had to be waiting for another wow moment to complete a staggering opening night coup. That moment never came, as Parsa Mostafavi (11/11) held the fort, and held off a hard-charging Wirt to lead Grey to a 1-0 win. It was Rob Gaudio (from Jim LaGrossa and Brandon Olsen) doing the only damage to Cory Brin’s stat line (14/15), but the lone goal would be the game-winner, as regulation finally, mercifully, produced a winner. White remain alive in the playoff picture, but face a tough challenge in Green in Week Two. Grey march on to face #5 Gold, whom they bested 3-0 in Week Seven.

TIck tock…definitely up against the clock now, as Orange and Lime wrapped warm-ups at around 8:45. Vance Morra was absolutely on a mission out of the gate for the underdogs, accounting for the only goal in the first, and snapping a second past Chris Tran to give ‘SubLime’ a 2-0 lead through two. Well…almost through two. Chuck Russell sneaked a retaliation in with 0:14 to go in the middle stanza, then brought Orange even early in the third (from Gary Peters and David Schlatter). This is going to shock you, but…that’s how regulation would end, with a 2-2 tie, and the clock hands spinning swiftly towards ‘lights out’. At approximately 9:43, Gary Peters struck to turn the lights out on Lime 3-2, with Chuck Russell on the primary assist to earn the primary star of the night with 2 and 1 totals. The loss was not without an impressive silver lining for Lime. They (somehow) managed to hold Eric ‘The Sherriff’ Herrmann to ZERO points, and David Schlatter to one measly second assist. Steve Linke earns an honorary star for having a heavy hand in that feat, and Lime will need him at his best, and a stellar sub showing from Don Tran again to survive Captain Jon Salt and a hungry-for-vengeance Pink. Chris Tran (9/11) and Orange move on to face upstart Atomic Blue in Week Two, with the their regular season 6-1 Schlatter-less smash job serving as copious confidence fuel.