Navy sailed to an easy win over Orange to open the Week Nine slate. It was same story, different Sunday, as the Salt brothers combined for 5 and 4, and Deborah Finucane racked up another four assists in the 7-0 spank job. Patrick Fusco and Anthony Cerasuolo played supporting roles with supporting goals, with Cerasuolo’s late first period tally holding up as the only edge that Chris Tran (24/24) would need. Navy remain in striking distance of the playoff catbird seat with the win, while Orange enter their last game of the season this Sunday needing a point or better against Silver to guarantee passage to September.

Every Week Nine game was lopsided, and Green took the baton from Navy and bludgeoned a woebegone White with it, 4-0. Kevin ‘K Dub’ Wilkinson did double damage in the first, and Steve Jones equaled that feat over the course of the reaming two periods, as Captain Chad Goins & Company officially booked bottle service at the playoff party. Jones, and new recruit, Julie Ott, each collected two assists in the win, and Chuck Bender (6/6) chalked up a ho hum shutout as Nick Vacchio’s stand-in. Green can make headway toward the top in a clash with front-running Yellow this Sunday, while White will have to continue the fight for their playoff lives without Jeff Anderson, who will be serving the second game of a two game suspension as his mates take on Black.

If you let the winnings ride from your 120:1 Week Eight ‘Kamal Gill will actually show up to play’ bet, rolling it into a Week Nine 2,000,000:1 ‘Kamal will make back to back games’ wager, you are probably reading this from the deck of your new yacht. Gill showed up, and showed up on the score sheet, powering Black to a crucial 4-0 win over Silver with a 1 and 2 flourish. The news from Captain Chris Malki is that this would be the last game of the season, and indeed the last of Gill’s SDFHL career, as he makes his way back to his home along the Vacan Sea in his native Absentia later this week. Connor Miller has been tapped as a replacement, and they may well need his power to provide the point or more they still need to ensure playoff safety. Mark Scelfo, Joe Malki (GWG), and Erin Dowrey (SHG) gave Black primary punch from ‘secondary’ sources in the win, and Chris Tran (19/20) followed his 24/24 shutout of Orange earlier in the evening with another sparkling substitute showing. Silver continue their string of vital encounters this Sunday as they take on Orange. A win will almost assuredly vault them over the cut line, while a loss may well eliminate them, and at best will leave them at the mercy of potential spoilers, Teal, in the final week of play.

Not much has gone right for Captain Mark DeGraffenreid and ‘Antealfa’ this season. Still, with reinforcements in place in Week Nine in the form of Ryan Belbin and Rob Gaudio, and with a full compliment of ten players assembled for the first time all season, hope was still in the hearts of the denizens of the deep standings. Yellow made the euthanasia quick, and mostly painless, marching to an uber-easy 5-0 win, and laying Teal to rest in the first of three plots outside the gates of Playoff Land. Mara Bernd converted a sweet passing play with a one time backhanded sweep to account for the game-winner in the first, and from there it was the Wirt & Willard show, with Josh and Eric each tallying once on the power play in the second, then once again at even strength in the third to make sure Teal was good and dead. Jimm Reifsnyder filled in for Alex Theis (who is the replacement for Nick Adkins), but Yellow literally could have won this game with an empty net. That’s right…Teal mustered FOUR shots on goal! All that remains for Teal is the potential to play spoiler in their Week Eleven tilt with Silver. A win for Yellow against Green this Sunday will lock them into the top playoff spot, but even a loss will have them well-positioned for the pole position going into the final week of play.

I’m not ready to suggest we are witnessing a torch passing just yet, but Pink’s do or die 4-1 defeat of Red was not written and directed by Andrew Jacobsen, as it absolutely would have been in years past. Patrick ‘Hatrick’ Walker delivered the 1-2-3-4 punch in this one, scoring all four goals for the winning side to bloat his impressive rookie season numbers to 9 and 2 in seven games. Walker has accounted for just under half of Pink’s goals this season (9/19), and his latest outburst may well be the season saving salvo. While the win keeps Pink from joining Antealfa in the graveyard just yet, Captain Copp & Company can only watch and hope from their bye week bleacher seats that everything goes their way this Sunday. Any combination of two of these results this Sunday: a Silver loss to Orange, a Red loss to Navy, and a White loss to Black would pave the way for Pink to defy they odds and squeak into the playoff picture in Week Eleven. The problem…their final opponent is Navy (*sad trombone*). It will surely take more than even Walkeresque level heroics to come out of that one alive…

Captain Greg Wirth’s Orange has been consistently competitive, yet dangerously cut-line-adjacent all season. A Week Eight showdown with (once mighty) Black was the first of four crucial contests between bottom half combatants. Much to Captain Chris Malki’s relief, there was a Kamal Gill sighting at the rink! Gill popped two goals in his SECOND appearance of the season, but the tried and true triumvirate of Carl Vankoughnett (2 and 3), Kris Tosczak (2 and 2), and Jim LaGrossa (1 and 2) smashed and grabbed Orange to a 5-2 win. Vankoughnett snatched POTW honors for his offensive outburst, and he and Tosczak now account for two of the top three spots in the player points race. Speaking of the points race, Orange now find themselves much more comfortably situated in the standings at 3-3-2. They will face Navy this Sunday without any ‘must win’ juju to juggle. Black…well, they ‘must win’ at least two of their remaining three games, starting with standings neighbors, Silver. It’s probably too much to ask that Kamal make a third game in two months, but they will need everything they can get to make sure they don’t lose everything they have.

Brown v Pink…much like the age-old rhyming innuendo, usually tight, sometimes an unwanted surprise, and always a tough decision. Pink got out in front early, Brown took it in the end 2-1, moving Captain Copp & Company closer to being ass out of the playoffs in the process. It was rookie sensation, Patrick Walker, putting Pink in a pretty position early, but Captain Mark Nagy just will not be denied this season. Nagy tied the game with his eighth of the season later in the first, then assisted on Mark Ennsmann’s game-winner late in the second. It was an all-Mark show for Brown, with Marc* Lapointe recording the lone helper on Nagy’s strike. London Peters arrived with 0:34 left in the game, but alas…his ability to turn the tables in that span were on a par with his ability to tell time and check the league schedule. Pink is now truly on the brink. With their bye week still looming, a loss to Silver on Sunday will spell the first official playoff elimination. A win does not guarantee that they are back in, but it may well render their last game meaningful. The win has Brown perched peacefully in third place at 4-3-1…very likely a lock for the playoff promised land already.

*Us Marks don’t really count Marcs as ‘one of us’.

Captain Mark DeGraffenreid picked up the ball off an opening faceoff win from Steve Scott, set himself, aimed…and fired a dribbling dud to a waiting Dan Jurgens. Jurgens set, and ripped a scorching slapper off Nick Meglich, then watched as the top spin propelled it past the prone and panicked goalie to make it 1-0 Red just 0:29 in. That’s pretty much all you need to know about this game, and about Teal’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season thus far. Jurgens struck again later in the first, assisted on Phil Nguyen’s first of the season in the second, then completed the hat trick in the third to march Red to an easy 4-1 win. Any hope that Ramsey Ksar’s counterstrike in the second had stirred for a desperate and decimated Teal was quickly dampened, and Teal walked away another step closer to a hockey-free September. Reinforcements (finally) arrive this Sunday in the form of Ryan Belbin and Rob Gaudio, but Teal will surely need to win out or be left out of the postseason fun. The win was huge for Red who, in spite of uneven play this season, have leveled their record at 3-3-1, and leveled their sites on a playoff position. A Week Nine win will sink Pink, and further solidify that spot in the last eight standing.

The battle of the slightly different shirt colors got off to a bit of a dramatic start, as Jeff Anderson was shown the door for…antics unbecoming…following a routine tripping call. That loss certainly hurt White’s chances…about as much as the ensuing 2-1 loss to Silver hurt their bid for playoff safety. Gideon Schon put Silver in front in the second, and Alan Razoky converted on the powerplay to double the lead late in the third. A late, goalie-pulled strike from Chris Tran kept the tension on eleven to the final whistle, but Chuck Bender (20/21) and Silver would hold on for a vital victory. Cory Brin (20/22) absorbed the tough loss at the other end…a loss the leaves White in cautiously optimistic playoff limbo at 3-3-1. Even with the W, Silver are still tight rope walking on the cut line at 3-4-0. I know I have been playing up the ‘must win’ nature of many recent games, but Silver v Black this Sunday is as critical as it gets. White will likely still need at least a point or two to punch their playoff ticket, but their Week Nine tilt with Green definitely does not drip with do or die drama.

The Week Eight night cap was a refreshing change from the standings scrapping and scrambling of the first four games. Navy have been in cruise control all season, and while Green have had some setbacks, they have remained in the top tier, in the clear, with very little fear of missing September Sundays. Still, this one was as exciting as a ho hum showdown gets, with the two sides trading punches from start to finish…a 3-3 finish, which left fans happy and lent some luster to a possible bracket rematch. Captain Jon Salt put his team ahead in the early going, but his counterpart (Captain Chad Goins) equalized exactly five minutes later. A scoreless second set up a wild third, which saw Navy jump to a 3-1 advantage on a pair of Zach Salt markers, then Green start (Jason Dick) and finish (Kevin Wilkinson) a rousing comeback to produce the no-win situation with less than a minute to play. Math is hard, but our statisticians are reasonably sure that Navy has already sown a playoff seed at 4-1-2. Green are less of a lock, but a victory over White this weekend would certainly be the key they need.

Nick Adkins has always been one of the best goalies in our league, and this season was a final exhibition of that prowess. His 17/17 shutout shutdown of Silver in Week Seven wraps his stellar swan song in nets with 6-1-0/.903/1.86/3. He is certainly a major reason for Yellow’s tear to the top this season, and was easily the first star in their 2-0 win over Silver. Chuck Bender (16/18) was no slouch at the other end, as the teams battled through two scoreless frames before Bill Casey finally broke through on the powerplay early in the third. Josh Wirt converted a Shawna Hamon helper just fourteen seconds later, and that was more than enough for Captain Pereira’s side…especially with Adkins behind them. The win keeps Yellow on top of the pile with three games left in their schedule. Silver remain on shaky ground with the loss, still below the cut line, and battling for post season passage with a handful of other teams.

Adkins suited down to join FIVE other teammates in a battle for their playoff lives against Black. Coming in at 0-4-1, a loss would have effectively eliminated Teal. Captain DeGraffenreid & Company needed this win to stay alive in the playoff hunt, but they wanted a win for Nick at least as much. Fresh recruit (but old, familiar face), Steve Scott, got Teal off to the right start with his first late in the first, but Joe Malki brought things level in the second. Sadie Hellstrom’s second week of ironwoman effort bore a second goal in the third, her third of the season. It was fated fruit for the fearless forward, as it would stand as the decider in an improbable, desperately needed 3-1 win for Teal. Jon ‘JZ’ Zygelman allowed Teal to exhale, depositing an empty-netter off the post and in, and Nick Meglich (18/19) was finally rewarded for his stellar pipe work with a notch in the left-most column. Teal remain in must-win mode against Red this Sunday, while Black look for a rebound result in a middle of the pack showdown with Orange.

Captain Copp’s Pink underperformed their way into the ‘must-win’ camp as well, and finding Green due up on the schedule could not have been a pleasant prospect. Still, one of the main problems for Pink has been the absence of key players, and one the keyest of key players for any roster he has graced is the speedy/dynamic London Peters. Week Seven marked just the second appearance for Peters, and he would not make his presence known until late in the second in this one. Bob Marsolini, Hima Joshi, and Chris Tullio carried the scoring torch for Pink in a wild and loose first that also featured Green counterstrikes from Captain Chad Goins and suddenly stirring super sniper, Steve Jones. Patrick Walker and Mostafa Azab traded goals in the second to bring the tally to 4-3, Pink, and that pesky Peters potted the game-winner on the power player to close out the scoring through two. Jones’ second of the night came on the powerplay early in the third, but Nick Megich (16/20) would hold on to preserve the lead and the 5-4 win for his surrogate team. The win was crucial for Pink, who remain below the cut line at 2-5-0 with their bye week still to come. A win against Brown would do wonders for their playoff outlook, while a loss may spell certain doom. Green have been inconsistent and enigmatic this season, for sure, but they remain on the right side of .500, and well entrenched in the playoff picture at 3-2-1.

At risk of reading like a broken record, Brown came into play against Orange in Week Seven with a ‘must win’ mindset. With their bye week still looming, a loss would keep them cozy with the cutline, and running out of time to scramble to safety. Fortunately for Captain Mark Nagy, Brown has a really good player on the roster…Captain Mark Nagy. Nagy continued his sparkling season with another two goal effort, scoring less than a minute in, and again with just over three minutes to play to pace his team to a massive 4-3 win. Jordan Pynn and Matt Rogers provided the meat to Nagy’s winning bread slices, while Kris Tosczak collected primary assists on all three Orange goals (Wieland, Vankoughnett, LaGrossa) in the losing effort. Neither team is out of the woods yet, but Brown now carries some confidence and some key tie breakers into their final three games. Orange will look to slip past Black (and slide past them in the standings, as well) in Week Eight. Brown will look for some insurance (and another tie breaker for their bat belt) in the always-anticipated Stink v Pink bowl.

I’ll stop short of suggested that either side in the Red v White nightcap NEEDED to win, but honestly…all but two teams need all the points in the standings they can scavenge, at this point. Jeff Anderson elected for ‘snatch’ over ‘scavenge’, scorching Red for a first period hat trick to set a winning tone for White. Brian Sheptycki mixed in a response for Red, but Gary Peters restored the three goal lead with his second of the season late in the frame. Sheptycki added a second after a scoreless second, but that would be the extent of the pushback for Red in the 4-2 loss. Cory Brin (23/25) continued his strong campaign, battling injury as much as opposition to even his personal record at 2-2-1. With a winning record and their bye week behind them, White can breathe a bit more easily moving into the final weeks of play. They can spoil Silver’s season with a win on Sunday, and all but assure themselves of a playoff spot in the process. Red will look to their showdown with a retooled Teal this weekend as…you guessed it…a must win.

Orange continued their climb out of the basement, notching their second straight win to even their record at 2-2-2 (the proverbial half full/half empty). Their 4-2 downing of Pink was decided in the first period, as a trio of Orange offensive strikes landed to give them a lush lead. Emily Bennington opened the scoring with her first of the season, with Kris Tosczak following just over a minute later, and Joe Nguyen netting the game-winner less than a minute after that. Chris Tullio’s first of the season got Pink on the board in the second, but Nguyen struck again early in the third (this time short-handed), putting things out of reach for good (in spite of a late Tullio encore). Carl Vankoughnett provided the primary on Orange’s first two goal, and Steve Deppensmith earned his first win of the season with a 16/18 effort. Pink are in peril now at 1-5-0, having only managed a win against winless Teal in Week Five. They’ll need a strong showing against Green this Sunday, or it could be time to start making alternate plans for September Sundays…

Week Six…Game Two…game of the season, so far. You’d have found that statement laughable, if you’d left the rink after a laugher of a first period that saw Yellow cruise out to a 4-0 lead. Josh Wirt struck twice, taking turns with Eric Willard and Shawna Hamon in a score-at-will show of power. Captain Mark Nagy led his team back by example, cutting the lead in half with goals less than a minute apart in the early second. Wirt completed the hat trick later in the middle frame, but Matt Rogers third of the season made it 5-3 going into the third. Jordan Pynn provided the next wave of heroics for Brown, cutting the lead to one at 9:32 in the third, then knotting the score with a short-handed stunner at 7:06. A 4-0 Yellow rout job was now a marvelous 5-5 melee…anyone’s game with seven minutes to play. Of course, this game just begged for a dramatic finish, and Mr. Wirt obliged. His fourth of the night, the game-winner, came on a scramble…a wicked backhand roof job from a tough angle…6-5, Yellow…WOW! The wild win keeps Yellow out ahead of the entire field at 5-1-0, while the tough loss is particularly bitter for Brown, who need all the points they can get to scramble to cut line safety from their 2-3-1 perch.

Captain Mark DeGraffenreid gave AnTealfa their first lead of the season at 8:21 in this first. You read that right…their first lead of the season. It wouldn’t last. Steve Jones scored late in the first (1:08), and even later in the second (0:06) to turn the tide for Green. Sadie Hellstrom forced one home to keep Teal daydreaming of a positive outcome, but Mostafa Azab snapped them (rudely) awake with the game-winner in the late going. Empty-netters from Captain Chad Goins and one to complete the ‘hat trick’ for Jones made this one look like a laugher at 5-2, but it was certainly no laughing matter for Teal, who remain careening toward elimination at 0-4-1. The win rights the ship for Green, who had suffered their first loss of the season to Orange the week prior. They will look to continue feasting on bottom feeders in Week Seven, as they take on 1-5-0 Pink. Teal will hope against hope for a good result against Black to keep their season alive. and send Nick Adkins out with style in his final SDFHL game.

The penultimate pairing of the night was a soccer match between Red and Black. Like most soccer matches, it ended in a 1-1 draw. Red’s Chuck Russell was the main reason it was close at all, as he stole a point with a 29/30 showing. Sean Kelly was tested less than half as much at the other end, but earned the same result, stopping 13/14. Joe Malki had Black on the board first (in the first), and Steve Linke second of the season (in the second) was the answer echoing through an otherwise hollow score sheet. The result keeps both teams safely in the middle of the back, both with their bye week behind them, and both primed for the playoffs with five games left to play.

Deborah Finucane shoved the Salt boys out of the scoring spotlight in Week Six, touching twine thrice, and assisting on the game-winner in Navy’s 4-1 waltz past White. That other goal did belong to Zach Salt, so I suppose a sliver of spotlight was shared, after all. Meanwhile, the lone bright spot for White was newcomer, Jon Champine, who scored his first SDFHL goal early in the third to give his team a glimmer of hope. However, with Chris Tran unavailable in nets for Navy (because…well…he plays out for White!), it was a dominant-as-usual Sean Kelly seeing Navy through to the win (24/25). Navy remain in striking distance for the top playoff spot as they head into their bye week, while the loss leaves White in limbo at 2-2-1. Their next opponent carries the same record into Week Seven, with an important second half start at stake for both sides.