Boxes are up…recaps to come…

Captain Rob Lavigne and ‘Mr Brown‘ had the prototypical up and down season…literally DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP-UP-DOWN-EVEN-DOWN-UP-UP. So, two two-game win ‘streaks’, and never back-to-back losses, but never quite finding a consistent winning groove. One of those ‘DOWNs’, a 6-3 drubbing in Week Six, came courtesy of their first round playoff opponents, Black. So vengeance, and hopes of a third straight win carried LaVigne & Company into battle with Captain Rob Gaudio’s only-slightly-lower seeded ‘Threat Level Midnight’. It was Captain Lavigne himself leading the charge for Brown…an unassisted strike at 6:02 in the first. Black sprung to life just twenty-two seconds later, with Jim LaGrossa leveling the ledger (from Kyle Snyder), then Snyder putting Black on top at 2:56, and LaGrossa extending the edge to two at 0:32. A quiet second period bled into a just-as-quiet third, as both Nick Meglich (17/20) and Cory Brin (12/13) made sure no more net would be tautened on their respective watches…meaning that Black would have Brown’s number once again, this time by a final of 3-1. Brin has signed on as Black’s goalie for the remainder of the playoffs, giving him a second chance at a sense of success after a miserable season behind Grey lines. He’ll look to keep the five seed high fiving in a Week Two showdown with top dogs, Orange, while Meglich and his Mr. Brown mates will hope to stave off an early elimination against bottom-seeded Green.

Neon’s David Schlatter’s season ending hat trick against Grey was (in my head, anyway) a proverbial gauntlet toss in the general direction of Red’s John Boddy. Schlatter’s effort not only helped Neon clinch a playoff spot just in the nickest of times, but also moved him past Boddy (whose Red side suffered a shocking shutout loss to Green in their regular season finale) for the season scoring title. Back in Week Six, it was Boddy laughing first with a 4 and 2 dunk job on Schlatter and friends, powering Red to a 7-2 win that at the time seemed to set the teams on opposite courses. Those courses would meet again, though…but would it be Schlatter or Boddy who would have the next, and possibly final laugh of the winter in this brewing battle of badasses? Scott Wieland converted a Boddy pass into pay dirt just over a minute into play, and Captain Sean Bathgate and Neon found themselves on the backfoot, outshot 10-4 (good buddy) with Red’s trademark miserly defense controlling play, and keeping Neon’s top-ranked offense at bay. Schlatter brought Neon even with an unassisted effort early in the second, and Boddy (on cue) responded just 0:38 later (from Wieland) to wrest the lead back for the heavy favorites. Folks…you can’t make this up…FIVE seconds later, Schlatter fired back with his second goal in a minute to knot the score again at 2-2. The third was not only scoreless, but nearly shotless, with Red holding a meager 4-3 edge, and it was on to overtime. I did not watch this game, and I heard no whispers (nor shouts) of any controversy of any kind, but the box score clearly indicates that this game literally came down to the final tick on the clock! That last tick belonged to Red’s Josh Tran, whose buzzer beater came with the help of…who else…a smiling, redeemed Boddy. Jon Cima (10/12) did less than half the labor as Chuck Bender (24/27) in the 3-2 overtime thriller, but was paid handsomely with his first career playoff win. Red advance in the winners’ bracket to take on an upstart Gold, while Neon face a down, but determine Blue in a tough draw win-or-go-home challenge.

The parity in this league can be rather profound, at times. Captain Geoff Downes’ ‘Orange-Vod-Juice-Ka’ rolled through the regular season with ridiculous ease, cruising into their Week Eleven bye with the top seed already in hand at 7-1-2. Captain Luke Wolmer’s ‘Kelly Kapoorsports’ took quite the opposite path to this Week One playoff clash, slipping into the final February spot with a crazy clutch win over Red to close out the regular season slate. A closer look at the respective origin stories shows one important entry, though…Green bested Orange 1-0 back in Week Five, a loss that would stand as the only mark in that column all season for the number one seed. Mind you, both teams were without some key players in that first meeting, but it’s probably safe to say that the absence of Justin Ker and Zach Salt gave Green an edge that they could not count on counting on in a playoff rematch. As the fates would have it, this one was also a 1-0 game, and as the odds and balance of the cosmos would have it, this 1-0 win belonged to Orange. Scoreless first. Scoreless second. Scoreless third! Neither vaunted veteran goalie would budge, and this grudge match would trudge the second straight playoff match into overtime. If you’re scoring at home (which I rarely do), that is a combined ONE goal for these two teams through six period of play, and the next goal would be a big one. It was the captain himself…Downes delivering the game-winner with just 0:44 to play, with assists to those two previously MIA WMDs, Ker and Salt. Sean Kelly (25/26) was as all-world as ever, but it is really beginning to look like Matt Henderson’s world. Henderson’s 16/16 was just another exhibit in a museum-quality season. He has had these unconscious runs before, and they have ended with him waking up next to his mates…holding the Cup. Orange has more work to be done before that vision becomes a reality. They move on in the winners’ bracket to face Black, whom they defeated 2-0 just a few weeks back. Green does not want their narrow regular season escape to end in two-and-out vain, but they will need to find some scoring if they hope to survive past a Week Two meeting with Brown.

Captain Jon Salt’s ‘Bluesnickel’ breezed through the first 4/5 of their regular season, only to stub their toe (and every other body part) in back-to-back blowout losses…their only two losses of the season. Beyond serving as an unwanted momentum parachute going into the playoffs, the 12-3 total score in those L’s, and the fact that the second loss came to a pretty punchless (and already dead and gone) Purple was certainly cause for concern. Captain Kaitlyn Brusso and our cover team, ‘Golden Dundies’ may not have been invited to get on the mic at Chili’s to accept the ‘Most Dominant Team’ award in the regular season, but they did prove to have plenty of power and poise, with a resurgent AJ/Alan combo leading them back from the dead to the sixth seed in the new year. Kevin Wilkinson, who joined Blue as a scheduled late season replacement for the irreplaceable Kalen Hunter, was first to act, getting Blue on the board first with just 0:28 to play in the first (from Janine Ulloa and Captain Salt). Joe Nguyen doubled Blue’s delight early in the second, with assists coming from the dynamic mother-son duo of Janine and Matthew Ulloa. A little birdie (not his mom) wanted to make sure I made mention that Matthew’s first SDFHL point (CONGRATULATIONS!) was an absolute sparkler. Well done, kid…you have a bright future in this league. Meanwhile, Alan Razoky would spoil the moment on the power play later in the second, converting what I can only assume was an Andrew Jacobsen clean draw straight back to the point. It was all Gold and no silver lining for Blue in the third, with Jacobsen getting Gold even at 6:25 (from Razoky and Arnold Gonzales), then striking for the game-winner at 1:35 (from Zach Siemer). Razoky added an empty-netter with one second remaining (not quite the glory goal enjoy by Josh Tran earlier in the evening), bringing the final to 4-2 in favor of the non-favorites. Don Tran (20/22) was steady as ever in the win, while Nick Vacchio (11/14) could only watch his stellar season soiled a bit further with a third straight loss. It was the ‘big upset of the night’, but Blue is now on a three game slide, and looks very beatable/beaten. They will need to pull the nose of the plane up in a Week Two tilt with Neon, while Gold puts their house money on the line against the second seed, the league’s best defense, and the oldest captain in league history, Red’s Steven P Linke.

Well, if you read the caption above, you already know that nothing went to plan in Week Eleven for Captain Joel Gattey’s White side. The odds were ever in their favor coming in, as White had not one, but two head-to-head tie breakers in their back pocket, meaning even a loss to Black would not (in and of itself) be the end of the line, so long as Green OR Neon also lost. Lining up with four players out (Captain Gattey, Jerry Gonzales, Jon Zygelman, and Parsa Mostafavi) would have most teams on edge, but when your last line of defense if Silas ‘The Silencer’ Perks, you have a chance to win no matter what math and logic may have to say about it. Not only had Perks’ team never failed to make the playoffs, they had never failed to make the Final! Captain Rob Gaudio and ‘Threat Level Midnight’ looked to subvert that trend and punch their own playoff ticket, and it was the captain himself that got the ball rolling for Black in the first (from Wendy Enright and Kyle Snyder). Snyder cashed in on the powerplay in the second (from Gaudio and Mason LaGrossa) to add some pad, but the first one was all that super sub Nick Vacchio (12/12) would need against a stripped down White attack. Perks (31/33) did indeed give his team a chance to win with another heroic performance, but the lack of personnel and punch was too much to overcome, and Black would move on to February play with a 2-0 win while White would have to hope for some help to avoid being the last team out…

Captain Mark Nagy and ‘The Money Beets’ just never seemed to have enough this season. Ties that ‘should have been wins’, losses that ‘should have been ties’, and blowouts that ‘should have been closer’…too much ‘should’, and not nearly enough ‘good’. When you roll into the final week of play with nothing to gain, you also have nothing to lose. Captain Jon Salt’s ‘Bluesnickel’ was in a similar position…just at the other end of the standings. A win would only serve to shore up their second seed spot, while a loss could only knock them down one peg. Still…I like to think that most (if not all) SDFHLers play with pride, and play to win, regardless of the stakes, and as much as they stumbled and fumbled their way down the vault runway, Purple really wanted to stick the landing on a tough season. Blue did not seem to miss a beat in the absence of Captain Salt and Mark Ennsmann, with Greg Wirth opening the scoring (from Kevin Wilkinson), then Wilkinson doubling the damage less than two minutes later. Wilkinson made it 3-0 early in the second (from Joe Nguyen and Maureen Ruchhoeft), and whatever pride and ‘play to win’ passion within Purple players hearts was put to one final test. *cue inspirational sports movie music* That’s when the leash came off the scoring lions for Purple….Captain Nagy from TK Mason and Josh Wirt at 5:02, Mark DeGraffenreid unassisted at 4:31, DeGraffenreid from Nagy and Craig Russell at 2:07, and Josh Wirt unassisted at 1:03…four goals in less than four minutes, as Purple FINALLY found that surge they had been so sorely lacking all season. Wirt added an insurance marker early in the third, and DeGraffenreid completed his first hat trick since the Mesozoic Era late (from Nagy and Ian Crooks) to cap a wild and wonderful 6-3 win for Purple which, while ‘meaningless’, meant a lot for a good group that fought hard to the bitter end. Chris Tran (16/19) finally got the goal support he needed/deserved in the win, while Nick Vacchio (15/21) will look to shake off two straight losses (Blue’s only L’s on the season) and get his team back on track in their playoff opener versus #6 Gold.

Captain Kyle Prior’s Grey had an even worse winter than Purple, sitting alone in the standings basement at 2-7-0 coming into Week Eleven…just playing out the string in a game with no meaning at all for them (minus the aforementioned pride), and a mountain of meaning for their opponent. Captain Sean Bathgate’s Neon knew that one point would punch their ticket after watching White fall by the wayside, but a loss would absolutely leave them in jeopardy of a cut line catastrophe, with White wielding the all-important tie breaker totems. David Schlatter is, well, a fucking beast. his 22 points coming in had him just behind Red’s John Boddy for the season scoring title. His goal to open the scoring in this one at 6:49 in the first put him in a tie in that race, and put Neon out in front, 1-0. Jordan Pynn would equalize for Grey less than thirty seconds later, but Carl Vankoughnett would restore Neon’s edge at 5:34 (from Weston Nawrocki). Brandon Olsen (from Captain Prior) drew the underdogs level again in the second, setting up a winner-take-all third. Captain Bathgate recaptured the lead for his team (from Matt Gottfried), and Schlatter doubled the trouble for Grey with his second of the game at 6:32 (from Bathgate). Andy Strathman kept Grey alive with a response just thirteen clicks later, but Schlatter would complete his hat trick in the late going (from Chris Fiore) to finish the season atop the scoring charts with 17 and 8, and finish (an already finished) Grey 5-3. Cory Brin (28/33) was on the busier end of the rink in yet another hard luck loss, while Chuck Bender (20/23) and Neon knew that they had done what they needed to do to make it out of January alive. With the Gottfrieds (Kaity and Matt) departing (BEST WISHES, YOU TWO!), Neon’s new recruits (Julie Ott and Jackson Tomaszewski) are in place and ready for playoff play. Neon will face second-seeded Red in their opener, or what the media is calling ‘The Battle: Boddy v Schlatter’…get your popcorn ready!

Green’s gutty, grindy Week Ten draw against Purple was as important as it was improbable. Of course, Purple proved to be pretty powerless over the course of the season, but starting any game with just five players and a goalie, then losing one of those five player in the second period usually spells L. That one Week Ten point, coupled with White’s Week Eleven loss, meant that Green could squeak into the postseason with anything but a loss against a potent and poised Red side. A scoreless first had Green hopeful (any period without a point for John Boddy is a major win), and a strong second had them in control. It was Captain Luke Wolmer leading the way, converting on the powerplay at 7:19 (from birthday boy old man, Chris Malki), then building the lead with his second at 6:02 (from Ramsey Ksar and Jason Lee). The shots kept piling up for the Captain Linke-led favorites, but Sean ‘Da Kid’ Kelly (33/33) was in HOF form from start to finish in this one. A full court empty-netter from the elder Malki was icing on his birthday cake, and extra reason to exhale for Green, who had limped and labored for much of the season, but won when they needed to…a 3-0 slide past the second seed, and into the final playoff position. Jon Cima (20/22) finished the season with a strong (enough) 5-3-1/.862/2.00/2 SO line, while Boddy’s blanking dropped him out of the top spot in the scoring race (no doubt making him eager for playoff vengeance). Green’s big win was a big loss for White, who became the final victim of regular season play. Captain Wolmer & Company can only bask in the glory of making the playoffs for so long…they have a date with top-seeded Orange out of the gate. Red held on to their second seed in spite of the loss (thanks to Blue’s loss to Purple), and will face new-player-laden Neon in their playoff opener this Sunday.

With the playoff pool settled, the night cap (and final game of the regular season) would serve as a mere postseason appetizer for both Gold and Brown. Still, both sides had secured wins in their previous two games coming in, and continuing any momentum at this point in the proceedings is never a bad thing. A scoreless first saw Gold outshoot Brown 8-1, but Nick Meglich was up to the task, and zeroes were the heroes going into the second. Andrew Jacobsen, still in the scoring title sweepstakes coming in, put Gold on the board at 8:31 in the middle frame (from Matt Groe), and Gold continued to pour on the pressure with nine more shots (to Brown’s four). The third period was the twist, though, with Brennen Abel bringing Brown back to even footing (from Dan Soar) at 8:06, then finding the game-winner (also from Soar) with 3:18 to play. Tempers flared quite a bit at this point, but (sadly) the most flared temper was that of a certain referee that I have known my entire life…you might say we are really close. After the shock and awe of that outburst had subsided, the game continued, and Meglich (19/20) made sure that Brown remained in winning form, prevailing over Gold 2-1 to vault over FOUR other teams and into the four seed. Gold was one of those four jumped-over teams, but even with the loss, they held of to the six seed based on the ‘total wins’ tie breaker over both Neon and Green. Don Tran was not in nets for his team in this one, but Sean Kelly (11/13) absorbed the loss in a fill-in performance, giving him a personal line of 44/46 with a win and a loss on the evening. Captain Kaitlyn Brusso and Gold will look to avenge a 4-2 Week Two loss, and extend Blue’s rather unexpected two game losing streak, while Captain Rob LaVigne and Brown will also be bent on revenge, facing a Black team that bested them 6-3 back in Week Six.

Captain Mark Nagy and ‘The Money Beets’ dragged the soggy, bloated, rat-eaten corpse-to-be body of their playoff hopes into Week Ten, needing every available point in their remaining two games and a lot of help to miracle a way into what would surely be a two and out post season cul de sac. The desperation was not nearly as deep for Captain Luke Wolmer’s ‘Kelly Kapoorsports’ but at 2-4-2 coming in, a loss to the lowly likes of Purple would leave them in a very precarious place going into the final week of play. Spirits rose on the Beets bench, as it became clear through the course of warmups that Green brought the bare minimum to play…no subs, and no sign of Captain Wolmer, Chris Malki, Erick Zawislak, Matt DeBerry, and Ramsey Ksar. Superstar ball stopper, Sean Kelly…also MIA, albeit with the capable presence of Matt Henderson in nets in his stead. Purple…perfect attendance…primed for a crucial win to keep their season on life support a little longer. A scoreless first had Green encouraged, and the Purple huddle reminding one another that the bones of their opponent’s skeleton crew would surely tire out soon enough. Captain Nagy put his team in front at 7:15 in the second (from Josh Wirt), putting some evidence behind that theory, but Joe Malki converted at 3:53 (from Matt Rogers) to draw the subless side level. Wirt snatched the lead back for Purple (from Mark DeGraffenreid) at 2:10, and it began to look like the long-suffering Beets would go on to control the remainder of the game and secure the crucial two points. Things looked even brighter for Purple and bleaker for Green when Matt Rogers went down and stayed down after a breakaway attempt late in the middle period. Rogers would be carried off with a significant knee injury, leaving Green with just FOUR players and a goalie. It was agreed that Grey Captain, Kyle Prior, could come in to at least match the number of bodies on each side (Prior was a great sport, squeezing into the Green female sub shirt). Purple’s second intermission pow wow had a distinct vibe of imminent victory. After all…a full bench against a team with no subs, no Rogers, and not much left in tired legs. Well…not-so-spoiler alert…Purple found the banana peel. Joe Malki led the attack for Green from the back, slapping a shot off the end boards that bounced out to the side of the net where Jason Lee batted home the game-tying tally…2-2 with two minutes to play. I know this veers off The Office theme, but you could actually pinpoint the second Purple’s hearts ripped in half. Purple’s position brought on that rarest of situations where a team must pull their goalie in a tie game. A single point would do them no good, but that is all they would get (thankfully avoiding the embarrassment of an empty-net game-loser)…2-2 final…RIP, Purple…Green’s season still alive and kicking into Week Eleven.

The haves and have-nots did battle in the second game on the slate, with Captain Geoff Downes’ ‘Orange Vod-Juice-Ka’ playing out the final game of their rip roaring regular season (6-1-2, coming in) against a Grey team very much on death’s door at 2-6-0. I won’t sugar coat this one with pseudo suspense…Orange crushed. Zach Salt cashed in at 6:57 in the first (from Chad Goins and Mostafa Azab), then went on to pour in three more in the second (from Azab, then Glenn Pinto and Justin Ker, then unassisted for his fourth). Captain Kyle Prior (now wearing the properly-fitting proper shirt for his team) had equalized on the power play at 9:03 in the second (from Andy Strathman and Leah Gonzales), but the Salt spate left the score at 4-1 going into the last ten minutes of play. Chad Goins accounted for the lone goal in the third (from Ryan Karns and Salt), putting Grey down and officially out of their season-long misery, 5-1. Matt Henderson (15/16 in this one) capped his Vezina-worthy season with a line of .941/1.22/2 SO, and while Salt did not find the top of the scoring pile this time around, it could (rightly) be argued that it was only because he missed four games. He led the league in PPG with 2.83, and Orange led the league in nearly every important statistical category. Orange is the only team ‘in the club house’, and they can enjoy their Week Eleven bye knowing that they have already secured the top playoff seed at 7-1-2. Grey join Purple on the scrap heap, actually sinking BELOW the Beets with the loss, with ‘who will finish worst’ the only remaining mystery for either team heading into this Sunday’s play.

Two teams already locked into a playoff spot locked horns looking for a better seat at the post season table, with Captain Steve Linke’s ‘Red-Dit-Dit-Di-Doo’ hoping to hand Captain Jon Salt’s ‘Bluesnickel’ their first loss. This one was billed as a sure fire barn burner, but turned into a bone fide bludgeoning, thanks to Big Bad Boddy. Two unassisted Boddy strikes at 8:57 and 8:07 in the first had Red up 2-0 through one, and Sadie Hellstrom made it 3-0 early in the second (from Justin Stege and Phil Nguyen). Another pair of tallies for Boddy over the ensuing few minutes broke this game wide open (from Mark Scelfo, then Hellstrom), and Hellstrom’s second to close out the furious flurry (from Boddy and Captain Linke) left Blue utterly shell shocked, down half a dozen with 12:31 to play. Nick Vacchio (17/23) did stop the bleeding, in spite of Red ripping another eleven shots his way, but Jon Cima (21/21) and Red’s stout defense shut down any retaliation, and a snarling Red offense scorched their way to a big 6-0 win. Blue’s first loss of the season drops them to 4-1-4, now sitting behind Linke’s Red, who hold the wins and head-to-head tie breaker over their rivals at 5-2-2. Neither team can slip any lower than the four seed, so their respective finales will be more about pride, playoff posturing, and (for Blue) recovering their winning mojo. Boddy’s latest ballistic barrage has him atop the league scoring chart with 23 points (15 and 8), but both David Schlatter and Andrew Jacobsen are nipping at his heels, each sitting with a line of 14 and 8. Oh yeah…Sadie Hellstrom also leads all female players in scoring with ten points (4 and 6), and Red leads the league in goals for (32), shots for (219), shots against (113), and shot differential (106). Of course, it remains to be seen whether those nifty numbers will translate to post season success.

Two teams at a crucial crossroads crossed swords next, with the winner assured a playoff perch, and the loser left in the quagmire (giggity) of eight point hopefuls going into the final week of play. Captain Sean Bathgate’s Neon was only slightly more in need of a W, with their 3-3-2 record falling behind Captain Kaitlyn Brusso’s 4-4-0 on the merit of the first playoff tie-breaker, total wins. Still, a head-to-head win would do wonders for either side, while a loss meant mere uncertainty, not certain death. Andrew Jacobsen put Gold on top at 5:40 in the first (from Erin Plone), and Sev Brown doubled the lead at almost exactly the same point in the second (from Jacobsen). Neon’s first response came from the likeliest of sources, with David Schlatter pushing home a power play point to cut Gold’s lead to 2-1 through two. It was Jacobsen again at 9:04 in the third, then again for the hat trick at 6:48 (from Brown) to build Gold’s lead to 4-1. Kaity Gottfried, playing in her last game for Neon, and likely her last career SDFHL game, went out with a bang to bring Neon back within two (from Carl Vankoughnett and Schlatter), but it was too little, too late. Jacobsen’s 3 and 1 gave him the bragging rights win over scoring ladder rival Schlatter, and powered Gold to a playoff-clinching 4-2 win in the process. Julie Ott has been tapped to step in for Kaity, with a replacement for husband Matt expected early next week (should Neon punch their ticket). Don Tran (15/17) collected his fifth win of the season, while Chuck Bender (17/21) absorbed the loss to drop his personal season record back to .500 (3-3-2). As noted, the win has Gold in with ten points (5-4-0), while Neon is left to battle for their playoff lives in their season finale this Sunday. They join fellow eight pointers Black, White, and Green in the hopper of hope that is Week Eleven. Neon has the advantage of facing cellar-dwelling Grey, while Green must face a robust Red, and Black and White play each other in a game primed for the possibility of the always controversial ‘gentlemens’ agreement tie’.

The night cap saw Dan Soar and Brennen Abel popping six caps in White’s ass, leaving Captain Joel Gattey’s team wallowing in the cut line muck and mire down to the Week Eleven wire. Abel kicked off the scoring just 0:38 in (from Soar and Captain Rob LaVigne), then Soar punched home a pair (from Abel and Janice Darlington, then unassisted) to give Brown a commanding 3-0 lead through one period of play. Abel notched the lone goal of the second (from Soar), then the dynamic duo completed their respective hat tricks in the third…Abel unassisted, then Soar from Hima Joshi and Abel…bringing the final White washing total to 6-0. Nick Meglich (12/12) earned the third star of the game with his spotless outing, while Silas Perks (27/33) suffered a VERY rare lopsided loss. The win was just enough to punch a playoff ticket for Brown, who at 4-4-1 earn passage no matter what happens on the final Sunday, thanks to a complicated series of ifs, thens, and tiebreakers. White has head-to-head wins over both Neon and Green, but can still miss the playoffs if they lose to Black, and both Green and Neon earn at least a point in their respective finales. Like any good season, and most in SDFHL history, the final playoff cut will come down to the last week of play…

I am sorry for the lack or recaps again this week…it’s been a tough season 🙁