Strike Three

Week 11:

White and Pink joined Teal on the scrap heap after striking out against the top two teams in the final week of regular season play. The three teams to miss the playoff cut combined for sixteen points…one point less than top banana, Yellow! The eight remaining teams all have a clean slate, and chance to be great. The champing at the championship bit begins with Round One this Sunday…

It was too little, too late, but still felt pretty great for Teal, as they poured every remaining ounce of pride and passion into a 6-2 Silver smackdown. Jon Zygleman (1 and 4) was a Zygel-man possessed, factoring in all but one of the half dozen strikes, as Teal exorcised a full season of frustration in one thirty minute stretch. Steve Scott, Ryan Belbin, and Sadie Hellstrom each contributed 1 and 1, Ramsey Ksar accounted for the game-winner, and Sally Jackson scored her first career SDFHL goal to add a delicious ribbon of icing to the farewell cake. Nick Meglich stopped 14/16 to earn his second win in forgettable season full of fantastic, but futile efforts from the returning netminder. Andy Strathman and Vinny Santora provide the pair of responses for Silver, who back into the playoffs as a shaky seven seed. They will need a much better effort to survive a first round matchup with powerhouse Navy. The two points could not prevent Teal from a dead last finish, but this win will sustain them over the string of hockeyless Sundays to come…

It was an equally meaningless win for entirely different reasons for Yellow. Pereira’s pride and joy kept purring right along, putting a wobbly White down and out for good in the process with a 3-0 knock out punch. Josh Wirt put up the game-winner early in the first, and tucked home empty net insurance in the third, with Captain Pereira himself providing the second period strike, and Sean Kelly stopping 21/21 to seal White’s fate, and keep Yellow great going into the second season. It’s hard to believe that Yellow, who finished atop the pile at 8-1-1, started the season with a loss! It was a 5-0 thrashing that came courtesy of Navy, but also came in the absence of superstars Josh Wirt and Shawna Hamon. Yellow will have to wait until at least Week Three of the playoffs to avenge that outcome, but the focus has to be on taking care of business this Sunday against Orange. Captain Dinino and his crew battled valiantly down the stretch, but scored just one goal in their final four games…all after losing sniper Jeff Anderson to lunacy in Week Eight. They will be golfing and watching football with members of Teal and Pink, counting the days to Week One of the new season.

Green and Black represent the middle of the playoff pack at four and five, respectively, so it seems only fitting that the two met in the middle at 0-0 in the final week of play, just one week before playing for real stakes. Yes, the rare, socceresque scoreless tie…perhaps a bit less unique, considering Sean Kelly was guarding one of the nets. Kelly remained perfect on the night, stopping 26/26 (!) (that’s 47/47 in back to back games, if you’re scoring at home), while tenderfoot tender Nick Vacchio (13/13) did half the work for the same pay. So, no ground gained or lost for either side, and the dance partner will remain the same this Sunday. Steve Jones should be back in the lineup for Green this weekend, which should push the potential for a non-zero output from that side, and Black will hope for more Kelly heroics…one goal may be enough for them, at this rate.

It was do or die for Pink in the final week of play. Spoiler alert…they died. The underdogs could have salvaged a sad sack season with one big win in their final outing. Unfortunately, that final outing came against resident throat-ripper-outers, Navy. It was a great game (described by our own Min-Soo Smith as ‘very intense’), and Andrew Jacobsen did put Pink in front 1-0 in the early going. The second period belonged to Navy, with Luke Wolmer equalizing, and Zach Salt flipping the lead short-handed (ouchie). Patrick Walker put more fuel on his claim to Calder with his ninth of the season to knot it at twos early in the third, but it was Lil’ Salt again with the soul-crushing, season ending game-winner with 2:13 to play. Big Salt assisted on all three Navy goals, and Don Tran filled in fantastically for his distant, distant cousin, Chris, stopping 14/16. The 3-2 loss leaves Pink lounging with the other losers, planning Sunday events for the next five weeks with…family (*shudder*). Navy advance as the second seed, and will look to take the first step toward the Cup against Silver this Sunday.

Brown and Red…another playoff preview in the final week of play! Brown remained the three seed, and Red held at the six, after Brown took care of business with a tone-setting 4-0 win. Jordan Pynn and Mark Ennsmann each produced 2 and 1, and Captain Nagy wrapped an incredible season with a pair of assists to keep the favorites favored going into Week One of the playoffs. Don Tran stopped all eighteen shots he faced from Red attackers, who must have been having fits of futility. One player who was definitely having fits was Captain Joel Gattey. Gattey was assessed a game misconduct for his, well, misconduct in dealing with officials. He will be out of the lineup for his team’s first two playoff games, which of course means he may not have a chance to join his team again this season. The moral of that story, as with that of White’s Jeff Anderson…don’t lose your cool with the officials out there!

Strike That

Thunderbolts and lightning…very, very frightening. A rare show from Mother Nature’s San Diego affiliate soaked the surface, and shook our on-site COO, Min Soo Smith. Smith reported lightning strikes very close to the rink in the hour leading up to the scheduled Week Eleven opener. All Week Eleven games have been moved to Sunday, September 12th. We’ll hope for more typical/less shocking conditions to wrap the regular season on that date. If you’re itching to play, be sure to sign up for the Labor Day fun and games taking place this weekend…

One More

We have arrived at the eleventh and final week of play, and there is still one playoff spot remaining to be claimed. Orange can only sit and hope, while White and Pink put hope into action against…the top two teams in the standings (the schedule never fails to disappoint). Both teams will look to find that extra notch on the dial when they need it most, as the Summer 2021 season rocks and rolls to a close this Sunday.

Yellow let a would-be-win slip away late, but still sewed up the top playoff seed with a hard-fought and entertaining 1-1 draw with Green. Eric Willard had the top dogs on top less than twenty seconds in, but neither side found twine for nearly three full periods thereafter. The early strike was all that Chuck Bender (17/18) would allow in a fill-in stint for Nick Vacchio, and his counterpart, Don Tran (9/10) only had his substitute shutout bid spoiled by a Tyler Winstead strike with just 1:34 to play. Captain Chad Goins suffered a nasty cut/contusion to his nose in a collision with Ash Wadhwa (in to replace the departed Philip Burke) midway through the third. He has been patched up, and expects to be in the lineup for Green when the playoffs commence on September 12th. Meanwhile, in the ‘insult to injury’ department, Goins was actually called for interference on the play. Green’s skipper took it in stride, and both sides have expressed an eagerness for a potential playoff rematch. Yellow will officially enter the playoffs as the one seed, while Green can reach as high as two, and land as low as five.

You can’t spell ‘Teal’ without ‘L’, and Teal have now racked up enough L’s to spell ‘licking large, luscious, lavender-scented llama labia’. It was Brown’s turn for the ‘second summer season bye week’, as Marc and Mark (Lapointe and Nagy) scored the first period game-winner and the second period insurance marker, respectively, in a 2-0 tip toe past terrible Teal. Matt Rogers served up assists on both goals, and Don Tran stopped all fourteen shots he faced to earn his first shutout on the season. Teal will finally put an end to the misery against Silver this Sunday, while Brown hope to improve (or at least maintain) their playoff position against a revitalized Red side.

Red’s ‘revitalized’ state was a direct result of their stunning 3-2 Week Ten takedown of run and gun Navy. Coming off an only slightly less stunning 4-1 loss to a pedestrian Pink, Red needed a win against Navy (and against any and all odds) to keep their eyes on the playoff prize. Enter Brian Sheptycki. The POTW honoree scored first and last for Red, and provided the primary on Steve Linke’s power play punch to willpower Red to an improbable victory. Captain Jon Salt had Navy on the board early, and brother Zach kept it close in the third, but Chuck Russell (14/16) would hold on to even his personal record at 3-3-1, and vault Red into the playoff promised land at 4-4-1. This Sunday’s schedule will find Navy looking to eliminate Pink, and hold onto their second seed in the process, while Red will face Brown with little more than playoff posturing on the line,

Jeff Anderson’s mouth may well go down as the death of White this season. The super sniper’s Week Eight f bombs have blown a gaping hole in Captain Dinino’s line-up over the past three weeks, and have sent the once smooth sailing ship sinking…fast. Week Ten represented the second game of Anderson’s two game suspension, essentially their third full game in a row without him in action, and, well…White’s third straight loss. This one was particularly damning, as it came against Black…a team equally desperate to turn toward playoff safety. Erin Dowrey and Captain Chris Malki birthed twin 2 and 1 babies, and Janice Darlington and Justin Stege got in on the act in a 6-0 soul-crushing rout that propelled Black to second season security, and left White down to their last gasp. That last gasp comes against oxygen hogging Yellow, of course. White will need (a level-headed) Anderson and some good fortune to steer safely on, while Black can enjoy a nice playoff tune-up with some potential to improve their standings stake against Green.

It was all on the line for both sides, as a 3-5-0 Silver faced a 3-4-2 Orange in the most playoff-implication-laden match of the season. Orange would need at least a point in their final game to avoid a nervous, pacing bye week. Silver could ill afford anything but a win, in spite of the Week Eleven safety net waiting to cushion any potential fall. A trio of Silver scorers (Gideon Schon, Andy Strathman, Captain Ryan Karns) squashed any and all suspense early on, and Strathman added a (last second) second period strike to seal the 4-1 win. Chuck Bender (16/17) recorded his second win of the evening, this time for his own team, and this time one that REALLY counted. Silver have unofficially/officially clinched a playoff berth at 4-5-0, and can lick their chops and look longingly at their next scheduled opponent, Teal. As the only team to have played ten games, Orange’s regular season has already come to an end, but their season may not be over yet. Their hopes rest in the hands of the top two teams, as Navy faces Pink, and Yellow squares off with White. If things go ‘by the numbers’ in those two games, Orange will squeeze through…

Teal Death Do Us Part

Week 9:

Four teams have already transcended the mortal plane of the regular season, six teams remain in grave danger, and one is now, well…just plain in the grave. ‘Antealfa’ could not manage many shots, let alone a goal, let alone a win in their Week Nine showdown with Yellow, and they will now officially be resting in peace at home on September Sundays…

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…

TOUGH ENOUGH

Week 8:

A number of teams are already sitting playoff pretty as we enter the final three weeks of play, but the bottom half of the table is still engaged in a fight for second season survival. White…Red…Silver…Black…Pink…Teal…making the top eight is enough for a fresh start, but it’s nearing bitter end time for three teams…

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.