Week Four playoff action saw a determined Tie Dye blank Black, 4-0. London Peters hung a hat on the opponent, while Brian Sheptycki continued to crush teams’ dreams with 1 and 3 in the elimination domination. Melissa Busby was gifted another assist on the game-winner…she’s special…let her have the point. Chris Tran stopped 19/19 as a stand in for the east bound and down Mark Boulanger, while Don Tran (13/16) suffered from a lack of support in the loss. Captain Siemer’s team was one step closer to the top with the win, but Lime was waiting at the top of the Loser’s Bracket stairs…

Malkis, Malkis, everywhere! The family affair prove too much to bear for Tie Dye, who fell 2-0 in their second game of the night to a rested and ready Lime. Joe Malki notched the game-winner early in the first, and Papa Chris Malki sealed it late to punch Lime’s ticket to the finals. Alex Theis was perfect in nets, stopping 12/12, while Chris Tran’s mojo took a dip in the nightcap, with 10/12 not enough to psave the psychedelic pside. It was on to the finals for Captain Wendy Enright, and her band of Malkis and misfits…

The scene was set for a final dance off in the disco themed 54th season. In one corner, ‘Wissco Brinferno’…Captain Salt’s second straight entry to the final fight, having entered as the fourth seed, and scrapped their way past some tough challengers. In the other, ‘Stayin’ A-Lime’, the scrappiest of challengers, with more swagger per square inch than a seventh seed has ever shown. The evening began with a scoreless chess match, stretching past regulation and OT, and into a shoot out. The shoot out was just as scoreless as the previous stages of the game, until Captain Wendy Enright herself converted on her team’s final attempt of the first round. Alex Theis iced his 10/10 cake with a 5/5 shoot out gem to propel his team to a game two, winner-take all rematch with a wild 1-0 win. Cory Brin was the hard luck loser in this one, having stopped 27/27 before the last of five shoot out attempts found a way past his pads.

Patrick Fusco got Purple on the board early in the second game, converting on the power play to give the favorites their first lead…their first goal of the night. Joe Malki would equalize minutes later, and Emily Lincoln would reverse the lead minutes after that. Lime’s 2-1 edge held through two more periods, and Alex Theis (11/12) battened down the hatches and raised the victory flag for Lime. Lime also raised the Cup with the win, capping an improbable (seemingly impossible) run from dead last in Week Seven to champions two months later. Purple certainly deserves a round of applause for their run, as well, particularly Cory Brin, who battled back from a concussion early in the season to lead his team from the back every game. This last game was no exception, with Brin stopping 19/21 in a valiant losing effort.

Tim Vick scored twice for Gold, but his second strike came in the final minute of play, and only served as window dressing in a 4-2 elimination loss to Tie Dye. London called twice for the winners, with the younger Peters scoring just :34 into the first, and adding an empty netter late in the third. Alan Razoky contributed 1 and 1, and Brian Sheptycki collected a helper on Peters’ first goal to compliment his power play game-winner in the second. Melissa Busby was credited with an assist, which was a sweet score keeping gesture for a ‘special’ player (thanks, Noceti). Elliot Hicks stood tall in nets for Tie Dye, who have been without a regular goalie since Mark Boulanger blew town. His 15/17 line was a winner to Matthew Henderson’s hard luck elimination string of 18/21. Gold’s glass slipper days have ended, while Tie Dye march on to face Black in the first of two elimination games tonight!

Captain Mark Ennsmann took matters (and his opponent’s playoffs neck) into his own hands, and squeezed tightly to the tune of two goals. That would be just enough offense to do the trick, as Black ousted Orange, 2-1. Jet Javelet put Orange on the board early in the third, but a beast mode Don Tran (26/27) was not about to let Orange come back for seconds. Andrew Jacobsen found himself in a rare supporting role in the win, assisting on both of his captain’s conversions. Orange join color cousins, Gold, on the playoff funeral pyre, while Black live on to face Tie Dye in what is sure to be an epic elimination match.

Cory Brin and Andy Strathman…the alpha and omega in Purple’s 1-0 shootout slide past Lime. Brin had 20/20 vision through regulation and OT, and his perfection persisted into the shootout phase. Alex Theis deflected all fifteen he faced through three and half periods of play, but Andy Strathman’s stick struck midnight for the seventh seeded Cinderellas, sending Purple to the promised land and Lime to limbo. Captain Enright’s team is still ‘Stayin’ A Lime’, but they will need to knock off the winner of Black v Tie Dye to earn a chance at revenge and redemption in the Final.

Timing is everything, and White went from having it all to losing everything in no time.  Captain Jordan Pynn’s Eight-Ball Bender romped through the regular season without a loss, and looked like a lock to cruise through the brackets to championship glory.  A stunning shootout loss to the bottom seed left them wounded and vulnerable, and Black smelled that first blood and attacked with finishing force, knocking off the odds-on Cup favorites, 4-1.  Captain Mark Ennsmann collected assists on both of Andrew Jacobsen’s tallies, and both Ennsmann and Jacobsen assisted on Alyce Perry’s game-winner.  Michael Froman fluffed the lead to 4-0 through two periods of play, and only a Steve Goncalo power play marker late in the third could spoil Don Tran’s shut out bid (24/25).  Namesake netminder, Chuck Bender, stopped 11/15 in just his second loss of the season.  Unfortunately for White, it was also his second loss of the post season, and that was one too many for the late number one seed.  Black will look to avenge a short-benched 2-1 Week Four loss to Orange after the Labor Day break, while White will enjoy a much longer break in the lead-up to the coming season. 

Chris Malki padded his case for playoff MVP, scoring his fourth goal of the postseason, and assisting on Captain Enright’s game-winner to keep Lime, ironically, White hot.  Too soon?  Malki scored in the first, less than a minute after Rob Sangha gave Orange the lead on the power play.  Enright’s game-winner came at 3:05 in the third, and Alex Theis made that slim lead hold true, stopping 18/19 in Lime’s 2-1 win over Orange.  Captain Enright’s team has not lost since Week Six.  Their torrid and timely 4-0-1 run since has seen them outscore opponents 11-2, with Theis posting three shut outs in the span.  Lime has certainly provided a twist to the expected playoff picture, and they will look to echo their Week Nine win over Purple when the playoffs resume on September 8^th.  Orange will need to regroup and gear up for Black, whom they edged 2-1 back in Week Four of the regular season.

Alan Razoky was not about to let his sister steal the show…pride and playoff peril trump brotherly love.  Alaa had the first laugh, converting Brett Cohen’s pass to give Green a 1-0 lead in the first.  London Peters evened the score in the second, and Alan recorded the sister-thwarting game-winner in the final minute of that frame.  Brian Sheptycki added a last minute insurance policy to go with his helper on Peters’ goal, making Green’s final piece of bad news read ‘3-1 loss to Tie Dye’.  Captain Noceti’s team join White in the one-two playoff seed punchout, as Green struggled, then strangled to death without super sniper, Steve Jones.  Alan will carry the Razoky name on to Week Three of the playoffs, with Tie Dye taking on Gold in another elimination match.  With Mark Boulanger back on the east coast, it will likely be Chris Tran in nets again for Captain Siemer’s side.  Tran stopped 8/9, and actually received the scoring support he sorely lacked with Pink in the regular season to earn the win for his surrogate team. 

Purple and Gold battled to a 2-2 tie through three periods of regulation play, plus overtime, leaving their fates to the whims of the Shootout Gods.  Troy Ohlsson struck first for Purple with just 0:34 remaining in the first period.  Connor Miller retaliated for Gold with even less time to play in the second period (0:02), and Nick Adkins and Patrick Fusco exchanged salvos within a minute of each other in the third.  Andy Strathman accounted for the only assist on both Purple goals, and he would ultimately serve as the difference maker in this match.  Strathman put on his ‘Shootout God’ hat, and converted the only goal in five shootout rounds to spoil Gold’s Cinderella streak, and send them to a 3-2 SO loss.  Both goalies were on their game, but Cory Brin (17/19) ultimately outdueled Matt Henderson (18/20) to propel his team to the Winner’s Bracket finals.  Purple will look to avenge their regular season loss to Lime, and earn a spot in the finals in the process, while Gold look to stay alive in a do or die Tie Dye tilt.   

Captain Jon Salt factored in all four of his team’s goals (2 and 2), getting the higher seeds off on the right foot to open the playoffs with a 4-2 win over Black.  Jason Northrup had Black on the board first, but Danny Wissing equalized on the power play with just 0:15 to go in the first frame.  Wissing would add an assist on Captain Salt’s game-winner in the third, and an empty netter to seal the deal.  Andrew Jacobsen kept Black in the mix, assisting on Northrup’s tally, and evening the score 2-2 early in the second, but that would be all of the damage that Cory Brin would allow (16/18).  Andrew Wong and Andy Strathman each collected a pair of assists from the blue line for Purple, who advance to the Winner’s Bracket to face the eighth seed, Gold, of all teams.  Black will look to stave off elimination this Sunday against a shootout shell-shocked White.

Orange had perhaps the most hit and miss regular season of any team, finishing with a 4-5-0 record, and rounding out the final third of their slate by beating Green 3-0 between losses to Red and Gold.  Fortunately for Captain Steph Palomo & Company, Week One of the playoffs was a ‘hit’, as Jerry Gonzales cashed in early in OT to push Orange past Tie Dye, 3-2.  Raj Patel and Nick Vacchio built a 2-0 lead for Orange in the second period, but London Peters and Alan Razoky undid their work in the third.  Razoky’s strike came with just 0:35 to play.  Late tying goals can be crippling to a team, but Orange bounced back quickly off Gonzales’ stick to win it in extra time.  The upset win for the six seed cooled the uber-hot Tie Dye, sending them into an tough elimination match with second-seeded Green.  It was a big win for Orange, and an omen of bad things to come for top seeds later in the evening…

Very few pundits would have predicted much of a match between top-seeded White and bottom-seeded Gold.  The former smashed the latter 5-0 in the first week of the regular season, racked up more than twice as many goals, allowed about half as many goals, and cruised to a 7-0-2 record, while Gold sneaked in the playoff back door in their final game to cap a 2-4-3 campaign.  So, the stage was set for another White washing, but Captain Janet Goins’ crew apparently has very little respect for facts, and history, and math, and such.  Tim Vick put the underdogs on top midway through the second, and Jon Zygelman leveled the score on the power play minutes later.  Neither team would crack the rest of the way, leaving the decision to a shootout.  Rookie, Chris Turner, was the unlikely hero in the most unlikely outcome of the season, converting on in the second round of the shootout to stun and silence the top seed, 2-1.  White will have their war paint on in the wake of their only loss to date, as they gear up to take on Black in an elimination engagement.  Gold will take their house money and push it all in against Purple on the Winner’s Bracket side. 

The uprising continued in the late game, as #7 Lime sliced through #2 Green, 5-1.  Chris Malki showed his boys how it’s done, posting a hat trick to lead the way, while son Joe accounted for a mere 1 and 1.  Justin Stege recorded the game-winner, and Alex Theis allowed just one goal (Mark Scelfo) on sixteen shots to hold the winning fort.  Anthony Cerasuolo assisted on both of Papa Malki’s real goals (the last was an empty-netter), and Lime took the ‘hottest team’ baton from Tie Dye with the win…their third in a row.  Captain Enright’s bunch move on to face Orange in the Citrus Bowl this Sunday, while Green will look to regroup and rebound in a do-or-die duel with Tie Dye.  

Tie Dye saw Black’s AJ, and raised them a BS.  That’s Brian Sheptycki, for those of you who have been under a rock for the past five weeks.  Sheptycki has racked up fifteen points (11 and 4) in that span, powering his team to a 4-0-1 record, and vaulting them into the playoffs as a very dangerous three seed.  Sheptycki’s 10th and 11th goals of the season counted as the game-tying and game-winning markers, washing out Andrew Jacobsen’s early strike, and giving Tie Dye a 2-1 win over Black.  London Peter’s had a helping in hand in both goals, and the soon-to-be-departed Mark Boulanger earned the win with a 16/17 showing.  Tie Dye will face Orange in their playoff opener–the team that served as Sheptycki’s first victim back in Week Five when he dropped 2 and 2 in a 6-2 win.  Black limp into the playoffs, having lost their last two games, including a gut-puncher to Pink.  They face Purple in their opener, whom they defeated by a 3-0 score back in Week Five.  

Captain Joshi & Company’s path to playoff redemption hit Checkpoint White in the final week of play.  Unfortunately for Pink, they did not have ze papers, and were promptly rounded up and executed.  White’s passing and cycling kept Pink spinning and sputtering, and four separate scorers tensed the netting in a 4-1 White on Pink mercy killing.  Carl Vankoughnett, Steve Goncalo, Jordon Pynn, and Quinn Hume each accounted for one goal, with all but the first tacking on an assist, to boot.  Shelby Shattuck collected two assists, and Chuck Bender came within 0:34 of a shutout, allowing just one goal to Eric Willard on the sixteenth shot he faced.  The story for Pink in this game, and indeed this entire season, can be summarized by Chris Tran’s line…39/43.  So, after a heroic 3-2 win over Black in Week Eight had lifted Pink’s playoff hopes high…said hopes were unceremoniously dumped off a cliff in Week Nine.  The remaining results on the night confirmed their impact on the ground below.  Meanwhile, it has been official since Week One that White is the team to beat.  They enter the playoffs to face Gold as the top seed.  At 7-0-2, with a goal differential of +22 (more goals than six other teams have even scored this season), and all the swagger of a champion, they are the odds-on favorite for summer Cup glory.  

‘Stayin’ A-Lime’ earned their namesake honors, and headlines in the process, with a Week Nine must-win conversion over Purple, 3-0.  Joe Malki furnished the game-winner early in the second, and Emily Lincoln and Harsh Wanigaratne supplemented the scoring in the third to save the season for Captain Enright’s brightly-clad gang.  Alex Theis was in top Theis form, stopping 14/14 to preserve the crucial W.  It was Lime’s second straight win, pulling them from a dead-in-the-water three points to a playoff-path-paving seven points.  They enter the second season as the seven seed, and will look to avenge their 2-0 Week One loss to Green this Sunday.  The loss leaves Purple in the four slot.  Captain Salt’s crew will have regular season revenge on their minds, as well, as they square off against Black in the Week One early game.  

Red was up next on the must-win docket.  A victory would vault them past Pink and Gold, assuring them a playoff position even in the (seemingly unlikely) event that Gold rose to a win over Orange later in the evening.  The point was rendered moot, as Red rendered zero goals, and zero points in the standings in a 5-0 swan song loss to Green.  Dale Stuzka paid dividends in his first game since coming on to replace suspended super star, Steve Jones.  Stuzka’s 1 and 1 included an assist on the second of Dan Jurgen’s three goals, giving Green hope that their is still plenty of chemistry in the Green labs as they enter the playoffs.  Mara Bernd’s first of the season rounded out the scoring in the win, Bill Casey collected three assists, and Jurgens added two helpers to his hat trick to give him POTW panache.  Andrew Lockard’s 14/14 clean sheet could be marked with something of an asterisk, given the absence of Red’s biggest weapon, Josh Wirt.  Still, a win’s a win, and Green racked up enough of them to secure the second seed.  They will face the upstart Lime this weekend, hoping to prove that there is playoff life after Jones. 

Captain Janet Goins and Gold stepped out for their warm-ups knowing what needed to be done.  A win meant ‘we’re IN’.  A loss…’we’re OUT’.  A tie would pull them even with Pink in the race to the final spot.  They tied Pink 0-0 in the regular season, would have an identical record with a tie in their final game, as well as an identical goal differential.  They would advance on the FOURTH tiebreaker, which is total goals scored on the season.  So…a tie or better, and Gold could snatch a playoff seed in the (literal) final hour.  Connor Miller helped his team take the ‘better’ option, scoring twice to help Gold to a vital 4-3 win over Orange.  Rookie, Chris Turner, opened the scoring for Gold just 0:25 in, and fans were treated to another rare Kamal Gill sighting, as the oft-AWOL sniper added 1 and 1 to the winning cause.  Rob Sangha served up six PIMs to accompany his one goal, and Jet Javelet and Nick Vacchio helped make things interesting to the end for Orange.  Gold’s careful-what-you-wish-for Week Nine heroics have earned them a meeting with White, who bludgeoned them 5-0 in Week One.  Orange will hope their hit and miss season is due for a hit as they take on the hottest team in the league, Tie Dye.