With Week Three of playoff action comes the first eliminations, and both Captain Bathgate’s seventh-seeded ‘ScrantoNeonicity’ and Captain Downes’ top-seeded ‘Orange Vod-Juice-Ka’ were hoping to avoid that fate and survive to see another second season Sunday. It was all Orange early and often, as Justin Ker put the favorites in front just 0:34 in (from super sub, Steph Palomo Schmidt). Zach Salt doubled the lead at 7:06 (from Ker and Palomo Schmidt), and Ker’s solo encore saw the period close with a 3-0 Orange lead. Ker completed the hat trick with another unassisted strike at 3:24 in the second, and it was really starting to look like the Battle Of Bright Colors would be something of a dull, one-sided affair. David Schlatter finally solved Matt Henderson (18/21) late in the second (from Shawna Hamon), and a powerplay pop from Vinny Santora (Jackson Tomaszewski) cut Orange’s lead down to two. Christopher Fiore’s goal with 1:49 remaining (Schlatter and Carl Vankoughnett) had the benches and spectator sections buzzing with shocked oohs and comeback coos, but Henderson would not concede anything further, and Orange would survive the scare, 4-3. Chuck Bender (18/22) needed a strong start in this one, but he held his team in to the end…an end that would spell the end of the season for Neon, and a chance at redemption for the top seeds. Captain Downes’ crew will need the same FPE (first period energy) against Green this Sunday if they hope to push on to an immediate showdown with second-seeded Red.

Captain Rob Gaudio’s upstart cover team, ‘Threat Level Midnight’, looked to continue their sneak attack on the higher seeds in a Week Three meeting with Captain Steve Linke’s ‘Red-Dit-Dit-Di-Doo’. While eliminations were not in the offing in this match, a ticket to the Final was, and it made for a very intense (many would say TOO intense) affair. Kyle Snyder put Black in front first, with Cory Brin collecting what may well be his first SDFHL point, but Pat Gladstone’s second in as many games (from Scott Wieland and Justin Stege) brought the favorites level just over three minutes later. Two quick late strikes from Snyder at 0:59 (from Andrew Wong) and Mason LaGrossa on the power play (from Will Heinl and Wong) brought the first period to a crashing, chaotic close, and had the underdogs suddenly up by a pair with two periods to play. Captain Linke converted on the power play (very) late in the second (from Sadie Hellstrom), setting up a tight third period that wound down to the final minutes with Black still clinging to a 3-2 lead. lt was more power play pay dirt with 2:10 to play, as Justin Stege cashed in unassisted to knot the score at three apiece, and set up the FOURTH overtime period in the first ten games of these playoffs. Overtime was fruitless, but it is worth noting that Red finished four periods of hockey with a 32-16 edge in shots. Cory Brin (29/31) was clutch in regulation and OT, but even more clutch in the shootout. Three blank rounds ticked past before Steve Linke proved that old men can still score…provided others are not allowed near them. Mason LaGrossa was quick to put Black back on even footing, though, and a blank fifth round set up a sudden death round six that saw Brin turn Boddy away, and Papa (Jim) LaGrossa finish what his son had started and send Black on to the big dance with a 4-3 shootout win. It’s a tough way to lose a game, but Red must find a way to bounce back against the winner of Orange v Green this Sunday if they want to chance at revenge/redemption. Black will enjoy a bye this weekend, and will need just one more win in the Final to capture the Cup and cap an impressive fifth to first playoff campaign.

The night cap was another win-or-go-home affair, with Captain Luke Wolmer’s eighth-seeded ‘Kelly Kapoorsports’ looking to keep their drive from barely-survive to best alive against Captain Kaitlyn Brusso’s sixth-seeded ‘Golden Dundies’. Green co-namesake, Sean Kelly, was in typical top form in this one, proving that a great goaltender can be THE key come playoff time. Kelly stopped all twenty-four Gold shots he faced, which means Green either won in regulation, or this was some crazy pitchers’ duel that went to a shootout. Spoiler alert, it was the former. Joe Malki struck first at 6:52 in the first (from Papa Chris Malki and Min-Soo Smith), then Captain Wolmer tucked home a short-handed goal (from Chris Malki and Shelby Shattuck) to give Green a 2-0 edge through one. A scoreless second meant the game was still well in reach for Gold, who were outshooting their rivals at a near 2-1 clip, but Joe Malki’s second of the night at 8:32 in the third (Wolmer and Smith) sure seemed like a nail in Gold’s proverbial coffin. It was. In fact, if you were paying attention to the early part of this recap, you know that Da Kid only needed one nail to send Gold to the playoff scrapheap, as he outdueled super sub Nick Meglich to carry his team to a 3-0 win. So, Gold join color cousins, Neon on the second season sidelines, while Green advance to a doozy of a doubleheader in Week Four. If Green should find a way to slide past #1 Orange, they will then have to drag their tired bodies past #2 Red in order to punch their ticket to the Final. If anyone can make it happen, it’s Kelly, who is one of the most decorated and celebrated performers in league history…with good reason.

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.