Captain Chad Goins became the first casualty of the young season, suffering a broken left foot in the opening period of the first SDFHL action in over a year…but not before getting his team off on the right foot (*rim shot*) with a goal in the first minute of play. His counterpart, Captain Mara Bernd, evened the ledger later in the period, and her teammate, (newcomer) Rick Nelson, impressed with his first and second career goals to give his team the lead, and some leeway in Blue’s 3-1 win over Yellow. Cory Brin snatched the win with a sleepy, but solid 8/9 outing, while Chuck Bender suffered the loss, stopping 16/19.
It was as if COVID never happened (and I didn’t even have to change the musty old ‘POTW’ feature), as Jordan Pynn was in tip-top ‘Pynn for the win’ form…big shocker. Pynn dished up 2 and 2, pacing the Black attack, and helping rookies Devin Austin and Michael Blake savor their first taste of SDFHL goal glory. Mark DeGraffenreid provided the only answer with a late powerplay goal, spoiling Don Tran’s shutout bid (17/18) in the process. Black’s 4-1 Purple bashing was particularly impressive, with both Jon Salt (herpes flare up) and Glenn Pinto (tennis pinkie) out of the lineup. Captain Steph Palomo invited all other captains to the ‘shade parade’ after the win, adding ‘you thought COVID was bad, bitches…we ’bout to unleash a motherfuckin’ Pynndemic!’. Stay…classy?
The nightcap was something of a snooze fest through two, as the number of hammy stains and ankle twists outnumbered genuine scoring chances. Dale Stuzka finally found twine early in the third, and Bill Casey added an empty netter on a crazy rink-long backhand flip to seal it for White, 2-0 over Red. Rookie netminder, Jared Spencer, sparkled in his debut, stopping 14/14, including a few clean breakaways and a 4 (yes, FOUR) on 1! Melissa Busby (23/24) took the hard luck loss, but she is used to losing…loser. Speaking of losers, here’s hoping more of you losers check your email next time I send out an invite, so we can scrape together more than six teams. I would have thought people were desperate to play, but…guess I am just a fool.