Bikini Tops

Anything can happen once the playoffs start, including everything going exactly ‘as expected’. The ‘expectations’ are, of course, thinnest in the middle of the bracket, and that is where Captain Darin Cerasuolo’s fourth-seeded Pink met Captain Will Heinl’s fifth-seeded Purple. Pink prevailed 5-3 in the regular season matchup between these teams back in Week Four, but Jon Salt was the hero in that game for Pink with a 2 and 2 hammer, and with Salt sidelined for the season (likely several seasons, honestly), it would be up to Jordan Pynn to fill those scoring shoes. It was Pynn’s point shot the found twine first at 2:30 in the first, but not before taking a nifty deflection off TK Mason’s stick (or body…or…something). Tony Thinh accounted for the ‘tic’ of the Thinh-Pynn-Mason tic-tac-toe, and Pynn would add an unassisted goal of his own with 1:08 to play before the first break. Captain Heinl held steady for Purple through a scoreless second, but the 17-7 shot count in Pink’s favor painted a fairly accurate picture of the run of play. Jason Olver’s first career SDFHL playoff goal pushed the Pink lead to three at 7:13 in the third (Mason & Captain Cerasuolo), and Eric Willard added another pad at 4:53 (Chris Tran & Pynn). The Purple push finally came, with Justin Hepler taking a bite out of Chuck Bender’s donut at 3:42 (Jon Zygelman & Janice Darlington), but Captain Cerasuolo was quick to restore order with his first of the playoffs at 2:47 (Olver). A Zygelman tally with 0:14 was of no real consequence, as Bender (13/15) & Company would complete a comfortable 5-2 win to kick off their Cup campaign. Captain Heinl (13/18) shouldered the loss, and Pynn did indeed fill Salt’s scoring shoes with a 1 and 2 first star outing. Mason (whose headshot is GIGANTIC in the box score for some reason) claimed second star honors with a 1 and 1 sparkler. Pink’s reward for a convincing first round win…a deadly date with Sand. Purple will hope to stay alive this Sunday in the lower bracket, this time as the higher seed against Captain Josh Wirt’s Red.

The regular season meeting between Captain Kalen Hunter’s Black and Captain Owen Perks’ Blue was…not close. As important as Black’s offense was in that Week Five 6-1 win, it was Sean Kelly who would earn first start with a 23/24 gem. With Sean Kelly Easter egg hunting elsewhere, Black would turn to super-sub-shot-stopper, Chris Tran, to carry the day. Tran is certainly no slouch, but Blue were likely pleased to see anyone but ‘Da Kid’ between Black’s pipes. Factoring in the fact that both Justin Stege and (leap baby birthday boy) Mark Daquipa were out of the lineup for Blue in the first meeting, and the fact ‘playoffs are a clean slate…anything can happen’, Vegas set the line considerably closer for the postseason rematch between the two Young Canuck™ skippers and their crews. It’s difficult to do much scoring when you muster just two shots, and that was the output from the two seeds through one period of play. Captain Perks, meanwhile, made one of his team’s nine shots count, pushing Blue in front 1-0 at 1:19 in the first (Wasif Hussain & Craig Russell). The shot totals evened at six a side in the second, but the Black scoring siege finally came. Papa Kevin Hunter slotted home a point shot at 8:39 (Mark DeGraffenreid & Josh Tran)…then proceeded to perform perhaps the most ridiculous ‘dad dance’ ever witnessed publicly…it was…it was something. Son/Captain Kalen Hunter snapped home an unassisted wrister from range to give Black their first lead at 5:53, and when Josh Tran completed a third straight successful Black attack at 2:24 (John Kushneryk), it was beginning to look like this game might indeed take the same arc as its regular season counterpart. Super (duper) sub, Shelby Shattuck, stopped the bleeding for Blue with 1:08 to play in the second (Dan Jurgens), arresting Black’s momentum, and setting up a tight final ten. Special shoutout to DeGraffenreid for screening his own goalie/deflecting Shattuck’s shot home. Neither Tran (19/21), nor Mason Holcomb (9/12) would allow another ball by in the third (friendly fire, or otherwise), meaning Black would survive a bit of a scare from their seventh-seeded opponent, moving on in the upper bracket with a 3-2 win. The seeds will snuggle much closer together for both teams this Sunday, with #2 Black taking on #3 Teal, and #7 Blue hoping to stave off elimination against #6 Gold.

SDFHL games featuring perfect attendance on both sides are extremely rare, and the Week Four meeting between Captain William Teglia’s #3 Teal and Captain Nick Vacchio’s #6 Gold was an absence-free precursor to the almost-absence-free encore. Teal edged Gold 4-3 in the regular season meeting, and Teglia & Company hoped that the result of a fair and full fight back in February would translate to a playoff win in April. Gold would be without the services of rookie Andrew MacFarlane, but with the big guns and stalwart shields all in place, Vacchio hoped his plucky seven seeders could pull off the first upset of the opening night playoff slate. Captain Teglia wasted (almost literally) no time putting his team on top, scoring just twenty-five seconds in (Kyle Snyder), and Snyder squeezed (almost literally) all of the time out of the tube at the other end of the period, converting with just eighteen ticks to go to push Teal to a 2-0 lead. Captain Teglia accounted for the lone goal in the second (1:59, from Rob LaVigne and Gordon Schmidt), but it is VERY safe to say that Teal was in full control at that point, now outshooting Gold 18-2 (!). The third period shots (15-6 in Teal’s favor) did not paint a much better picture for the underdogs, but John Kushneryk (29/33) certainly did everything in his power to give Gold a chance. Snyder’s second of the game at 4:55 was the only damage done (Mostafa Azab & Steph Palomo Schmidt), but Jon Cima (8/8) ensured that even the early first period Teglia tally would be all Teal would need to prevail, 4-0 over Gold. The win moves Teal on to a meeting with the only unbeaten team in the league, Black, while Gold will need to find their shooting (and scoring) form against Blue, or find themselves golfing for the coming three Sundays.

The nightcap was the last hope for an upset, and math (#1 Sand v #8 Red) and history (Sand over Red 6-3 in Week Three) were sore subjects (see what I did there) for Captain Josh Wirt & Company. Chris Malki was out of the lineup for that regular season loss, and while Chris was back in the lineup, son Joe was out. With his first baby on the way, Joe is actually checked out for the full run of playoffs, but with Riley Mann installed to fill his spot, Red had at least some confidence that an upset was possible…until Mann failed to show. It’s pretty clear at this point that any Sand opponent needs all of their best scorers, all of their best defenders, an ‘A’ game from all involved, a dash of luck, and a VERY concerted effort to ‘contain’ Alex Giummo to have a chance. So…with a strike in the ‘all of their best scorers’ column, Red knew that an already tall task was an absolute tower of terror. Shawna Hamon eased any fear of heights on Red’s bench, notching her first of the playoffs at 5:51 (Bryan Ossa & Captain Wirt), but (who else) Giummo would respond with an unassisted strike for Sand at 3:45. Captain Wirt wrested the lead back for Red at 6:15 in the second, but it was Giummo again to even the score at 5:17 (Trevor Vick), then Parsa Mostafavi to finally put the overdogs on top at 1:55 (Tim Vick & Matt DeBerry). Wirt would knot it again with his second of the game at 8:54 in the third (Eli Schonbrun & Oss), but the response pattern of Giummo (unassisted at 6:15) and Mostafavi (from Wendy Enright and Giummo at 1:59) saw Sand back in front by two with under two minutes to play. Steve Goncalo responded quickly for Red (1:46, from Schonbrun and Emily Bennington), but Captain Nick Meglich (16/20) and Sand would hold on, shattering Red’s glass slipper with a 5-4 win. Don Tran (18/23) ate the bitter loss for the upstart eight seeds, while Parsa Mostafavi earned POTW honors for his two goal breakout for the presumptive Cup favorites. The big IF hanging over this game…if Red had Riley Mann in the fold, this might have been not only the only upset of Week One, but one of the bigger upsets in league history. With Mann projected to miss this Sunday, as well, he has been replaced (yes, a replacement for the replacement) by Jason Remple. Red hope Remple can help them stay alive in a death match with Purple in Week Two. Sand will look to continue their Cup push with a win over Pink (a feat they only JUST managed by a score of 4-3 back in Week Two of the regular season).