Orange and Grey rolled into their Week Four meeting with matching sample platter records (1-1-1). Without heavy hitter, David Schlatter, and heaviest of hitters, Eric Herrmann, Orange would have to find some ‘depth scoring’, and/or a game-stealing effort from Chris Tran. They got the former (if we can even consider ‘The Deputy’ to be ‘depth’, at this point), with Kevin Dinino equalizing a first period strike from Jordan Pynn early in the second. The latter ‘key to the game’ unraveled later in the second, as a trio of tallies found twine behind Tran in a span of 1:32 to tilt the score in favor of Grey, 4-1. Hima Joshi (talk about depth!) scored her first of the season, and Rob Gaudio poured in this third and fourth, with the second serving as the power play game-winner. Chuck Russell responded for Orange with a power play punch of his own, cutting the lead to 4-2 with just one tick left on the second period clock. It was ‘The Deputy’ again (definitely not ‘depth’) midway through the third to keep the tension on, but Justin Stege deflated the drama balloon, converting with 1:22 remaining to seal the 5-3 win for Grey. Gaudio’s 2 and 2 was good enough for POTW honors, Parsa Mostafavi (13/16) earned his second career win, and Jim LaGrossa collected another four assists, bringing his total to TEN through four games. LaGrossa actually leads all scorers this season with twelve points (2 and 10), with Gaudio in the second spot with eight (4 and 4…in one less game than LaGrossa), and…you guessed it, The Deputy holding a share of the bronze position with seven (3 and 4).
All good things must come to an end…even for a moves-like-Jagger-juggernaut like my personal odds-on Cup favorite, ‘SubLime’. Captain Mark Nagy’s crew sprinted out of the opening gate this season, dispatching their first two opponents by a combined 9-2 margin, and the confidence was brimming to the…well, brim, as they took the court to face Captain Jon Salt’s ‘Fembots’. Pink’s 1-1-1 mark coming in meant that they were certainly beatable, especially if Lime could contain the captain, who had been successfully contained (zero points) in two of three games coming in. It’s that ‘other game’ that is the dangerous one. Week Two…Salt erupted for four goals. Week Four…2 and 1 would do nicely, with Matt Gottfried, Arnold Gonzales, and Joe Nguyen all getting into the act, as well. Five goals is a lot to overcome, especially when you realize you need to put five (or more) past Sean Kelly to avoid the L. Spoiler alert…Lime did not avoid the L, although they did avoid being shut out, thanks to Shelby Shattuck’s late third period slice of vengeance. Still, it was a first loss, and a 5-1 beatdown loss, at that, for SubLime…so much for that perfect season. Alex Theis (17/22) suffered the knockout in this battle of heavy weight netminders, with Kelly (11/12) cruising to his second win of the season, and driving his numbers up to their usual lofty perch in the goalie ranks. Our locker room reporter caught up with a very fat, very sweaty Steve Linke after the loss, who (between deep wheezes, and some gurgling fat guy noises) graciously credited ‘that skinny guy on the other team…the captain, with the hard shot’ as being the difference maker in this one. Profound insight, fatso…you’re a regular ESPN analyst.
You typically expect to find a Malki team smashing and bashing through teams with relative ease, but this season’s Malki mob is finding a bit more fight in their foes. Coming in at 1-2-0, and coming off a 4-0 loss to (admittedly, powerhouse) SubLime, a one-Malki-down ‘Tranaconda’ crew looked to right the proverbial ship against Captain Will Heinl’s ‘Gold Will Hunting’. The missing Malki was none other than Captain Joe, but Pops furthered his claim to the ‘Better Malki’ belt, scoring in the first to take the lead, and in the second to take the lead (again). That first Gold goal came courtesy of Maureen Ruchhoeft (depth), but Green held a two goal lead to start the third, after Nick Vacchio made it 3-1 with his first of the year late in the second. Brian Sheptycki (opposite of depth) cut the lead to one midway through the third, but ‘Too Tall’ Tyler Winstead found the empty net to seal Gold’s fate, 4-2. Nick Meglich (18/21) earned third star honors for valor in spite of the loss, while Don Tran (14/16) evened his record, and that of his team at 2-2-0 with the bounce back win. Gold is going the wrong way, having dropped their last two after an impressive 5-2 debut over Orange. They will look to get back to .500 against fellow 1-2-0’s, White, while Green look to catch up with the lead pack with a good result against Atomic Blue.
Captain Ryan Karns’ ‘Karnsma Police’ strutted into Week Four warmups as the only remaining unbeaten. A scoreless first saw White holding the edge in play and shots on goal, but Geoff Downes had the L-less in front with his second of the season late in the second. White responded with two goals in nine seconds to flip things in their favor (Steve Goncalo, and Josh Wirt) early in the third, and Andy Strathman converted on the power play to make it 2-2 down the stretch. It was Wirt again, working through a weird, weak wrister past Chuck Bender (23/26) to make White 3-2 winners. Cory Brin (23/25) was in top form, making all (but two) of the stops from ho-hum to hum-baby to notch his first W of the Sprummer campaign. So, White’s first win meant Blue’s first loss, and things are getting cozy in the standings at the halfway point. White will look to repeat the winning feat against Gold, while Blue will hope to get back to their winning ways against a tough (but reportedly ‘sodium-free’) Pink in Week Five.