Bottoms Up!

Captain Mark Nagy flat out willed Red to a Week Two win over a dis-Abeled Orange side, evening their early season mark at 1-1-0, and giving them some much needed momentum coming into a Week Four matchup with a so-far-so-limp Lime side. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Lime’s slow start has largely been the result of attendance issues (particularly in the form of zero appearances to date from Justin ‘AWOL’ Ker), and were genuinely fortunate to have even a point in the standings with just two goals-for in two games. With Ker once again out of the lineup in Week Four (*GASP*), and with Dan Jurgens, Emily Bennington, and Shelby Shattuck also elsewhere, it would be up to Captain Zach Salt, two female super subs, and the rest of the citrus crew to find a way to a first win. Red had their own significant scratch in this match, and it’s never easy to make up for the absence of Jordan Pynn. Captain Nagy picked up where his Week Two hat trick left off, though, opening the scoring at 4:25 in the first (Dorothy Kline), and would stay hot with a solo effort at 1:11, but (alas, poor Red) Captain Salt and Lime finally found their scoring zest in that opening frame. A blistering point snipe from Christopher Fiore (Eric Willard & Captain Salt) at 3:22, Salt’s first of the season (!) at 3:10 (Sadie Hellstrom & Brian Baker), and a second Salt strike at 0:11 (a super pretty tic-tac-toe from Willard & Troy Ohlsson) wrapped a frenzied first period with Lime on top, 3-2. Will Heinl’s first action of the season produced his first goal (Mark Daquipa & Eli Schonbrun), with the only conversion of the second period knotting the ledger at three apiece. The third period belonged to Lime, with Captain Salt completing his hat trick on the powerplay at 9:52 (Hellstrom & Fiore), adding some insurance with his fourth of the game at 7:53 (Enright), then assisting on a Willard strike to all but completely erase Red’s hopes of a late comeback and seal Lime’s first win of the season, 6-3. Jon Cima (10/13) did enough to preserve the victory at his end, while twice-as-busy Don Tran (20/26) had his birthday weekend spoiled by a jumping, juicy Lime side that managed to quadruple their scoring output to date in spite of the absence of two top picks.

When you pull off the greatest comeback in league history (three goals in 64 seconds, starting with 80 seconds to play, down 0-3), you really want to keep that mojo rolling the very next week. Unfortunately for Captain Ryan Karns’ & Company’ Brown, the very next week was roughly 9,000,000 degrees in the shade, so the mojo would have to cool over two full weeks of downtime before heating back up against Captain Geoff Downes’ 1-1-0 White side. The Week Four weather was damn near perfect (cool, overcast, breezy…beautiful), so not only was there no heat factor, but the dreaded ‘sunny side’ was largely negated, as well. Neither team showed much real punch in a scoreless first period, though White held a slim shot advantage (5-3) and had the better of the play. Brown stepped up their game in the second, but it looked like another pair of zeroes were in the making until Sadie Hellstrom went bananas, chipping and recovering the ball along the near boards, then steering in to finish a ridiculous effort with a flourish past Sean Kelly to put Brown on the board first (Arnold Gonzales & Andy Strathman). The Brown bench was still buzzing about the Hellstrom gem as the third period got underway, and Mark DeGraffenreid kept the pump pulsing at 8:27, wristing home a clean Kalen Hunter draw to double Brown’s advantage. Rookie netminder, Mason Holcomb (13/14), looked to be on his way to his second shutout in his first three career games, but a whacky, deflected, seeing eye Tyler Winstead ball bounded in behind him to spoil the clean sheet and add late tension to this one with 2:15 remaining. White pushed, and persisted with Kelly (13/15) pulled, but a Hunter empty-netter would seal the 3-1 win for Brown, and keep them in the very exclusive undefeated company of Captain Jon Salt’s Heather Blue (the team against whom the aforementioned miracle coup was staged in Week Two).

Gold entered Week Four play as one of only two teams without a point, having lost in a salty 7-4 Week One slugfest to Atomic Blue, then falling in quite the opposite style, with Pat Gladstone’s lone goal sinking them 1-0 to drop them to 0-2-0. While it is way too early to hit the panic button for Captain Gattey’s gang, especially with a stout roster and a strong goalie, you definitely want to see some ROI in the first third of a season, or risk that slow start coming back to haunt you later. Captain Nick Meglich’s Green took advantage of an Abel/Enciso/Tomaszewski-less Orange in a 1-0 Week One win, then fell to White 3-0 in Week Two. They hoped to perpetuate Gold’s grief and climb to a bit more cutline safety in the process in Week Four…and (*spoiler alert*) they would succeed on both counts. A scoreless first came and went, but Green had already established some measure of dominance, outshooting Gold 8-2. The second period saw more of that dominance from Green, and this time the lopsided shot ledger (10-3) came with a side of scoring. Josh Wirt put Green on the board first with a solo strike at 5:50, but John Gamm made one of Gold’s three retaliation attempts count, equalizing with his own unassisted strike at 4:30. Wirt did not waste much time putting Green back in front with 3:02 to play in the second (Wendy Enright & Andrew Wong), and he capped the hat trick at 6:40 in the third (Rob LaVigne) to round out the scoring, and douse any hopes for a Gold lining in this one. Captain Meglich (10/11) secured the win for his team, and kept himself in the upper reaches of the goalie stat ladder in the process, while Alex Theis (20/23) suffered his second loss in as many tries in this much-anticipated resurfacing, with Gold dropping to 0-3-0 with this 3-1 loss to Green. Again…’it’s early’, but Captain Gattey and Gold will want to at least have their finger resting on the panic button as they enter a Week Five fight with 1-1-1 Lime. It will likely take at least seven or eight points to make the playoffs in this ten team season, and every loss from here out adds ‘must win’ weight to the remaining games…

Two games this season have seen a combined ten or more goals scored, and both of those games have featured Captain Rob Gaudio’s Atomic Blue. This stands to reason, if you take a quick glance at the standings and note their league-leading fourteen goals-for and eleven goals-against (tied for second most). So…it seems you’re likely in for a high-scoring shootout when you face Atomic Blue, which is shocking, to say the least, considering that the league’s most dominant goalie in recent years (Silas ‘The Silencer’™ Perks) is patrolling the pipes. Captain Janet Goins’ Orange was anything but a high-scoring side coming into Week Four, having struggled in the absence of some of their biggest guns to the tune of ONE goal in their two losses to date. Would the absence of any absences this time out prove to be the key to a tide-turning win for a winless Orange against a lossless Atomic Blue, or would Goins’ & Company find themselves squeezed once again? The answer to that query came quickly, with Brennen Abel’s season debut proving fruitful just 0:17 into play (from Eric Enciso). This new dynamic duo connected again less than a minute later, with Enciso doing to scoring honors, and Abel providing the assist. Captain Rob Gaudio kept his league-leading scoring streak sizzling at 6:01 (from the only-slightly-less-scorching Vance Morra), but Abel rebuilt the two goal edge for Orange with his second of the period at 0:45 (Jackson Tomaszewski & Enciso). This is probably a good time to remind you, gentle reader, that this is Silas F Perks in nets for Atomic Blue–you can count on one hand the number of times he has allowed more than two goals in an entire game, and Orange had three in the first period! Well, settle in, because they scored two more in the second, both off the blade of Enciso…the first a solo effort, and the second on a feed from Alan Razoky. Gaudio sandwiched his second of the game between the two Orange tallies, but it was clear this was destined to be another offensive slug fest, and the underdogs found themselves flossing into the final period of play with a 5-2 lead. Morra cut the lead to 5-3 on the powerplay at 7:14 in the third (from Captain Gaudio and super sub, Julie Ott), but Tomaszewski would restore the three goal edge exactly a minute later (Abel & Razoky). Yes…SIX goals past Perks…surely a sign of the apocalypse, people! Gaudio would match Enciso’s hat trick with 4:52 to play (Ott & Scott Wieland), but Chuck Bender (15/19) and Orange would hold on for their first win, an intense and inspired 6-4 stunner over previously unbeaten Atomic Blue. Eric Enciso captured POTW honors with his dazzling 3 and 2 outing, and drew an impressive comparison from one long-time SDFHLer…’the reincarnation of Chris Esposito’. Whether or not that comparison holds up to a season, let alone seasons of play or not, it is clear that Orange is a major force to be reckoned with when all of their pieces are in place. Any team that can put half a dozen past Perks (27/33) has my attention, and they should have the attention of any and all future opponents, as well.

I’ve mentioned this in recaps past, but there has been some manner of mystique surrounding Captain Copp’s creations over the last few seasons. It was easy to chalk the consistent success of last season up to a beast mode Perks and a solid supporting cast, but somehow managing a 1-0-1 record to start the season while scoring just TWO goals with ZERO Silencer™ in the lineup…that’s some kind of wizardry. Captain Jon Salt’s Heather Blue also arrived at Week Four without a loss, but had done so with a bit more convention, dispatching White 2-1 in Week One, then backing into a 3-3 tie with Brown in Week Two (OK…that was definitely not conventional). So, our Week Four nightcap was loosely billed as a matchup of two teams that had somehow avoided losing, and also never shown much of a glimmer of dominance. The former tag would change for Grey in this one, while the latter would change for Heather Blue. The Blue crew generated nearly twice Grey’s shot in the first period (9-5), but the score remained even after a Captain Salt conversion at 3:25 (from Luke Wolmer & Joe Nguyen) was matched less than a minute later by Dan Soar’s first of the season (from Silas Perks). It was Perks first career point as a non-goalie, and his last chance to accomplish that feat prior to his brother’s return to the lineup (and, thereby, his exit from the lineup) this Sunday. The nice, quiet, expected first period shifted to a second and third period dominated by Heather Blue. Alexis DaCosta’s first appearance of the season (huzzah!) saw his first goal at 9:48 (Wolmer & Ty Pereira), and his first assist on Salt’s second of the game at 4:24. The 3-1 lead would balloon to 4-1 early in the third (Wolmer from Salt), then 5-1 (DaCosta from Wolmer), then 6-1 (DaCosta from TK Mason). If you’re scoring at home, that is a 3 and 1 night for DaCosta, a 2 and 1 night for Captain Salt, and a 1 and 3 night for Wolmer, as those three swept the stars of the game honors and propelled Heather Blue to their first convincing win of the season, a 6-1 romp over Grey. Neither Grey’s Matt Henderson, nor Heather Blue’s Eric Kroeker were suited up in this one, meaning that Chuck Bender (19/25) absorbed Grey’s first loss, while Nick Meglich (12/13) held the lossless line for Heather Blue. Silas can savor his lone career point as a player for a few days more before taking on his former mates (and his returning kin, Owen) in nets for Atomic Blue this Sunday, while Heather Blue will look to remain one of only two undefeated teams in an intriguing showdown with suddenly score-happy Orange.