Bounced

Even at 1-5-2 coming into the final week of play, Captain Joel Gattey’s Gold still had access to an escape hatch from the standings basement to the bottom floor of the playoff party palace. As fate would have it, the make-up games for the Week Three Heat Waive™ slate meant that Gold would have at least some measure of control over their decidedly delicate destiny. A win over Captain Geoff Downes’ White, combined with a Red loss to heavily favored Heather Blue, would mean that Gold would slog out of three way 2-5-2 quagmire (giggity) and latch on to the last playoff vine by virtue of total head to head points. Of course, anything but a win would mean an end (perhaps a merciful one) for Gold, while it was ‘win and in’ for White, with even a loss leaving the playoff door open, provided Red stayed put on points. Tony Thinh allowed White to exhale a bit at 5:37 in the first (Tyler Winstead & Carl Vankoughnett), and his second of the game at 7:13 in the second (Zach Siemer) had Downes’ & Company breathing easy up two going into the third. Sean Kelly (19/19) was in standard stellar form, keeping his sheet clean while watching Zach Siemer cap the scoring at the other end at 7:12 in the third (Captain Downes) to seal Gold’s fate for good, 3-0. While is is admittedly a small sample size this season (just four games), the shutout win for ‘Da Kid’™ keeps him on top of the goalie stat stack with a .946/1.00/2 SO line. The struggle was real this season for Alex Theis (0-4-1/.861/3.200 SO), but Chris Tran (19/22) did his best to keep Gold going as a finale fill-in. Still, no matter how strong the last line of defense, you cannot win if you cannot score, and Gold could not muster enough to pass playoff muster when it mattered most. The win officially booked playoff passage for White, who closed their regular season at 3-4-2 with head-to-head tiebreakers in hand against both Red and Grey. A loss for those two teams would lock in the seven seed for White, with the worst case scenario (of course) being one rung lower.

The second game in the make-up mix held no air of desperation for either side, with both Captain Ryan Karns’ Brown and Captain Zach Salt’s Lime sitting pretty with nine points each. While both teams still had a shot at the top spot, that coup would require a rather unlikely chain of results in the later games, leaving improved playoff positioning the more likely prize (beyond pride) in this one. To say that the lack of significant stakes rendered this a very wild and very loose affair would be a very wild and loose understatement. I will do my best to recap the ridiculousness while somehow avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome…buckle up. Captain Salt shook home the first two goals of the game at 8:28 and 4:27 in the first, with Eric Willard assisting on both to help Lime to a 2-0 lead. Kalen Hunter’s first of the night at 2:52 (Andy Strathman) cut the lead to one, but Christopher Fiore quickly restored the two goal edge at 2:18 (Salt). Hunter’s second at 1:20 (Strathman & Sadie Hellstrom), and third at 0:24 (Hellstrom & Captain Karns) meant a wacky, wild 3-3 tie through one. Chris Fiore kicked off the second period score-fest at 6:33 (Eric Willard), and Captain Salt doubled the damage for Lime at 4:13 (Justin Ker & Dorothy Kline). Arnold Gonzales cut the lead back to one at 3:43 (Mario Peia & Pat Gladstone), but Salt (Marc Lapointe) and Willard (Salt & Fiore) surged Lime back in front 7-4 heading into the third. Justin Ker (yes, folks…actually present and accounted for) made it 8-4 Lime at 8:11 in the final frame, and it was beginning to feel like the ratio of shots to goals would be 1:1 from that point on. Back to back Kalen Hunter strikes (7:51 from Gladstone and Peia, and 3:55 from Sadie Hellstrom and Peia) seemed to confirm that trajectory, tightening the ledger to 8-6 with time for at least a dozen more goals (only a slight exaggeration), but Willard snuffed out Brown’s rally with his second of the game at 2:38 (Salt & Fiore) to push the gap back to 9-6. Captain Karns’ kept it close (by this game’s standards) with his first of the game at 2:13 (Hunter), but Willard closed the scoring with his solo hat trick capper at 0:32, leaving the scorekeeper rocking a muttering in a corner after an absolutely insane 10-7 decision…Lime over Brown. I don’t have the SDFHL history books in my lap, but I am going to guess that SEVENTEEN goals is close to, if not definitively THE record for most combined conversions in a league game to date. The video game numbers in this one helped seal a second straight scoring title for Captain Salt (27), and parked Hunter in the two spot (25) and Willard in third (22). The scheduling gods never cease to amuse at least a few times in a given season, and this result was definitely one in that vein. The Lime win, combined with the rest of the night’s results, meant that Lime would improve to the three spot, while Brown would sit at six. Had the result been reversed, Brown would have ended at three and Lime at six. So, either way, the two teams would meet again immediately this Sunday, with Lime’s hard-earned choice of side holding no real value in the Week One nightcap. It will be interesting to see if the second installment is another goalapalooza, with both Brown’s Mark DeGraffenreid and Lime’s Glenn Pinto drawing back into the lineup after missing all the fun in the regular season finale. The real question is…can Justin Ker make back-to-back games for the first time in his SDFHL career…now THAT would be crazy!

Game times in the final week of play can be a big deal for teams facing playoff elimination. Captain Mark Nagy’s team warmed up for their match with Captain Jon Salt’s side knowing that Gold was already dead and gone, but also knowing that their own second season survival would require accomplishing a feat that no other team had…beating Heather Blue. To make matters worse, a tie (the odds of which are hilariously high against Heather Blue) would do them no good due to the ‘total wins’ tiebreaker. Even a win would not guarantee a post season post, with Grey enjoying an even sweeter game time advantage, and needing only a point to lock even a victorious Red out vis a vis some deep tiebreaker traps. You can only control what you can control though, and a loss would definitely be the last straw for Red, so…they would just need to find a way…or not. Captain Salt put Heather Blue on top at 5:55 in the first, but Captain Nagy answered back just thirty-one seconds later (Jordan Pynn) to lead his team by example and knot the score at one apiece. Late goals are usually back breakers, and Salt’s second at 0:03 (Alexis DaCosta & Joe Nguyen) was certainly no exception, leaving Red feeling deflated (if not defeated), down one going into the second. DaCosta struck twice in the middle minutes to shore up the lead for the favorites (8:50 from Salt and Bryan Ossa, and 1:58 from Ty Pereira and Ossa), leaving Red in what must have seemed a bottomless 4-1 pit going into the last period of play. The Deputy™ (Kevin Dinino) started the ascent for Red in the third with a solo strike at 7:08, and when Mark Daquipa cashed in at 2:42 (Eli Schonbrun & Pynn), the rim of that ‘bottomless’ pit came into tantalizingly clear view for Nagy’s desperate crew. Whether they realized/had mathed it out ahead of time or not, a knot was no good at this point…they would need not one, but two more goals to secure a win and push past what they hoped would be an idle Grey and into the last postseason spot. Alas…even the tying tally was not in the tarot cards for Red, and TK Mason’s empty-netter at 0:49 (Ossa) locked up the 5-3 win for Heather Blue, locked up the top seed for Captain Salt & Company, and locked Captain Nagy’s Red in the discard dungeon with Gold for good. Chris Tran (15/18) won the latest installment of The Clash Of Trans™, filling in admirably for Eric Kroeker to keep Heather Blue’s loss column clean, and eliminate Don Tran (16/20) and Red in the process. Heather Blue put their undefeated streak on the line against Captain Jeremy Copp’s Grey this Sunday. The former smashed the latter 6-1 in Week Four, but a dialed in and determined Matt Henderson was not suited up for that lopsided loss, and it’s safe to say that the rematch will be a much tighter tilt. If it’s REALLY tight, Grey will be the first to test the ‘you can’t tie in playoff hockey’ axiom against perhaps the only team in SDFHL history to record a tie in more than half of their games in a season (4-0-5).

With both Red and Gold officially eliminated, the pressure of playoff peril was officially over for Captain Jeremy Copp’s Grey. Their three game freefall had dropped them from a lead pack line of 3-1-1 to cut line caution at 3-4-1, but the results of the earlier games had them in the eighth and final playoff position, with a tie or better only availing them with an advance to seventh. Captain Janet Goins’ Orange came in having already secured a playoff place at 4-3-1, with a win meaning a secured second seed and the momentum of a five game lossless streak heading into playoff play. The underdogs found themselves on top first, with Justin Stege’s first (!) of the season coming on a feed from Owen Perks at 3:44. Both goalies were stingy from start to finish in this one, but Matt Henderson was absolutely on his head, stopping all THIRTY-ONE shots he faced through two to keep Grey clinging to a 1-0 lead going into the third. The law of averages finally won out in the third, though, as Brennen Abel scored once (5:43 from Jackson Tomaszewski), then again (5:06 from Gordon Schmidt and Tomaszewski) to flip the lead in Orange’s favor in the span of just thirty-seven seconds. Stephanie Palomo Schmidt would add insurance at 1:04 (Tomaszewski & Schmidt), dashing any Grey hopes of salvaging a tie, and dealing Matt Henderson (42/45!) and Grey a tough luck fourth straight loss, 3-1. Chuck Bender (14/15) finished a strong season with his league-leading fifth W, and numbers nice enough for middle pack potency. The win, along with Green’s non-win (spoiler alert) meant a silver medal regular season finish for Orange, while Grey could only breathe a big sigh of relief and resolve to regroup after backing into the playoffs as the bottom seed. Orange will face White in their opener, with both teams looking to find that extra something after battling to a 2-2 deadlock in Week Eight. Grey will face Heather Blue in the proverbial Week One David v Goliath clash, but as noted above, Captain Copp will have Matt Henderson minding the pipes in what he and his mates hope will be a taste of vengeance, an inspiring upset, and a timely turning point from a lengthy losing slide.

The final game of the regular season was not without post season implications, but with both Captain Rob Gaudio’s Atomic Blue and Captain Nick Meglich’s Green cuddled in the creamy middle of the playoff picture, this one would be a ‘jockey for position’ playoff preparation match more than anything else. A win would actually move Atomic Blue from sixth to third, while a win for Green would move them from fourth to second. The irony…those ‘improved’ positions would have both teams facing teams that beat them earlier in the season (White beat Green 3-1 in Week Two, and Brown beat Atomic Blue 6-3 in Week Eight). So…perhaps the best outcome for both teams would be an amicable tie…which would set up an insta-rematch between the two this Sunday (with real stakes, this time). I’m not entirely sure about the ‘amicable’ part, but the no-win result situation did indeed come to fruition. A scoreless first and second saw The Silencer™ as the MUCH busier of the two netminders, facing twenty-five shots to Meglich’s ten, but as with Matt Henderson’s night, the law of averages came home to roost early in the third, with Josh Wirt finally finding twine at 9:15 (Rob LaVigne & Nick Vacchio) to give Green the game’s first lead. Captain Gaudio spared his goalie from one of the worst bad beats in league history, sliding the equalizer past Captain Meglich (12/13) with 1:45 to play to save Silas Perks (42/43) from a fantastically frustrating fate, and send the last game of the season into the books as a 1-1 tie (amicable, or not). Perks earned POTW honors for his heroics, but the rescued point pales in importance to the fact that The Silencer™ appears to officially be back. That is scary news for Captain Meglich and crew, and indeed for the rest of the seeds as the ball drops on SDFHL Fall League playoff hockey this Sunday…