Candlestuck

Our Week Eight cover team, Gold, is making the paper for all the wrong reasons. With just one win in four tries coming in, and given that the lone win came against league punching bag, Pink, Gold knew they would need a good result against an up and down White side, or risk falling that much further behind the playoff pack. With Silas Perks suited up in place of the still-on-the-shelf Chris Tran, and with a full bench, including the heavy shot of Alan Razoky and perennial scoring standout Brennen Abel in he lineup, it felt like this one was Gold’s game to lose. Unfortunately for Captain Jeannine Stuzka & Company, that is just what they did. Captain Ryan Karns’ White came out with guns blazing, racking up thirteen shots in the first period. Only one of those shots found a way past Perks…a Mark Nagy strike with a helping hand from ‘The Deputy’™, Kevin Dinino. Gold pushed back in the second, posting thirteen shots of their own, but Matt Henderson was in beast mode, and would keep his team on top going into the third. Both Perks (31/32) and Henderson (25/25) were perfect in the final third, meaning that Nagy’s late first period goal would be all White would need to push past Gold, 1-0. The win is significant for White, evening their record at 3-3-0, and moving them into relative comfort in the middle of the standings with their bye week still to come. The loss, while not a death sentence for Gold, leaves them at 1-4-0 with five games to play, including a tough Week Nine matchup with Olive. It’s not quite ‘must win’ time yet, but it’s definitely must-not-lose May for the Handlers, if they have any hopes of playing into July.

Captain John Boddy’s Black strutted through their fist four games without a loss (2-0-2), and while I don’t have a comprehensive attendance chart in front of me, a quick check of the boxes for those four games show just one player missing each time out. One of those four absences (Sadie Hellstrom in Week Seven) was covered by a sub, making three net absences over four games, which has to have them tops in the league for showing up…which we all know is half the battle. That shimmering show-up trend would dull in Week Eight, as Black took to the court to face Brown without Marc Lapointe, Dan Jurgens, and Brendan Jew. A short bench is not always a problem if it means more playing time for a super star, and with Captain Boddy’s history of ho-hum heroics, Brown would need a strong showing from their own super star (Zach Salt), whose absence the week prior spelled doom for Captain Prior’s side. It was a strong Salt showing, indeed, and an old, forgotten, Rec Gym relic proved he also has some ‘super star’ swagger left in the satchel. Mark DeGraffenreid (said forgotten relic) opened the scoring for Brown at 8:06 in the first (Shawna Hamon & Zach Salt), then doubled the edge at 2:57 (Salt). Salt kicked off the second with a solo strike, and DeGraffenreid followed quickly with the hat trick capper/game-winner (Andy Strathman). Captain Boddy finally broke through with two retaliatory responses at 7:00 (Pat Gladstone) and 3:21 (Geoff Downes), but DeGraffenreid’s fourth of the game on the powerplay (Hamon and Tony Thinh) had Brown up 5-2 going into the final ten minutes of play. Boddy would complete his own hat trick, and restore concern to the Brown bench just twenty seconds into the third, but it was all Brown from there out…Salt (Hamon), Salt (Russell), Thinh (Salt and Maureen Ruchhoeft), Ruchhoeft (DeGraffenreid & Strathman). The late spate turned a potential thriller into a 9-3 boat race, with Brown handing Black their first loss of the season, and providing yet another ‘attendance is key’ data point. With six points for Salt (3 and 3) and five for DeGraffenreid (4 and 1), this new dynamic duo keep command of the top two spots in the scoring table with 17 (DeGraffenreid) and 16 (Salt) through six team games. Math will tell you that the two have combined for more points that a number of other (entire) teams this season, while chemistry will tell you that Brown is a volatile threat any given Sunday…goggles, coats, and gloves, people!

Captain Jeremy Copp’s Olive found themselves an even rarer breed after Black’s defeat, now one of just two lossless teams at 3-0-2. The impressive mark is all the more intriguing when you consider that the team entered Week Eight with a goals-for total (11) in the bottom half of the standings. Olive’s clear key to the undefeated kingdom…’The Silencer’™, Silas Perks. Perks’ numbers are bonkers once again this season, with just FIVE goals allowed in five games coming into Week Eight. Captain Chad Goins’ Grey have proven to have no trouble scoring this season, but Perks is a different animal, and Jon Cima and company were definitely playing the role of David to Perks’ and friends’ Goliath. Both David and Goliath were perfect in the first, with Grey’s 9-5 shot advantage producing no advantage on the scoreboard. Justin Stege finally put a ball past Perks at 4:11 in the second (Captain Goins & Kyle Snyder), but SDFHL’s prodigal son, Aaron Cooney, evened the score with his third of the season less than two minutes later (Dan Soar). Grey enjoyed a 7-4 edge in the middle period, and produced another lopsided shot count in the third (8-3), but Perks (23/24) held firm on his end…and Cima (11/12) did well enough with the sling shot to stun the giant with a 1-1 result. Another loss-free week has Olive still in the running for the top spot in the standings at 3-0-2, while the point keeps Grey in relative standings safety with a sample platter 2-2-2 mark. Both teams can exhale and look forward to an (expected) easier outing in Week Nine, with Olive taking on the 1-4-0 Gold, and Grey hoping to unleash their pent-up high-powered offense against a 1-5-0 Pink,

It’s too late to ease concerns with ‘it’s early’ speeches, and consolatory back claps are starting to sting more and more with each loss logged for Captain Janine Ulloa’s Pink. At 1-4-0 coming into a Week Eight meeting with Captain Sev Brown’s Purple, the injured Ulloa could only prop her crutches next to her camping chair and hope the sails would finally unfurl on her swiftly sinking ship. Purple came in rested and reset, with their bye week offering equal parts time for recovery and time for reflection on a pair of tough, tight losses in their previous two outings. I would normally try to build a bit of artificial ‘suspense’ in these recaps (you’ve already seen the boxes, and I am REALLY late with the recaps this week), but there’s really no helping the total lack of close competition in this one. Jon Salt put Purple in front just 1:16 in, and Emily Bennington closed the period with her first of the season to make it 2-0 (Captain Brown & Salt). The middle period was rather quiet, with Salt’s second at 2:57 serving as the only scoring (Jason Northrup), but the third was a bludgeoning bonanza…Salt on the powerplay (Jon Champine), Salt unassisted, Salt’s FIFTH (Kaitlyn Brusso), and Champine (Brown & Joe Nguyen)…a four goal frenzy to put Pink down a touchdown with less than a minute to play. Don Tran (23/24) was not completely untested at his end, but only a last gasp effort from Mason LaGrossa at 0:25 (Gordon Schmidt) kept him from a clean slate…but of course did no real good in the 7-1 Purple pile on. Nick Vacchio (27/34) continues to suffer the slings and arrows of being the last line of defense on a very bad team, but even a great day for an all time great goalie would have fallen short when one last minute goal is all your team can muster. Now at 1-5-0, it’s no longer a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’ Pink will officially eliminated from playoff contention. The win propels Purple to 3-2-0, on the right side of .500, and still in the thick of the playoff pack as they make the turn into the second half of their schedule.

Week Eight saved the best game for last, as a tense, tight tilt between Orange and Red kept the pattern of thriller-thumping-thriller-thumping-thriller intact. At 3-0-2, Captain Joel Gattey’s Red was really starting to show the swagger of a Cup lock, while Captain Byran Ossa’s 1-2-1 Orange came in still in search of a consistent winning formula. It’s hard to concoct any formula, much less a winning one without some key ingredients, and Orange would once again find themselves lacking the not-so-secret sauce that is David Schlatter. Captain Ossa was also elsewhere in this one, but Orange drew some consolation and confidence from the absence of Alexis ‘Absence King’ DaCosta and Sean Kelly at the other end. A scoreless first was also a shotless first for Orange, with bored-to-tears fill-in, Don Tran, looking on as Nick Meglich stopped all seven shots he faced. Rob Gaudio found twine behind a startled-awake Tran with one of Orange’s five shots in the second (Jess MacKinnon & Mostafa Azab) at 7:18, but Wendy Enright responded at 6:06 (Nick Vacchio) to restore balance through two. It was an eerily similar pattern in the third, with Gaudio’s second coming at 7:19 (Azab), and Trevor Vick’s response (Tim Vick) coming at 5:29, to knot the score at 2-2, where it would stay. Meglich (25/27) was his typical yeoman self in helping to wrest a point away from the league’s big bad wolf, while Tran (10/12) did a perfectly adequate Sean Kelly impression to keep Red undefeated at 4-0-2. Orange will look to climb away from the cut line in Week Nine, with a scuffling, attendance nightmare Teal in town, while Red look to preserve their pristine L column, and keep circling challengers at bay against Brown.