Tim Vick scored twice for Gold, but his second strike came in the final minute of play, and only served as window dressing in a 4-2 elimination loss to Tie Dye. London called twice for the winners, with the younger Peters scoring just :34 into the first, and adding an empty netter late in the third. Alan Razoky contributed 1 and 1, and Brian Sheptycki collected a helper on Peters’ first goal to compliment his power play game-winner in the second. Melissa Busby was credited with an assist, which was a sweet score keeping gesture for a ‘special’ player (thanks, Noceti). Elliot Hicks stood tall in nets for Tie Dye, who have been without a regular goalie since Mark Boulanger blew town. His 15/17 line was a winner to Matthew Henderson’s hard luck elimination string of 18/21. Gold’s glass slipper days have ended, while Tie Dye march on to face Black in the first of two elimination games tonight!

Captain Mark Ennsmann took matters (and his opponent’s playoffs neck) into his own hands, and squeezed tightly to the tune of two goals. That would be just enough offense to do the trick, as Black ousted Orange, 2-1. Jet Javelet put Orange on the board early in the third, but a beast mode Don Tran (26/27) was not about to let Orange come back for seconds. Andrew Jacobsen found himself in a rare supporting role in the win, assisting on both of his captain’s conversions. Orange join color cousins, Gold, on the playoff funeral pyre, while Black live on to face Tie Dye in what is sure to be an epic elimination match.

Cory Brin and Andy Strathman…the alpha and omega in Purple’s 1-0 shootout slide past Lime. Brin had 20/20 vision through regulation and OT, and his perfection persisted into the shootout phase. Alex Theis deflected all fifteen he faced through three and half periods of play, but Andy Strathman’s stick struck midnight for the seventh seeded Cinderellas, sending Purple to the promised land and Lime to limbo. Captain Enright’s team is still ‘Stayin’ A Lime’, but they will need to knock off the winner of Black v Tie Dye to earn a chance at revenge and redemption in the Final.

Timing is everything, and White went from having it all to losing everything in no time.  Captain Jordan Pynn’s Eight-Ball Bender romped through the regular season without a loss, and looked like a lock to cruise through the brackets to championship glory.  A stunning shootout loss to the bottom seed left them wounded and vulnerable, and Black smelled that first blood and attacked with finishing force, knocking off the odds-on Cup favorites, 4-1.  Captain Mark Ennsmann collected assists on both of Andrew Jacobsen’s tallies, and both Ennsmann and Jacobsen assisted on Alyce Perry’s game-winner.  Michael Froman fluffed the lead to 4-0 through two periods of play, and only a Steve Goncalo power play marker late in the third could spoil Don Tran’s shut out bid (24/25).  Namesake netminder, Chuck Bender, stopped 11/15 in just his second loss of the season.  Unfortunately for White, it was also his second loss of the post season, and that was one too many for the late number one seed.  Black will look to avenge a short-benched 2-1 Week Four loss to Orange after the Labor Day break, while White will enjoy a much longer break in the lead-up to the coming season. 

Chris Malki padded his case for playoff MVP, scoring his fourth goal of the postseason, and assisting on Captain Enright’s game-winner to keep Lime, ironically, White hot.  Too soon?  Malki scored in the first, less than a minute after Rob Sangha gave Orange the lead on the power play.  Enright’s game-winner came at 3:05 in the third, and Alex Theis made that slim lead hold true, stopping 18/19 in Lime’s 2-1 win over Orange.  Captain Enright’s team has not lost since Week Six.  Their torrid and timely 4-0-1 run since has seen them outscore opponents 11-2, with Theis posting three shut outs in the span.  Lime has certainly provided a twist to the expected playoff picture, and they will look to echo their Week Nine win over Purple when the playoffs resume on September 8^th.  Orange will need to regroup and gear up for Black, whom they edged 2-1 back in Week Four of the regular season.

Alan Razoky was not about to let his sister steal the show…pride and playoff peril trump brotherly love.  Alaa had the first laugh, converting Brett Cohen’s pass to give Green a 1-0 lead in the first.  London Peters evened the score in the second, and Alan recorded the sister-thwarting game-winner in the final minute of that frame.  Brian Sheptycki added a last minute insurance policy to go with his helper on Peters’ goal, making Green’s final piece of bad news read ‘3-1 loss to Tie Dye’.  Captain Noceti’s team join White in the one-two playoff seed punchout, as Green struggled, then strangled to death without super sniper, Steve Jones.  Alan will carry the Razoky name on to Week Three of the playoffs, with Tie Dye taking on Gold in another elimination match.  With Mark Boulanger back on the east coast, it will likely be Chris Tran in nets again for Captain Siemer’s side.  Tran stopped 8/9, and actually received the scoring support he sorely lacked with Pink in the regular season to earn the win for his surrogate team. 

Purple and Gold battled to a 2-2 tie through three periods of regulation play, plus overtime, leaving their fates to the whims of the Shootout Gods.  Troy Ohlsson struck first for Purple with just 0:34 remaining in the first period.  Connor Miller retaliated for Gold with even less time to play in the second period (0:02), and Nick Adkins and Patrick Fusco exchanged salvos within a minute of each other in the third.  Andy Strathman accounted for the only assist on both Purple goals, and he would ultimately serve as the difference maker in this match.  Strathman put on his ‘Shootout God’ hat, and converted the only goal in five shootout rounds to spoil Gold’s Cinderella streak, and send them to a 3-2 SO loss.  Both goalies were on their game, but Cory Brin (17/19) ultimately outdueled Matt Henderson (18/20) to propel his team to the Winner’s Bracket finals.  Purple will look to avenge their regular season loss to Lime, and earn a spot in the finals in the process, while Gold look to stay alive in a do or die Tie Dye tilt.   

Captain Jon Salt factored in all four of his team’s goals (2 and 2), getting the higher seeds off on the right foot to open the playoffs with a 4-2 win over Black.  Jason Northrup had Black on the board first, but Danny Wissing equalized on the power play with just 0:15 to go in the first frame.  Wissing would add an assist on Captain Salt’s game-winner in the third, and an empty netter to seal the deal.  Andrew Jacobsen kept Black in the mix, assisting on Northrup’s tally, and evening the score 2-2 early in the second, but that would be all of the damage that Cory Brin would allow (16/18).  Andrew Wong and Andy Strathman each collected a pair of assists from the blue line for Purple, who advance to the Winner’s Bracket to face the eighth seed, Gold, of all teams.  Black will look to stave off elimination this Sunday against a shootout shell-shocked White.

Orange had perhaps the most hit and miss regular season of any team, finishing with a 4-5-0 record, and rounding out the final third of their slate by beating Green 3-0 between losses to Red and Gold.  Fortunately for Captain Steph Palomo & Company, Week One of the playoffs was a ‘hit’, as Jerry Gonzales cashed in early in OT to push Orange past Tie Dye, 3-2.  Raj Patel and Nick Vacchio built a 2-0 lead for Orange in the second period, but London Peters and Alan Razoky undid their work in the third.  Razoky’s strike came with just 0:35 to play.  Late tying goals can be crippling to a team, but Orange bounced back quickly off Gonzales’ stick to win it in extra time.  The upset win for the six seed cooled the uber-hot Tie Dye, sending them into an tough elimination match with second-seeded Green.  It was a big win for Orange, and an omen of bad things to come for top seeds later in the evening…

Very few pundits would have predicted much of a match between top-seeded White and bottom-seeded Gold.  The former smashed the latter 5-0 in the first week of the regular season, racked up more than twice as many goals, allowed about half as many goals, and cruised to a 7-0-2 record, while Gold sneaked in the playoff back door in their final game to cap a 2-4-3 campaign.  So, the stage was set for another White washing, but Captain Janet Goins’ crew apparently has very little respect for facts, and history, and math, and such.  Tim Vick put the underdogs on top midway through the second, and Jon Zygelman leveled the score on the power play minutes later.  Neither team would crack the rest of the way, leaving the decision to a shootout.  Rookie, Chris Turner, was the unlikely hero in the most unlikely outcome of the season, converting on in the second round of the shootout to stun and silence the top seed, 2-1.  White will have their war paint on in the wake of their only loss to date, as they gear up to take on Black in an elimination engagement.  Gold will take their house money and push it all in against Purple on the Winner’s Bracket side. 

The uprising continued in the late game, as #7 Lime sliced through #2 Green, 5-1.  Chris Malki showed his boys how it’s done, posting a hat trick to lead the way, while son Joe accounted for a mere 1 and 1.  Justin Stege recorded the game-winner, and Alex Theis allowed just one goal (Mark Scelfo) on sixteen shots to hold the winning fort.  Anthony Cerasuolo assisted on both of Papa Malki’s real goals (the last was an empty-netter), and Lime took the ‘hottest team’ baton from Tie Dye with the win…their third in a row.  Captain Enright’s bunch move on to face Orange in the Citrus Bowl this Sunday, while Green will look to regroup and rebound in a do-or-die duel with Tie Dye.  

Tie Dye saw Black’s AJ, and raised them a BS.  That’s Brian Sheptycki, for those of you who have been under a rock for the past five weeks.  Sheptycki has racked up fifteen points (11 and 4) in that span, powering his team to a 4-0-1 record, and vaulting them into the playoffs as a very dangerous three seed.  Sheptycki’s 10th and 11th goals of the season counted as the game-tying and game-winning markers, washing out Andrew Jacobsen’s early strike, and giving Tie Dye a 2-1 win over Black.  London Peter’s had a helping in hand in both goals, and the soon-to-be-departed Mark Boulanger earned the win with a 16/17 showing.  Tie Dye will face Orange in their playoff opener–the team that served as Sheptycki’s first victim back in Week Five when he dropped 2 and 2 in a 6-2 win.  Black limp into the playoffs, having lost their last two games, including a gut-puncher to Pink.  They face Purple in their opener, whom they defeated by a 3-0 score back in Week Five.  

Captain Joshi & Company’s path to playoff redemption hit Checkpoint White in the final week of play.  Unfortunately for Pink, they did not have ze papers, and were promptly rounded up and executed.  White’s passing and cycling kept Pink spinning and sputtering, and four separate scorers tensed the netting in a 4-1 White on Pink mercy killing.  Carl Vankoughnett, Steve Goncalo, Jordon Pynn, and Quinn Hume each accounted for one goal, with all but the first tacking on an assist, to boot.  Shelby Shattuck collected two assists, and Chuck Bender came within 0:34 of a shutout, allowing just one goal to Eric Willard on the sixteenth shot he faced.  The story for Pink in this game, and indeed this entire season, can be summarized by Chris Tran’s line…39/43.  So, after a heroic 3-2 win over Black in Week Eight had lifted Pink’s playoff hopes high…said hopes were unceremoniously dumped off a cliff in Week Nine.  The remaining results on the night confirmed their impact on the ground below.  Meanwhile, it has been official since Week One that White is the team to beat.  They enter the playoffs to face Gold as the top seed.  At 7-0-2, with a goal differential of +22 (more goals than six other teams have even scored this season), and all the swagger of a champion, they are the odds-on favorite for summer Cup glory.  

‘Stayin’ A-Lime’ earned their namesake honors, and headlines in the process, with a Week Nine must-win conversion over Purple, 3-0.  Joe Malki furnished the game-winner early in the second, and Emily Lincoln and Harsh Wanigaratne supplemented the scoring in the third to save the season for Captain Enright’s brightly-clad gang.  Alex Theis was in top Theis form, stopping 14/14 to preserve the crucial W.  It was Lime’s second straight win, pulling them from a dead-in-the-water three points to a playoff-path-paving seven points.  They enter the second season as the seven seed, and will look to avenge their 2-0 Week One loss to Green this Sunday.  The loss leaves Purple in the four slot.  Captain Salt’s crew will have regular season revenge on their minds, as well, as they square off against Black in the Week One early game.  

Red was up next on the must-win docket.  A victory would vault them past Pink and Gold, assuring them a playoff position even in the (seemingly unlikely) event that Gold rose to a win over Orange later in the evening.  The point was rendered moot, as Red rendered zero goals, and zero points in the standings in a 5-0 swan song loss to Green.  Dale Stuzka paid dividends in his first game since coming on to replace suspended super star, Steve Jones.  Stuzka’s 1 and 1 included an assist on the second of Dan Jurgen’s three goals, giving Green hope that their is still plenty of chemistry in the Green labs as they enter the playoffs.  Mara Bernd’s first of the season rounded out the scoring in the win, Bill Casey collected three assists, and Jurgens added two helpers to his hat trick to give him POTW panache.  Andrew Lockard’s 14/14 clean sheet could be marked with something of an asterisk, given the absence of Red’s biggest weapon, Josh Wirt.  Still, a win’s a win, and Green racked up enough of them to secure the second seed.  They will face the upstart Lime this weekend, hoping to prove that there is playoff life after Jones. 

Captain Janet Goins and Gold stepped out for their warm-ups knowing what needed to be done.  A win meant ‘we’re IN’.  A loss…’we’re OUT’.  A tie would pull them even with Pink in the race to the final spot.  They tied Pink 0-0 in the regular season, would have an identical record with a tie in their final game, as well as an identical goal differential.  They would advance on the FOURTH tiebreaker, which is total goals scored on the season.  So…a tie or better, and Gold could snatch a playoff seed in the (literal) final hour.  Connor Miller helped his team take the ‘better’ option, scoring twice to help Gold to a vital 4-3 win over Orange.  Rookie, Chris Turner, opened the scoring for Gold just 0:25 in, and fans were treated to another rare Kamal Gill sighting, as the oft-AWOL sniper added 1 and 1 to the winning cause.  Rob Sangha served up six PIMs to accompany his one goal, and Jet Javelet and Nick Vacchio helped make things interesting to the end for Orange.  Gold’s careful-what-you-wish-for Week Nine heroics have earned them a meeting with White, who bludgeoned them 5-0 in Week One.  Orange will hope their hit and miss season is due for a hit as they take on the hottest team in the league, Tie Dye.  

One team’s bad beat is another team’s good beat. Week Eight saw a winless Pink rise to victory in stunning fashion, keeping their ticket to the big dance in hand for at least one more week. The final week of the regular season is upon us, and no one is crying outside by the dumpsters…yet.

MUSIC TRIVIA: Who originally sang ‘Turn The Beat Around’?

JoeHemian Rhapsody’s path to playoff redemption coming into the final two weeks of the regular season looked very, very frightening, to say the least.  The one-two death punch of Black and White would surely keep them below the cut line for good, winless and washed out by mid-August.  Still, in spite of their struggles, Pink had proven plucky and proud through seven weeks of play, Chris Tran had proven himself the equalizer, and, well, Captain Joshi’s side had nothing left to lose.  It certainly looked as though they had at least the game at hand to lose, after Black struck for two strange goals in close in the second period (Andrew Jacobsen & Jason Northrup).  Eric Willard finally broke away and broke through for Pink, skirting past his defender, then moving around Don ‘The Other’ Tran to make his team’s first deposit.  It was Willard again off a rebound four minutes later to make it 2-2.  Another tie, and another point would give hope to the hopeless, but fate had other plans.  Those plans came in the form of a breakaway chance in the waning seconds, which Mark DeGraffenreid converted to give Pink their first win of the season–a 3-2 stunner over Black.  Chris out-dueled Don in the Tran Bowl, stopping 20/22 to further improve his MVP case. The miracle finish pushes Pink above the cut line, and actually has them perched in seventh place going into the final week of play.  While they face the toughest of all challenges in White, they at least hold their own destiny in hand, knowing full well from Week Eight that anything is possible.

Brian Sheptycki is already a household name in the SDFHL, and a house of horrors name for opponents.  The uber-skilled forward racked up another hat trick for Tie Dye, who continue to bolster their playoff position with each game he plays.  London Peters put the tie in Tie Dye, saving a point for his team with a goal at 0:14 to force a 4-4 tie with White.  White had built a 4-2 lead as the game moved into the final minutes of play, with Carl Vankoughnett’s  back-to-back third period tallies leading the way.  Jordan Pynn and Jon Zygelman provide the balance of the scoring for White, who are finally showing a few cracks in the late going, having allowed eight goals in two ties over the past two weeks of play. 

Pink’s early game heroics added extra heat to the afternoon for fellow bubble teams, Lime, Red, and Gold.  Gold’s turn on the hot seat came first, and a surprise appearance from Kamal Gill yielded early dividends in the form of an assist on the first of Nick Adkins’ two goals.  Danny Wissing and Stephanie Chen responded to those goals in turn, leaving the score at 2-2 through the first.  Unfortunately for Captain Janet Goins’ crew, they did not grab the magic baton from Pink.  Troy Ohlsson gave Purple their first lead of the game, and Captain Jon Salt sealed the deal…4-2, Purple over Gold.  Cory Brin was big for Purple, stopping 19/21, while Mark Boulanger absorbed the L in a fill-in roll for Matt Henderson with a 17/21 effort.  The loss tarnishes Gold’s playoff hopes all the more, but if they can manage a good result against Orange in the late game this Sunday, and if they get the right help from other teams earlier in the slate, they may find their way to the end of the rainbow after all.

The Nestle Crunch Crucial Match-Up of the week came with 1-5-1 Lime facing 2-4-1 Red.  As loss for Lime would mean elimination.  A win…a chance at late season redemption.  The teams battled through a scoreless first, and finished with a scoreless third.  It was Chris Malki coming through with the GWG in the second, converting an Emily Lincoln assist into the most important goal of Lime’s season.  Don Tran did his best Alex Theis impersonation, stopping 21/21 to preserve the win, while Christian LeClair (18/19) was tagged with yet another loss in a difficult debut season. The 1-0 win for Lime over rival Red inches them above the cut line for now.  They will have a tough challenge in Purple this week, but Gold and Red will need to earn a point or more against Orange and Green, respectively, if they hope to twist Lime back out of the playoff picture. 

Green is having trouble keeping up without the Jones.  The super star forward was shelved for the remainder of the season after an ugly incident in a Week Six match-up with Gold.  Things have been uglier since, with Captain Noceti’s team suffering two straight shutout losses.  The second of those losses came courtesy of Orange, who snapped a cold streak of their own (0-3-0) in the process.  Goals from Jerry Gonzales, Kevin Dinino, and Raj Patel provided more than enough for Marc Devoe (11/11) to record his second shutout of the season–3-0 Orange over Green.  Green has been granted a replacement for Jones in the person of Dale Stuzka.  They will look to get back on track in their final regular season tilt with a desperate Red.  Both teams are already securely in the playoffs, so the real playoff implications for Orange’s final game are all on the other side of the ball (Gold).