Week One was something of a parity sandwich, with the first and last games on the slate going in the books as tight, tense, low-scoring nailbiters, with three thick slices of lopsided lunchmeat in between. The bottom slice of bread/season opener saw Captain John Boddy’s Blue taking on Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime, and with Boddy riding off into the Oregon sunset at season’s end, one might expect him and his mates to have an extra dash of motivation coming in. Ramsey Ksar kickstarted the manifestation of that destiny with the first goal of the season at 2:01 in the first from Eli Schonbrun and a jail-broken Sean Kelly, recording a point in his first action as forward since the Spring 2018 season. Blue dominated the first period shot totals by an 11-3 count, but Lime found their footing to reverse that trend in the second (10-4 shots, in their favor), and finally find a response off the stick of Nick Vacchio at 2:13 (Silas Perks & Brennen Abel). It took just fourteen seconds for Blue to recapture the lead, and who else to do the honors but our season-long player of honor, Captain Boddy. Boddy’s first of the season from Steve Linke and Schonbrun restored his team’s one goal lead…a lead that Chris Tran (13/14) would preserve through a scoreless third to seal Blue’s opening win over Lime, 2-1. A strong effort from Don Tran (17/19) was wasted by a shockingly anemic Lime attack, though much of the credit for that anemia is clearly due to Blue’s defense…keeping Brennen Abel goalless is a remarkable feat. The win has Blue on track to send Captain Boddy out with a bang, but it’s way too early to start labeling any team a Cup contender, especially with close-cut results like this one…a result that would SURELY set the trend for the rest of the evening…

…nope! Our first slice of ‘lopsided lunchmeat’ came next, with Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green facing off with Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal. Honestly, my preseason thoughts on these teams were that Green would be on the weaker side and Teal would be one of the favorites…proving I know absolutely nothing after nearly thirty years of league play. I suppose I had not factored a possible breakout season for young William Teglia into my math, and Teglia definitely made sure I won’t fail to factor him in, going forward. Teglia’s first of the season at 7:00 in the first (Jon Zygelman) came short-handed, and he added an even strength second at 4:12 (Zygelman & Chad Goins) to push Green to a two goal lead. Joe Malki made it 3-0 Green with an unassisted strike at 2:35, and this one looked to be a legitimate laugher going into the first break. That first break came ONE second after Teal’s first response, however, as the (very) highly-touted newcomer, Alex Giummo, notched his first career goal, and Teal’s first of the season at 0:01 (Gordon Schmidt) to bring hope to a deflated bench and signal a potential tide shift going into the second. CONGRATULATIONS, ALEX! That shifting tide did continue to rise in the second, with Jim LaGrossa cutting the lead to one (Schmidt), but a pair of counterpunches from Chris Malki at 7:57, and Joe Malki at 3:45 (Chad Goins & Chris Malki) put Green back on the crest of a winning wave. Josh Tran would thicken the plot again at 7:04 in the third (Schmidt & Palomo Schmidt), but ‘within two’ was as close as Teal would get, and Teglia’s hat trick-capper with 2:00 to play wrapped the scoring in a convincing 6-3 win for Green over Teal. Chuck Bender (22/25) continued his personal streak of strong play in the win in place of absent net-newcomer, John Kushneryk, while Matt Henderson (20/26) fell victim to Teglia’s triple threat and an otherwise formidable Green attack from start to finish.

The middle layer in this whole sandwich concept that I am (for whatever reason) running with featured Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple taking on Captain Rob Gaudio’s White. True to form, I would have lost my bet that this would be a close game, with Purple edging out White to start their season on a winning note. It actually was a close 2/3 of a game, but White really made that last 1/3 count in their favor. The first ten minutes very nearly slipped past as just the second scoreless period of the night, but Dan Jurgens put White in front with just six ticks to go before the break (Captain Gaudio & Jackson Tomaszewski). Jurgens-Gaudio-Tomaszewski…remember this trio of names…it will be THE theme of this game. Gaudio doubled his team’s advantage at 3:46 in the second (from…yes…Tomaszewski & Jurgens), but Pat Gladstone wristed home the first response from Purple at 2:52 (Carl Vankoughnett & Tyler Winstead) to restore the one goal gap through two. Unfortunately for Captain Karns’ & Company, the Gladstone strike would be the first and last for Purple, and even more unfortunate, White’s three headed dragon was far from done. Gaudio from Tomaszewski and Jurgens at 5:57…Gaudio from Tomaszewski and Jurgens at 3:11…Jurgens from Tomaszewski and Gaudio at 2:12…game, set, match for White, who rode this terrifying trio to a 5-1 boat race win over Purple. All five goals, and indeed all fifteen points produced by White were credited to the scoring firm of Gaudio, Jurgens & Tomaszewski. It generally takes at least a few games to develop that kind of chemistry, but White clearly decided to forgo the ‘getting to know you’ phase. Will Heinl (10/11) earned the win on Jon Cima’s behalf, while Chuck Bender (15/20) absorbed the loss for his actual team on the heels of securing a win in a fill-in roll for Green. Gaudio captured POTW honors with his 3 and 2 statement game, and (of course) the ‘big three’ go into Week Two as co-leaders in the scoring race with five points each.

The third and final slice of ‘lopsided lunchmeat’ was layered on next, with Captain Hima Joshi’s Gold snatching a season-opening win off the very shiny silver platter carried in by Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red. With Josh Wirt, Alec Noraditsky, and John Kushneryk all out of the lineup, and a new/unproven Gabe Davenport in nets, even my poor prognostication skills could not cloud the vision that this was Gold’s game to lose. Red came out strong, though, outshooting Gold 7-5 in the first, and when Shawna Hamon capped the first period push by snapping home a gorgeous feed from newcomer, Ali Nabipour, it brought hand wringing and doubt to a previously pumped Gold bench at the break. The museum piece assist from Nabipour was his first career SDFHL point…CONGRATUALTIONS, ALI! Gold would find their form against a thin and tiring Red side in the second, with Owen Perks bursting in with a brilliant solo effort to tie it at 7:03, and Mark DeGraffenreid wristing a fluke past Davenport at 6:16 to give Gold their first lead (Evan Melcher). Perks struck again at 3:32, completing a give-and-go series with DeGraffenreid, then again to complete his hat trick at 2:02 (DeGraffenreid & Shelby Shattuck). Vance Morra flicked a fifth Gold goal over Davenport’s shoulder with just 0:07 to go in the second (Vinny Santora), and as tough as any late period goal is to swallow, this was a clear and present back breaker for Red. Mason Holcomb (17/18) was VERY sharp from start to finish, and (in spite of a rough second) Davenport was solid in his first career SDFHL start. Neither goalie would allow any further scoring in the third, so 5-1 Gold over Red was the final in this last of three not-so-close Week One contests.

The Week One nightcap…a perfectly-toasted slice of parity bread laid atop our ‘sandwich’ by Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange and Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black. While I did not personally watch every Week One game, I can assure you that this was the most hard-fought, entertaining, and ultimately bizarre hour of hockey in this opening week of play. Trevor Vick struck first for Black at 7:00 in the first (Captain Wolmer), but a late (and very untimely) turnover led to Kalen Hunter’s unassisted equalizer with just 0:09 remaining in the period. A scoreless second saw very close shot totals (10-9 in Black’s favor), signaling a righting of the ship for Orange after being outshot 11-4 in the first. The ship was un-righted again in the third, though, with Black blasting away to the count of 15-6 in their favor, only to allow the first goal of the third at 5:38 (Eric Willard from Captain Nagy) to give Orange their first lead with half a period to play. Captain Wolmer leveled the ledger again at 3:59 (Trevor Vick & TK Mason), setting up a fierce fight to the finish. With just 0:27 to play, it’s safe to say that both teams had resigned themselves to a tie…a well-earned one point for each side…back pats and high fives all around for a valiant non-losing effort. I know that I was expecting nothing else as I dropped the ball in Orange’s zone to close out the final half minute of play. As an Orange defender circled behind that net and aimed a clearing pass out of the zone, we would surely see some standard late game jousting…maybe a late, long range shot on one goal or the other, or….*then it happened*. That Orange clearing attempt…bounced off a forechecking TK Mason, then bounced into the net behind an absolutely stunned and confused Nick Meglich! From 99.9% tie probability to 99.9% Black win probability in a split second. The buzz from this Twilight Zone turn of events had hardly subsided when Trevor Vick pushed the ensuing center ice faceoff forward…and into Orange’s empty net to make it 4-2 Black…the final score in this one, amazingly enough. Kudos to Mason for never giving up on the play, and for earning POTG honors for her 1 and 1 sparkplug performance, but you just have to feel for Meglich (32/35) who was absolutely breakdancing in this one, and really deserved a better fate. Another Mason, Mason Holcomb (17/19), was perfectly happy to benefit from the reciprocal good fortune as a stand-in for Black’s Will Heinl (because Black was facing Orange’s Will Heinl), backstopping his surrogate team to a 1-0-0 season start with his second of two strong performances on the night.

The structure of the SDFHL playoffs is probably not perfect, with the double elimination format meaning that the Final could very well be a back-to-back brawl for it all, but there is something to be said about managing to build a ‘rivalry’ over the course of a mere fourteen weeks of play. The maximum number of times any one team can face the same opponent in this league is four, and Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s ‘CarliforNeons’, and Captain Wendy Enright’s ‘Gilda Redner’ hit that cap, starting with Neon’s 5-1 regular season win back in Week Three. Neon was without the services of Justin Hepler and Mark Nagy in that convincing first meeting win, but Red was without Andy Strathman, Jon Zygelman, and Owen Perks…so, maybe not the best gauge of how the rest of this sizzling series would settle out. Both teams were at full strength (well…almost…Elyse Shattuck was in for her sister Shelby) when Red handed Neon a 4-2 revenge dish that sent the former on to the Final and the latter to the Losers’ Bracket, but after Neon survived a close contest with number two, Baby Blue, we knew we would be treated to at least one more clash of these two titans ‘for all the marbles’. Neon, of course, would need to beat Red not once, but twice to capture the Cup, while Red would just need to repeat their feat from two weeks prior…just one more win to win it all. Neon was on the front foot early, outshooting Red 9-2 through the first period of play, and Ryan Karns finally found twine behind newly-minted goalie and professional Jon Cima stand-in, John Kushneryk, to put the top-seeded underdogs on the board first at 1:20 (Darin Cerasuolo & Jim LaGrossa). Young Darin quickly doubled Neon’s lead at 0:47 (Captain Vankoughnett), leaving Red reeling going into the first break. Amazingly enough, Red committed three penalties in that first ten minute chunk, but both of Neon’s goals game at even strength. Owen Perks produced Red’s first response at 6:27 in the second (Jon Zygelman & Captain Enright), and with the shot count starting to find level (just 9-7 in favor of Neon in the second), it was clear that Red was pushing hard to make this a one and done final showdown. Red held a 12-4 shot edge in the third, and Perks made one of those dozen darts pay off with 7:37 to play (Zygelman & Andy Strathman) to knot the score at twos and set up a frenetic fight to the finish. Both John Kushneryk (19/22) and Chuck Bender (19/21) remained stout and solid under the third period (literal and figurative) heat, but someone would have to emerge a hero in this one, and that someone was Neon’s Captain Vankoughnett. A scrambling series in front of Red’s net saw the ball bound from Shelby Shattuck to Darin Cerasuolo to the Vankoughnett’s backhand in front…back of the net…3-2 Neon with just seven ticks left. Neon rejoiced…Red (and, honestly, the volunteer officials) sighed heavily, and steeled themselves for the rematch…the fourth and final installment of this forged in fire rivalry…

So…down to the final, final game…the last of four in this hotly-contested series, with Neon having won two of three over Red, but (because timing is everything), now finding themselves merely on ‘equal’ footing with their familiar foes as the ball dropped between the two weary sides with the summer sun dropping (mercifully) behind the hills to the west. It was Red who came out fast in the second match, with Andy Strathman converting unassisted on the powerplay at 5:47 in the first, and Jon Zygelman doubling Red’s edge at 3:48 (Tim Vick). Neon found their energy after the first break, and their shot count followed suit, rebounding from just one in the first period to nine in the second. Darin Cerasuolo made one of those nine shots count at 8:50 in the period (Justin Hepler & Jim LaGrossa) to cut the lead to one, but Zygelman’s second of the game at 1:43 (Trevor Vick) restored the two goal advantage heading into the final break in regulation. For all of the tight, tense drama of the regular season meeting and the first two playoff games between these two determined teams, the twelfth period in the series was something of an anticlimax. Owen Perks pushed Red’s lead to three with 7:50 to play (Zygelman & Nguyen), and Tim Vick’s empty-netter with 3:40 remaining was the final nail in Neon’s 5-1 losing coffin. Jon ‘JZ’ Zygelman captured first start honors with his 2 and 1 performance, and John Kushneryk (14/15) earned the respect and admiration of all involved, coming in with VERY little experience to secure the final, Cup-clinching win for Red. Chuck Bender (10/14), Captain Vankoughnett, and the rest of the Neon crew pushed hard from Week One through to the final game, but came up just short. Congratulations to both teams on a great season, and to Red, for winning the ‘right’ two games of this four game saga…

Back to back blowout losses to Red to close the regular season and open the post season had Captain Sean Bathgate’s Brown feeling pretty down, but sliding past Grey and Pink to build back some mojo and momentum had them believing they might just be the little six seed engine that could. It would take plenty of chugging for that little engine to puff past the second and first seed in the same night, but a 3-0 regular season win over the former had Brown’s brains trained on at least one upset win. A scoreless first had a ‘feeling each other out’ vibe, with neither team wanting to expose themselves to attack, and neither able to find a successful strike. Then came a four minute span in the second that saw four goals…three of them on Baby Blue’s half of the ledger in the first three minutes of that stretch. Kalen Hunter was the first to convert, depositing a Luke Wolmer feed at 9:32, and goals by Weston Nawrocki at 7:57 (Leah Gonzales & Will Heinl) and Captain Rob LaVigne at 6:48 (Kalen Hunter) had Brown feeling like a speed bag the week before a big fight, and Baby Blue (rightfully) feeling like ruthless assassins. Mark DeGraffenreid tapped home a gorgeous crossing feed from Josh Wirt to stop the bleeding for Brown at 5:37 in the second, but a second Kalen from Luke nuke at 1:08 restored Baby Blue’s three goal edge going into the third. Another stretch of scoreless play ate away the majority of the final frame, but Brown’s second at 1:29 (Wirt from Chris ‘Pretty Awesome’ Tran) sprinkled a dash of hope over the underdogs’ bench. Alas, no heroic comeback, no Cinderella crescendo…just Don Tran (9/11) holding on to secure a win for Baby Blue, and eliminate Chris Tran’s ‘other team’ in the process, 4-2. Matt Henderson (10/14) deserved better in this one…he was great all season, but Brown’s ‘little engine’ finally ran out of steam, and ultimate ‘couldn’t’. In the most deliciously amusing twist, Chris Tran would leave the court, throw on his pads (well…SLOWLY put on his pads), then shuffle back on to the court to rejoin his Baby Blue mates in the Losers’ Bracket Final against a waiting and eager Neon…

So, the aftermath of a dozen playoff games did little more than clip away the lower seeds, leaving #2 Baby Blue to face #1 Neon for the right to face #3 Red for the ultimate prize. Sometimes things just math out more or less as expected, but history has frequently shown that the ‘tired team’ (played by Baby Blue this time around) gets the better of the second game of the night in Week Four. Neon got the better of the Week Seven regular season matchup, but it took a late three goal surge to push Vankoughnett & Company to a 4-2 win on that day, and Baby Blue hoped to turn the tables and deliver the most satisfying of all counterpunches…the knockout blow. Luke Wolmer sustained his game one sizzle, this time serving in the scoring role to put Baby Blue in front at 8:28 in the first (Captain LaVigne & Kalen Hunter). Justin Hepler used his ‘Albatross’™ wing span to wrap home Neon’s response with 2:54 to play in the first (Mark Nagy), leaving the teams on equal footing going into the first break. It was Wolmer again at 7:08 in the second (Kevin Hunter & Rob LaVigne) to put Baby Blue back on top, but Captain Vankoughnett drew Neon even again at 6:15 (Hepler), and Shelby Shattuck struck from the point on the powerplay with just 0:08 to go in the middle stanza (Hepler) to give Neon their first lead of the night. Neither Chris Tran (14/17), nor Chuck Bender (12/14) would allow another ball behind them the rest of the way, as Neon held tight against a late Baby Blue push to preserve the 3-2 win. Congratulations to Captain LaVigne and Baby Blue for a great regular season and a strong playoff push, and congratulations and best of luck to Captain Vankoughnett’s Neon, who will face Captain Enright’s Red for the Cup after the holiday break on September 7th. Neon dealt Red a 5-1 regular season defeat in Week Three, but a fully-staffed Red had the next laugh in a 4-2 playoff plot twist triumph. Neon will now need to beat Red twice to capture the Cup, while Red can complete their impressive march with just one last win…

Folks…I have discovered my new obsession, and it is Suno…an AI song generator. These are pretty silly/ridiculous, but…it was fun. Please enjoy this twist on our typical recaps…

Baby Blue v Purple (Wolmer Wall Remix)…NOTE: I oafed the lyrics a bit on this with ‘night four’…I may release a ‘remix’ with a fix, at some point…

Brown v Pink (Wirt His Weight In Gold Mix)…

Neon v Red (Irie Vix Mix)…

If there is popular demand, I can do this again sometime. Otherwise, I will have ‘normal’ recaps again next week…cheers!