Cold Open

What better way to kick off a Canada-themed season than with a team honoring the nation’s greatest treasure/gift to the world, Nickelback. Captain Brandon Olsen and ‘Nickelbackcheck’ opened the season slate against the as-yet-unnamed and short-benched Purple, and the former rocked and rolled their way to a Week One win. A scoreless first frame saw Grey outshoot Purple 7-1, with Chuck Bender (24/27) filling in very capably in lieu of a much-anticipated Chris Malki netminding debut. Alexis DaCosta finally broke through early in the second (assists to Pat Gladstone and Eric Herrmann), and Captain Olsen himself provided insurance later in the period. DaCosta struck again in the third to give Grey a 3-0 lead that would hold through the final horn. Nick Meglich (8/8) was steady as ever in the shutout win, and Grey will look to double their delight with the return of ‘The Deputy’ in Week Two.

Two blue hues faced off in game two, with the darker denomination exerting total domination. Captain Chuck Bender’s Blue crew didn’t exactly have the highest hopes coming in, but the absence of their top pick, John Boddy, certainly didn’t bode well for a winning Week One. Jim LaGrossa picked up where he left off in his torrid Summer season, scoring just sixteen seconds in to give Navy a 1-0 edge. Nick Vacchio’s big night started late in the period with an unassisted strike, and LaGrossa capped the first with his second to balloon the bias to 3-0. Vacchio led off the scoring in the second, then assisted on Josh Wirt’s first of the season to make it 5-0, before Blue finally found a response in the form of an Alan Razoky powerplay marker. Mark DeGraffenreid pushed home a second Blue goal on a wild play minutes later, making it 5-2 Navy over Blue through two. Josh Wirt built the lead to 6-2 early in the third, Vance Morra answered for Blue late in the third, and Vacchio completed his hat trick with less than a minute to play to round out the scoring, and leave Blue done and dusted, 7-2. So, Vacchio 3 and 2, Wirt 2 and 2, and LaGrossa 2 and 0…not bad, for an evening’s work. Chris Tran (13/16) snatched the win in spite of a lukewarm (by his standards) performance, while Chuck Bender (16/23) was ice cold at the other end. Bender will need his A game, and a big career debut from ‘Dr. Dangles’ this Sunday to right the Blue ship…

You wouldn’t think people, let alone hockey players would be good for much of anything once they hit the big 5-0, but Carl Vankoughnett continues to defy his considerable age, and do his team (Black, this season) and elderly everywhere proud. Sean ‘Da Kid’ Kelly is far from fifty, but definitely no longer an actual ‘Kid’, but he was the one shining beacon for ‘Celine Neon’ in a disappointing debut. Those are your two stories in this one…let’s combine them into a spinetingling tapestry, shall we? Carl scored unassisted in the second…it was the only goal allowed by Sean (26/27) in a hard luck loss…the end. The subplots here were that Chris Tran collected a ho hum shutout (7/7) with Neon’s Captain Luke Wolmer and David Schlatter proving that ‘working from home’ does not make you a productive SDFHL employee. Still, Captain Crooks (nice ring to it) and Black will take the 1-0 win and run.

The Week One parity really hit full stride in the penultimate game, with the colors of the Canadian flag clashing in a fun, frenetic, but (mutually) futile match. Zach Salt proved he’s still the better Salt Boy™, opening the scoring for White unassisted in the first, adding a second (from Captain Tomáš Jankovich) in the second, and assisting on Old (Fat) Man Steve Linke’s game-tying tally in the (literal) last second of the second. The return of Joe Gaudio threw the ‘who’s the better Gaudio Boy™’ debate into a tailspin, as Joe potted two goals to Captain Rob’s 1 and 1. Eric Caligiuri made his triumphant (part time) return to league play to record the assist on Rob’s goal, and Joel Gattey cached a second assist on Joe’s second strike. When the dust settled, it would be a 3-3 tie between Red and White, with neither super sub Silas Perks (16/19), nor veteran Don Tran (14/17) collecting a W, nor suffering an L.

Captain Parsa Mostafavi brought his Gold group to the court in Week One, with high hopes that he and his new crew could rekindle some of the magic that found him backstopping a team in the Final just two weeks prior. Captain Champine and Green had other plans…and they carried out those plans to…plan, in a 3-1 win. Perennial second rounder, Mark Ennsmann, had Gold on the board bright and early (seventeen seconds in), but it would be all Green from there. Zach Siemer evened the score in the latter half of the second, with assists to newcomer, Justin Ker, and Captain Champine, himself, then Jon ‘Lesser Of The Salt Boys™’ Salt took over in the third. Salt’s first came at 9:15 in the third (on Mr. Ker’s second helper of the night), and he added a dash of insurance (see what I did there) less than a minute later. Silas Perks, of Young Canucks™ fame, earned the win in his (real) SDFHL debut with a 10/11 line, while the aforementioned Captain Mostafavi suffered the loss in his captaining coming out party.