Captain Ryan Belbin and his largely Canadian contingent handed Malkhale’s Navy their first defeat since Week One…which happens to be the last time these two teams met. Match-ups are funny that way…some teams just have another team’s number. The top two numbers in the seeding took care of their lower ranked opponents, but Green added an under-card upset as well, besting fourth-ranked Purple.
Panic set in in the lead up to the opening game of the playoffs, as Green’s goalie was nowhere to be seen. A quick call to Andrew Lockard confirmed the worst…he was probably thirty minutes from the rink, expecting a 6:30pm start. With no time to waste in a tight slate, Mark DeGraffenreid donned the hodge podge, incomplete mix of orphan goalie gear from the bin, and trotted in behind Green’s starting five. The result was predictably not great (the former Rec Gym goalie managed to stop just four of the six shots he faced), but Green had rallied from an early 0-2 hole to even things by the time the real talent arrived. Shelby Shattuck and Matt Drake had taken full advantage of the stand-in, but Tony Thinh and Jeff Chen had responded, and Green held a considerable edge in the shot column through two periods. Captain Mara Bernd capped the comeback, tucking the game-winner past Shane Sullivan with 2:57 to play. The unlikely 3-2 win for Green has Purple Captain Jon Salt thankful that he didn’t push any harder for a single elimination format. Green move on to face top-seeded White, while Purple look to lick their wounds against the other end of the seeding spectrum in Yellow.