Finish Line

Captain Mark Nagy and ‘The Money Beets’ dragged the soggy, bloated, rat-eaten corpse-to-be body of their playoff hopes into Week Ten, needing every available point in their remaining two games and a lot of help to miracle a way into what would surely be a two and out post season cul de sac. The desperation was not nearly as deep for Captain Luke Wolmer’s ‘Kelly Kapoorsports’ but at 2-4-2 coming in, a loss to the lowly likes of Purple would leave them in a very precarious place going into the final week of play. Spirits rose on the Beets bench, as it became clear through the course of warmups that Green brought the bare minimum to play…no subs, and no sign of Captain Wolmer, Chris Malki, Erick Zawislak, Matt DeBerry, and Ramsey Ksar. Superstar ball stopper, Sean Kelly…also MIA, albeit with the capable presence of Matt Henderson in nets in his stead. Purple…perfect attendance…primed for a crucial win to keep their season on life support a little longer. A scoreless first had Green encouraged, and the Purple huddle reminding one another that the bones of their opponent’s skeleton crew would surely tire out soon enough. Captain Nagy put his team in front at 7:15 in the second (from Josh Wirt), putting some evidence behind that theory, but Joe Malki converted at 3:53 (from Matt Rogers) to draw the subless side level. Wirt snatched the lead back for Purple (from Mark DeGraffenreid) at 2:10, and it began to look like the long-suffering Beets would go on to control the remainder of the game and secure the crucial two points. Things looked even brighter for Purple and bleaker for Green when Matt Rogers went down and stayed down after a breakaway attempt late in the middle period. Rogers would be carried off with a significant knee injury, leaving Green with just FOUR players and a goalie. It was agreed that Grey Captain, Kyle Prior, could come in to at least match the number of bodies on each side (Prior was a great sport, squeezing into the Green female sub shirt). Purple’s second intermission pow wow had a distinct vibe of imminent victory. After all…a full bench against a team with no subs, no Rogers, and not much left in tired legs. Well…not-so-spoiler alert…Purple found the banana peel. Joe Malki led the attack for Green from the back, slapping a shot off the end boards that bounced out to the side of the net where Jason Lee batted home the game-tying tally…2-2 with two minutes to play. I know this veers off The Office theme, but you could actually pinpoint the second Purple’s hearts ripped in half. Purple’s position brought on that rarest of situations where a team must pull their goalie in a tie game. A single point would do them no good, but that is all they would get (thankfully avoiding the embarrassment of an empty-net game-loser)…2-2 final…RIP, Purple…Green’s season still alive and kicking into Week Eleven.

The haves and have-nots did battle in the second game on the slate, with Captain Geoff Downes’ ‘Orange Vod-Juice-Ka’ playing out the final game of their rip roaring regular season (6-1-2, coming in) against a Grey team very much on death’s door at 2-6-0. I won’t sugar coat this one with pseudo suspense…Orange crushed. Zach Salt cashed in at 6:57 in the first (from Chad Goins and Mostafa Azab), then went on to pour in three more in the second (from Azab, then Glenn Pinto and Justin Ker, then unassisted for his fourth). Captain Kyle Prior (now wearing the properly-fitting proper shirt for his team) had equalized on the power play at 9:03 in the second (from Andy Strathman and Leah Gonzales), but the Salt spate left the score at 4-1 going into the last ten minutes of play. Chad Goins accounted for the lone goal in the third (from Ryan Karns and Salt), putting Grey down and officially out of their season-long misery, 5-1. Matt Henderson (15/16 in this one) capped his Vezina-worthy season with a line of .941/1.22/2 SO, and while Salt did not find the top of the scoring pile this time around, it could (rightly) be argued that it was only because he missed four games. He led the league in PPG with 2.83, and Orange led the league in nearly every important statistical category. Orange is the only team ‘in the club house’, and they can enjoy their Week Eleven bye knowing that they have already secured the top playoff seed at 7-1-2. Grey join Purple on the scrap heap, actually sinking BELOW the Beets with the loss, with ‘who will finish worst’ the only remaining mystery for either team heading into this Sunday’s play.

Two teams already locked into a playoff spot locked horns looking for a better seat at the post season table, with Captain Steve Linke’s ‘Red-Dit-Dit-Di-Doo’ hoping to hand Captain Jon Salt’s ‘Bluesnickel’ their first loss. This one was billed as a sure fire barn burner, but turned into a bone fide bludgeoning, thanks to Big Bad Boddy. Two unassisted Boddy strikes at 8:57 and 8:07 in the first had Red up 2-0 through one, and Sadie Hellstrom made it 3-0 early in the second (from Justin Stege and Phil Nguyen). Another pair of tallies for Boddy over the ensuing few minutes broke this game wide open (from Mark Scelfo, then Hellstrom), and Hellstrom’s second to close out the furious flurry (from Boddy and Captain Linke) left Blue utterly shell shocked, down half a dozen with 12:31 to play. Nick Vacchio (17/23) did stop the bleeding, in spite of Red ripping another eleven shots his way, but Jon Cima (21/21) and Red’s stout defense shut down any retaliation, and a snarling Red offense scorched their way to a big 6-0 win. Blue’s first loss of the season drops them to 4-1-4, now sitting behind Linke’s Red, who hold the wins and head-to-head tie breaker over their rivals at 5-2-2. Neither team can slip any lower than the four seed, so their respective finales will be more about pride, playoff posturing, and (for Blue) recovering their winning mojo. Boddy’s latest ballistic barrage has him atop the league scoring chart with 23 points (15 and 8), but both David Schlatter and Andrew Jacobsen are nipping at his heels, each sitting with a line of 14 and 8. Oh yeah…Sadie Hellstrom also leads all female players in scoring with ten points (4 and 6), and Red leads the league in goals for (32), shots for (219), shots against (113), and shot differential (106). Of course, it remains to be seen whether those nifty numbers will translate to post season success.

Two teams at a crucial crossroads crossed swords next, with the winner assured a playoff perch, and the loser left in the quagmire (giggity) of eight point hopefuls going into the final week of play. Captain Sean Bathgate’s Neon was only slightly more in need of a W, with their 3-3-2 record falling behind Captain Kaitlyn Brusso’s 4-4-0 on the merit of the first playoff tie-breaker, total wins. Still, a head-to-head win would do wonders for either side, while a loss meant mere uncertainty, not certain death. Andrew Jacobsen put Gold on top at 5:40 in the first (from Erin Plone), and Sev Brown doubled the lead at almost exactly the same point in the second (from Jacobsen). Neon’s first response came from the likeliest of sources, with David Schlatter pushing home a power play point to cut Gold’s lead to 2-1 through two. It was Jacobsen again at 9:04 in the third, then again for the hat trick at 6:48 (from Brown) to build Gold’s lead to 4-1. Kaity Gottfried, playing in her last game for Neon, and likely her last career SDFHL game, went out with a bang to bring Neon back within two (from Carl Vankoughnett and Schlatter), but it was too little, too late. Jacobsen’s 3 and 1 gave him the bragging rights win over scoring ladder rival Schlatter, and powered Gold to a playoff-clinching 4-2 win in the process. Julie Ott has been tapped to step in for Kaity, with a replacement for husband Matt expected early next week (should Neon punch their ticket). Don Tran (15/17) collected his fifth win of the season, while Chuck Bender (17/21) absorbed the loss to drop his personal season record back to .500 (3-3-2). As noted, the win has Gold in with ten points (5-4-0), while Neon is left to battle for their playoff lives in their season finale this Sunday. They join fellow eight pointers Black, White, and Green in the hopper of hope that is Week Eleven. Neon has the advantage of facing cellar-dwelling Grey, while Green must face a robust Red, and Black and White play each other in a game primed for the possibility of the always controversial ‘gentlemens’ agreement tie’.

The night cap saw Dan Soar and Brennen Abel popping six caps in White’s ass, leaving Captain Joel Gattey’s team wallowing in the cut line muck and mire down to the Week Eleven wire. Abel kicked off the scoring just 0:38 in (from Soar and Captain Rob LaVigne), then Soar punched home a pair (from Abel and Janice Darlington, then unassisted) to give Brown a commanding 3-0 lead through one period of play. Abel notched the lone goal of the second (from Soar), then the dynamic duo completed their respective hat tricks in the third…Abel unassisted, then Soar from Hima Joshi and Abel…bringing the final White washing total to 6-0. Nick Meglich (12/12) earned the third star of the game with his spotless outing, while Silas Perks (27/33) suffered a VERY rare lopsided loss. The win was just enough to punch a playoff ticket for Brown, who at 4-4-1 earn passage no matter what happens on the final Sunday, thanks to a complicated series of ifs, thens, and tiebreakers. White has head-to-head wins over both Neon and Green, but can still miss the playoffs if they lose to Black, and both Green and Neon earn at least a point in their respective finales. Like any good season, and most in SDFHL history, the final playoff cut will come down to the last week of play…