Our ten virgin captains took their respective dates out for an evening of ritualized courting this past Sunday. These first encounters can often be a bit clumsy and awkward, and things clearly have not quite meshed yet for some of our couples. Some seemed to be really hitting it off well, while others may need some hot tips, or a very good wing man (or wing woman) to step up. The ultimate goal here is to score…whether you are just getting lucky, or you have great game. It’s date night again this Sunday…pucker up, and make sure you’re wearing clean underwear.
Mark Ennsmann and Andrew Jacobsen each netted a pair of goals, and Mohan Krishnamoorthy scored the game-winner in the first as Gold cruised past Burgundy, 5-0. Captain Zach Siemer’s crew racked up sixteen shots in the third period alone, keeping Andrew Lockard very busy (26/31), while Don Tran needed just ten saves to record a shutout in his fill-in stint for rookie, Tiffany Fox.
Summer teammates turned to Fall foes, as Dan Jurgens and Jon Salt exchanged goals for opposing teams within a seven second span in the first period. That would be all the scorekeeper wrote. The 1-1 Black v Pink tie was the lowest scoring game on opening night, a game that featured the fewest total shots, as well. This was either a great early season match-up between two defensive juggernauts, or a yawner between to offensively-challenged squads destined to be cut line neighbors come November. Time will tell…
Captain Joe Nguyen lead off the scoring, and lead his team by example, sparking a 5-2 Green romp over Purple. The scoring certainly appears to be balanced for Green, with four different players scoring the remainder of the goals in the opener (Tim Helmbrecht, Nick Adkins, Stephanie Palomo Schmidt, and Steve Goncalo). Don Tran collected the win (for his own team, this time), stopping 19/21, while Chuck Bender had a rough go against a potent attack, taking the loss with a 12/17 line.
The Mark-Mark-Mara line got off to a good start on Sunday, accounting for three of the four goals in Orange’s 4-0 win over Navy. Mara recorded an assist on the first of two goals for Captain Mark Boulanger, while Mark DeGraffenreid scored the first goal of the game, and assisted on Boulanger’s second. Carl Vankoughnett became the first rookie to find twine this season, adding an insurance goal from long range in the third. Fred Fournier did Alex Theis proud in a sub role, stopping all eighteen he faced to keep Orange relaxed, and on the attack in the win.
The game of the night was the nightcap between Blue and Red…no question. The teams battled back and forth, and entered the third period knotted at three apiece. The seesaw continued, but Chris Tran broke a 4-4 tie on the power play late in the third to give Blue the 5-4 win. This game really could have gone either way…not unlike Steve Linke (you didn’t hear that from me). Steve Jones recorded just one assist in his much-anticipated return to league action, while young gun speedster, London Peters, dashed and thrashed his way to a 2 and 1 effort for Red. Kris Tosczak picked up where he left off last season, matching Peters with 2 and 1 of his own, and Derek Lobo racked up three assists from the blueline for the victors.