The new season kicked off with a low-scoring struggle between Tie Dye and Green. Captain Nick Adkins was back behind the mask, and was masterful as ever, stopping 20/21 for Tie Dye in a fill-in capacity. The problem…he would have needed to be perfect to stave off an opening week loss for his surrogate team. Melissa Busby, yes, THAT Melissa Busby, prevailed in her much-anticipated SDFHL goaltending debut, stopping all seven shots she faced to deliver a 1-0 win for Green. Captain Nick Vacchio scored the only goal of the game for either side, converting at 7:47 in the second on assists from Josh Wirt, and newcomer, Matt Hanley. It should be noted that Tie Dye was without several key players, including Captain Joe Malki, and the very rarely absent Kamal Gill. Someone may want to check on Kamal…it’s not like him to miss games.
Busby had to strip down in a hurry (she’s well-practiced), and get on the floor (well-practiced) for her second game of the night, as Red and Purple fired up their respective fall campaigns. Alan Razoky struck first for Purple midway through the first, on assists from Carl Vakoughnett and goalie/captain, Chris Tran, but it was all Red from that point on. More specifically, it was all Connor ‘For Real’ Miller. Miller evened the score minutes after Razoky’s strike, gave Red a 2-1 lead late in the second, and added two more for good measure in the third to bring the final score to 4-1, Red over Purple. Joe Nguyen and Julie Ott each collected two assists on the evening, and Captain Nick Adkins fared much better in this game, stopping 9/10 to earn his first W of the season.
John Gamm put Pink on the board in the first, and Kris Tosczak pumped the Pink lead to 2-0 early in the second, but Maroon would chip away, and ultimately notch an opening week win. Jon Zygelman netted a pair in the second, and provided the second assist on Sailboat Lewis’ game-winner in the late going, as Maroon stranded Pink on an is-L-and, 3-2. Shelby Shattuck racked up three assists, giving us the perhaps the first glimpse at the upside to the floating blueline for defenders, and Chuck Bender (16/18) outdueled Tiffany Fox (16/19) to get his team off to a winning start.
White was dominant from start to finish, cycling and shooting with mid-season moxie in a 4-0 takedown of Royal Blue. Brian Sheptycki’s first period marker would stand as the game-winner, but Shawna Hamon was the real force in this one, throwing down 2 and 1 to lead White’s relentless charge. Eric Caligiuri rounded out the goal scoring for the winning side, and Captain Mark Ennsmann amassed three assists…one in each period. Christian LeClair, who struggled in his debut SDFHL season over the summer months, earned his first career shutout with a 9/9 line, while Alex Theis was superb as ever, but ultimately shot into submission in a 21/25 losing effort at the other end.
The night was capped with a mad capped tennis match, with Orange holding on, and holding serve, 6-5 over Black. Speaking of tennis, there was no love lost between quasi-newcomer, David Bronstein, and Dan Jurgens. The two tangled, and ultimately got tossed in the second period, but not before Bronstein put Orange on the board in the first. Jim LaGrossa evened things minutes later, then equalized Jet Javelet’s first strike in the second to bring the score to 2-2. Javelet did not wait long to give Orange a 3-2 lead, around the time that Bronstein and Jurgens were being hauled off to jail. It was LaGrossa AGAIN to level the score early in the third…THREE tying goals in the same game (!), and this time, Black broke the pattern and scored next (Ty Pereira). Orange did some pattern-breaking of their own, rattling off three straight (London Peters, Gary Peters, Mara Bernd) to mount a 6-4 edge. This game couldn’t possibly end quietly, though, and Mark Nagy kept the tension on with a goal at 0:08 remaining to make it 6-5. Orange managed to survive the final ticks on the clock, giving Zach Siemer (12/17) a hard-earned first win in his first SDFHL game in nets.