Captain Jon Salt factored in all four of his team’s goals (2 and 2), getting the higher seeds off on the right foot to open the playoffs with a 4-2 win over Black. Jason Northrup had Black on the board first, but Danny Wissing equalized on the power play with just 0:15 to go in the first frame. Wissing would add an assist on Captain Salt’s game-winner in the third, and an empty netter to seal the deal. Andrew Jacobsen kept Black in the mix, assisting on Northrup’s tally, and evening the score 2-2 early in the second, but that would be all of the damage that Cory Brin would allow (16/18). Andrew Wong and Andy Strathman each collected a pair of assists from the blue line for Purple, who advance to the Winner’s Bracket to face the eighth seed, Gold, of all teams. Black will look to stave off elimination this Sunday against a shootout shell-shocked White.
Orange had perhaps the most hit and miss regular season of any team, finishing with a 4-5-0 record, and rounding out the final third of their slate by beating Green 3-0 between losses to Red and Gold. Fortunately for Captain Steph Palomo & Company, Week One of the playoffs was a ‘hit’, as Jerry Gonzales cashed in early in OT to push Orange past Tie Dye, 3-2. Raj Patel and Nick Vacchio built a 2-0 lead for Orange in the second period, but London Peters and Alan Razoky undid their work in the third. Razoky’s strike came with just 0:35 to play. Late tying goals can be crippling to a team, but Orange bounced back quickly off Gonzales’ stick to win it in extra time. The upset win for the six seed cooled the uber-hot Tie Dye, sending them into an tough elimination match with second-seeded Green. It was a big win for Orange, and an omen of bad things to come for top seeds later in the evening…
Very few pundits would have predicted much of a match between top-seeded White and bottom-seeded Gold. The former smashed the latter 5-0 in the first week of the regular season, racked up more than twice as many goals, allowed about half as many goals, and cruised to a 7-0-2 record, while Gold sneaked in the playoff back door in their final game to cap a 2-4-3 campaign. So, the stage was set for another White washing, but Captain Janet Goins’ crew apparently has very little respect for facts, and history, and math, and such. Tim Vick put the underdogs on top midway through the second, and Jon Zygelman leveled the score on the power play minutes later. Neither team would crack the rest of the way, leaving the decision to a shootout. Rookie, Chris Turner, was the unlikely hero in the most unlikely outcome of the season, converting on in the second round of the shootout to stun and silence the top seed, 2-1. White will have their war paint on in the wake of their only loss to date, as they gear up to take on Black in an elimination engagement. Gold will take their house money and push it all in against Purple on the Winner’s Bracket side.
The uprising continued in the late game, as #7 Lime sliced through #2 Green, 5-1. Chris Malki showed his boys how it’s done, posting a hat trick to lead the way, while son Joe accounted for a mere 1 and 1. Justin Stege recorded the game-winner, and Alex Theis allowed just one goal (Mark Scelfo) on sixteen shots to hold the winning fort. Anthony Cerasuolo assisted on both of Papa Malki’s real goals (the last was an empty-netter), and Lime took the ‘hottest team’ baton from Tie Dye with the win…their third in a row. Captain Enright’s bunch move on to face Orange in the Citrus Bowl this Sunday, while Green will look to regroup and rebound in a do-or-die duel with Tie Dye.