Grounded

Way back on January 12th, the SDFHL Wing League 2025 season officially kicked off with a clash between Captain Chad Goins’ ‘Chadinals’ and Captain Bryan Ossa’s ‘FlamingOssas’. The result was a convincing 7-3 win for Pink, and while Ossa & Company went on to build their early season record to 2-1-0, Goins’ Group struggled to 1-3-0. It was around that midseason point where the fates flipped, with Pink dropping three straight, and Red bouncing back in a big way with a 4-0-1 regular season balance. That flipped fate found these two shades of red pitted against one another once again, this time to kick off the postseason, with Red having risen to the three seed, and Pink having settled to the six. So, math, logic, and a season’s worth of performance sample had Red the clear favorites in the rematch, and the absence of number four on the regular season scoring charts (Carl Vankoughnett) added additional prickliness to Pink’s plight. All of that math, logic, regular season momentum, and absence asterisk had this game unfolding as expected, with Josh Tran putting Red on the board first at 8:01 in the first (William Teglia), then Steph Palomo Schmidt making it 2-0 less than three minutes later (Brennen Abel). Teglia built the lead three at 4:18 in the second (Gordon Schmidt), and when Jackson Tomaszewski made it 4-0 at 2:21 in the middle frame (Abel & Palomo Schmidt), it seemed the regular season revenge rout was well and truly underway. The only real silver lining (or source of frustration, depending on your perspective) for Pink was that they were outshooting, and generally outplaying/out-chancing their rivals to that point. Silver linings are for silver medalists, though, and Josh Wirt wanted gold. Wirt finally found an answer for Pink at 1:12 in the second (Mark Daquipa & Mark DeGraffenreid), then another at 0:51 (Sadie Hellstrom). Mostafa Azab fed off the late second period momentum, netting his first of the season at 8:22 in the third (Will Heinl & Wirt), and even hit the fabled ‘Flamingo Celly’™ for good measure. Wirt capped his hat trick less than a minute later (7:33, from DeGraffenreid), and just like that…four goals for Pink in the span of 3:39 to draw everything level! Pink stayed on the front foot, and Mark Daquipa was the next to activate ‘hero mode’, snapping home Pink’s first go-ahead goal with 2:40 to play in regulation. The stirring/stunning comeback was complete, but emotions on both sides were leveled and left back at the default setting of ‘nervous, but hopeful’ when Abel broke loose, broke in on Chuck Bender, and equalized with 1:41 to go. On to overtime, where both teams had chances to end it (but didn’t), then to shootout. The goaltenders were the story from here out, as both Chuck Bender and Jon Cima were sharp and steady throughout. The first round saw both Brennen Abel and Mostafa Azab fail to score, the second round saw Josh Tran miss and Josh Wirt succeed, and the third round saw Gordon Schmidt succeed and Mark DeGraffenreid fail. When Jackson Tomaszewski, Sadie Hellstrom, Steph Palomo Schmidt, and Will Heinl were all stymied, this incredible battle of wills flipped over into a second round of shooting. Abel and Azab both came up empty once again, and after a second Josh Tran miss, it was Josh Wirt to (finally) end it for Pink. Wirt was living legendary, having racked up 3 and 1 in the surging comeback effort in regulation, then converting on both attempts in the shootout to will Pink past Red, 6-5. Again, both goalies are to be commended, but Chuck Bender (6/7 in SO) really shined for his surrogate team when it mattered most. Jon Cima (22/27, then 5/7 in SO) was no slouch at his end, but the shootout is that necessary evil that grants one team all the unbridled glee of a nail-biting playoff win, and the other a leaden, lingering loss and a case of the ‘what if’ woes.

There is a certain mystique to the playoffs, and whether you finish in the top two, bottom two, or somewhere in the middle four seeds, there is a renewed sense of hope that your A game, a break here, and a bounce there will lead to a win against anyone else in the field. All it takes is four straight wins to run the table, and if you’re going to have to tackle the top dogs, you might as well sneak attack them out of the gate and REALLY boost that sense of hope to new heights. Such was the position of Captain Shawna Hamon’s ‘Turds Of A Feather’, having squeezed themselves into the eighth and final playoff spot, knowing that the ‘big prize’ for surviving the regular season gauntlet was a rematch with their Week One abusers and near perfect nemesis, Orange. That Week One meeting ended in a 6-1 win for Captain Copp’s Crew, and it would be the first of eight wins in an undefeated run that saw them rack up SEVENTEEN points in the standings and produce three of the top five scorers in the league (SIXTY combined points for PCP™…Perks, Cooney & Perks). Brown had some additional reason for renewed hope in the playoff encore, however, as prime pieces Kalen Hunter and Andy Strathman were both elsewhere for that first meeting, and were both back in action to face an Orange side bereft of prime pieces Aaron Cooney and Christopher Fiore. Hamon & Company had also just watched sixth-seeded Pink knock off the three seeds in epic comeback fashion, so the Kevin Garnett ‘ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE‘ vibes were flowing, for sure. Orange held a slight edge in shots in the first (7-5), but Brown held their ground, absorbing or deflecting nearly every blow, but reining in the reigning scoring champ is no small task, and Owen Perks broke the scoring seal at 2:35 (Silas Perks & Shelby Shattuck) to give Orange a lead going into the first break. The second period story was similar, but different (in that it was a near mirror opposite), with Brown gaining an edge in shots (6-5), and Brown producing the lone goal courtesy of Jim LaGrossa at 1:51 (Glenn Pinto & Kalen Hunter). Both Orange’s Mason Holcomb (19/20) and Brown’s Sean Kelly (24/25) were unbreakable backbones for their respective teams, keeping the nets unbothered by orange balls through a scoreless third and an equally scoreless overtime period. So, the already-way-behind-schedule Week One slate slid into a second straight shootout scenario, this time with Orange’s undefeated course to the Cup in jeopardy, and Brown (I am guessing) now expecting to finish this colossal coup with a living SDFHL legend in their net, opposite a young second year apprentice of the crease craft in the other. Owen Perks stepped up and erased any sense of advantage Brown may have had, converting on the first shot to put Orange up 1-0. Jim LaGrossa and Silas Perks followed with misses, before Kalen Hunter made good on his opportunity to match his Young Canuck™ fellow and level the ledger at 1-1. After Rec Gym OG’s Andy Strathman and Justin Stege traded empty efforts, it was perhaps THE most unlikely of heroes up next…Andrew ‘M*ther F*cking’ Wong, ladies and gentlemen! Yes, THAT Andrew Wong…the VERY pass-first, stay-at-home defender, with TWO career goals in nearly TWO HUNDRED career games…THAT guy…just walked in and buried his chance (past Sean Kelly!) to give Orange a 2-1 edge…f*cking surreal! Kevin Dinino failed to match Wong’s shootout prowess, and when Maureen Ruchhoeft couldn’t convert, it all came down to Captain Hamon for Brown. Shawna slinked in and got off a great chance, but Mason ‘Da New Kid In Town™’ Holcomb was there to make the save, and preserve the WAY too close for comfort 2-1 shootout win for Orange. While very far from the dominant decision normally enjoyed by the Copp’s ‘Wings’, Orange still found a way to win and continue their seemingly destined climb to the Cup. They will put their (still) undefeated run on the line against Captain Rob Gaudio’s Blue this Sunday, while Brown will face Silas Perks once again…in nets this time…as they take on Captain Zach Siemer’s White with elimination in the offing for both sides.

Captain Rob Gaudio’s ‘Blue Jays’ went from freshly-hatched to flying high, darting deftly through their first three games at 3-0-0, and looking every bit the birds to be reckoned with in the early going. Their next five opponents indeed brought about a reckoning for Blue, as five straight losses plucked them from their lofty perch and dropped them along the cutline at 0-3-5 going into the final week of play. The fourth team in that five team season-gutting gauntlet for Blue was Captain Zach Siemer’s White. White dispatched Blue in Week Nine in typical ‘Siegulls’ fashion, with Silas ‘The Silencer’™ Perks shutting all offensive doors, windows, and improvised exits with a 23/23 gem, while Don Tran surrendered one goal on nine shots in a very tough to take 2-0 loss. Blue would pull out of their five loss nose dive JUST before hitting the playoff scrap heap, and as fate would have it, that one last win did enough to boost them into the five spot, and line them up across from White once again in the opening week of playoff play. As noted in the recaps above, the playoffs are a bird of a different feather, and the playoff rematch between these two sides played out as an eerie negative of the original photograph. Perks would face twenty-three shots again in this one, and Tran would face just one more shot than he did back on March 16th, but it was White who would feel the sickening sting of a razor thin loss on this day. Captain Gaudio did the damage himself, finally solving Silas with just 0:15 to play in the first (Dorothy Kline & Trevor Vick). While I wasn’t on hand to witness the goal, I have to imagine it was scored on the last of THIRTEEN shots racked up by Blue in the first ten minutes of play, and you certainly need that kind of shot volume to have any hope of actually putting one or two past The Silencer™. That one would be the only one, as Perks (22/23) would not yield again, giving his team a chance (as always) to find an equalizer and perhaps a game-winner. Don Tran (10/10) did not like the idea of a remake of this particular original, however, and his clean sheet meant that Captain Gaudio’s lone goal would stand, and deliver Blue a big 1-0 redemption playoff win. Timing may not be everything, but it certainly is important, and while Blue’s hot regular season start is now a distant memory, their new two game streak is coming at the JUST the right time to arrest their five game free fall from grace, push them into the playoffs, and now restore their confidence heading into a showdown with Silas’ ‘other team’, Orange. White are now in a fight to reverse their own downturn, having lost both their regular season finale to Orange, and now their playoff opener to Blue in shutout fashion. Siemer & Company will need to find enough offense to support Perks, which is typically no more than one or two goals. The problem…they will be shooting on Brown’s Sean Kelly this Sunday, and Kelly was silencing SDFHL teams before ‘The Silencer™’ was out of middle school.

All of the overtime and shootout hockey pushed the start of the nightcap between Captain Ryan Karns’ second-seeded Flint Blue and Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime back roughly an hour, and there was some genuine concern that the lights may go out if this one went beyond regulation. That concern was not helped by a review of the regular season meeting between these two teams, which ended in a 4-4 tie. Captain Karns himself was the hero of that first meeting, capping a two goal third period comeback for his team with 1:07 remaining in the Week Two clash. At that early point in the season, Karns Krew felt fortunate to have snatched a point, especially with John Boddy out of the lineup. Boddy was back for the reprise, and it would be Lime’s turn to make do without some key weaponry in the personages of Jordan Pynn and Chris Malki. So, the Flint-clad favorites were all the more favored as the ball FINALLY dropped on the last game of the night, but with the underbird uprising having felled two higher seeds and scared even the highest seed, another upset did not seem at all out of the question. Boddy produced immediate returns in his return, putting Flint Blue in front at 2:49 in the first (Mark Nagy), but Sean Bathgate answered for Lime with just 0:15 to go in the first third to bring Lime even (Wendy Enright & Craig Russell). A scoreless second was followed by a scoreless third, and for the third time in the first four games of the Wing League 2025 playoffs, it was on to extra time! Captain Joel Gattey was questionable to even hit the court in this one, having recently injured his calf, but he soldiered on, and as all great Hollywood tales of grit and determination go, scored the overtime game-winner for his team. It was Gattey from Joe Malki and Jerry Gonzales at 2:54…the only shot recorded in the bonus period, and the only one that mattered. Matt Henderson (21/22) outdueled Nick Meglich (16/18) to preserve the 2-1 OT win for Lime, and the mind-boggling triple upset opening round was wrapped with the two, three, and four seeds all falling to their lower ranked counterparts. The topsy turvy opening round results have produced some unexpected second round matchups, as Captain Karns’ second seed will now face Captain Goins’ third seed in an elimination battle, while Captain Gattey’s Lime move on in the Winners’ Bracket to face Captain Ossa’s sixth-seeded Pink. Given the insanity of the first Sunday of play, I won’t dare make predictions on second round outcomes, but Flint Blue did handle (an Abel-less) Red quite handily (6-3) back in Week Five, and Lime took care of Pink (4-2) in Week Six. Nothing means anything anymore, though…expect the unexpected this Sunday…*cough*Orange loss*cough*.