High Time

Captain Mark Nagy and ‘The Money Beets’ have taken more than their share of ‘beats’ so far this season. Limping into Week Six as the only winless team at 0-2-2, it was not exactly a thrill for Purple to see Orange up next on the docket. Even worse…Orange after suffering a stunning 1-0 loss to Green the Sunday prior…a game in which they outshot the victors 25-6. Worst yet…Zach Salt returning to the lineup after missing the previous two games…a player with as many goals himself in two games (5) as Purple had mustered as a team…in four! Glenn Pinto kicked off his first star of the game performance with the lone goal in the opening period (from Salt), but it was the second period that really beat down the Beets. Salt doubled the lead at 7:02 (from Pinto), Captain Geoff Downes converted on the powerplay to make it 3-0 at 5:08 (from Ryan Karns and Pinto), and Nadia Connolly scored her first of two (I could swear she had a hat trick, but…what do I know) from Salt at 1:41. Purple would finally stop the bleeding early in the third, with Mark DeGraffenreid slapping home a clean Josh Wirt draw win, but Connolly’s second of the game just twenty-three seconds later made it clear that there would be no miracle comeback in this one. Josh Wirt (from Elyse Shattuck and Mark Nagy) made it 5-2 at the 4:17 mark, but Pinto’s second goal and fifth point of the game (2 and 3) from Salt and Karns fully realized Purple’s presumed fate…a 6-2 capital L. Matt Henderson (19/21) continued his MVP-caliber play with his fifth win of the season, and now sits alone atop the goalie stats pile with a disgusting .935/1.33/1 SO line. It was another frustrating loss for Chris Tran (27/33), with nearly every one of the half dozen allowed of the ‘fluky’ or ‘soft’ variety. With no wins in the first half of their season slate, Purple will almost certainly need to go at least 3-2-0 from here out to have any chance of surviving into February play. Amazingly enough, a win over the 2-3-0 Grey side this Sunday, and some help from the favorites on the Week Seven schedule could have Purple above the cut line for the first time all season. At 5-1-0, Orange have all but punched their playoff ticket already, but their showdown with Blue this Sunday is not just another Salt vs Salt™ installment, but a battle between the two top teams to this point in the season.

Shifting seamlessly to the Week Six story of the second best Salt, it was Captain Jon and ‘Bluesnickel’ squaring off with Captain Luke Wolmer’s ‘Kelly Kapoorsports’ in a tight tilt that would end in a 2-2 draw. The skippers did all of the scoring in this one, starting with a Captain Wolmer conversion on the powerplay late in the second (from Joe Malki and Matt Rogers). Wolmer gave his team a two goal edge at 7:53 in the third (from Rogers), and it looked as though Sean Kelly might be in line for his 1,000,000th career shutout (I will double check that stat, at some point). Enter Captain Salt, who, like little brother Zach, was a driving force for his team in returning to the lineup, scoring at 6:33 to cut the lead to one (from Tim Hamon), then finding the equalizer just twenty-four ticks later (from Kalen Hunter). In case you missed me spoiling the outcome a few sentence back, that would be all the offense allowed by Kelly (15/17) and Nick ‘Elite’ Vacchio (7/9). As noted in last week’s recaps, Vacchio has been a revelation this season for Blue. His .920/1.50/1 SO line is second only to that of Orange’s Matt Henderson, who is having another one of his monster years that seem to be on some sort of astrological cycle…new age ‘scientist’ are still trying to work out the pattern there. Blue will need Vacchio’s A game, and they’ll need old and busted Salt to outduel new hotness Salt if they are to prevail in the 1-2 punchout with Orange this Sunday. Green has held a steady course through the first half of their season (2-2-1), but a loss to Captain Bathgate’s Neon this Sunday would flip them below .500, and into cut line peril.

Remaining recaps to come…