Captain Rob Gaudio’s ‘Blue Liner Bubble Boy’ took one step closer to playoff safety, capturing their first win of the season in 3-1 win over ‘Graymerica Industries’. The Blue captain led his team out of the gate with his second of the season at 6:41 in the first (from Josh Wirt and Marshall Hamon), and slammed the proverbial gate on Grey with his second of the game at 3:43 in the third (from Tim Hamon). The middle period saw an exchange of goals from either side, with John Gamm netting the game-winner for Blue at 9:05 (from Marshall Hamon), and rookie Dan Soar responding less than a minute later for Grey (from Janice Darlington). so, this game saw Soar’s first career goal (CONGRATULATIONS!), Marshall Hamon’s first career points (CONGRATULATIONS!), and, most importantly for Gaudio’s crew, their first notch in the win column, moving them out of the back pack and into a slightly safer spot in the standings at 1-2-3. Chris Tran (24/25) earned first star honors for his sparkling sheet, while Matt Henderson (11/14) suffered the loss at the other end. If you’re in an all-Hamon fantasy league, we now have Shawna at three goals, zero assists, Tim at one goal, two assists, and Marshall at zero goals, two assists. My money’s on the kid to rally to household victory. Speaking of rallying, Blue will no doubt need at least a few more points to survive the cutline, and with their next two opponents (Teal and Red) sitting at a combined 7-1-4, they will need some upset mojo, and/or a winning effort against current standing neighbors, Purple, in the final week of play if they hope to complete their playoff push. At 2-2-2, Grey is by no means all that much safer than Blue at this point, but after what should be a fun, hard-fought, middle-of-the-pack battle with Yellow this Sunday, their final two opponents (Orange and Black…a combined 1-7-4) smell like wins-to-be for Captain Zach Siemer’s crew.
With Yellow’s Captain Carl and Buddy Brennan™ away, John Boddy came out to play…and slay. The swashbuckling sniper scored (seemingly) at will, capitalizing on those key Yellow vacancies, and more than making up for the absence of fellow SDFHL demi-god, David Schlatter. It was actually Joel Gattey who would draw first blood for the lossless favorites, converting a Captain Ryan Karns assist into a power play goal at 4:53 in the first. Teal was in Boddy cruise control from there out, with JB goals at 1:10 in the first (from Karns), the unassisted game-winner at 4:32 in the second, and a pair of third period goals (from Alan Razoky and Joe Nguyen, then from Gattey to close out the scoring). That’s one man…four goals, and another victory for a team so deep they don’t miss the likes of David Schlatter. Yellow did muster (Yellow…muster…*rim shot*) two responses…the first coming in the middle frame from Jim LaGrossa (Scott Wieland and Audrey Stratton), and the second in the third period (Wieland from Mason LaGrossa). LaGrossa (the older one) is back to his usual top tier form this season, sitting atop the player stats board with fifteen points (5 and 10). Boddy’s Week Six heroics have him just below Jim at fourteen (10-4, good Boddy). Teal has bragging rights where it counts, though…on the scoreboard for this one (a 5-2 win over Yellow), and in the standings, where they still sit on a shared throne with Olive at 5-0-1 (both of whom, incidentally, have now already clinched a playoff berth). They face a determined, but not-quite-desperate-yet Blue this Sunday before the big Week Eight showdown with their standings attic rivals. The loss doesn’t do much harm to Yellow who now find themselves at 3-3-0, but a loss to Grey this Sunday would put them in some potential peril rolling into their final two games.
The Week Six middle game was not just the ‘Battle Of Cocktail Garnishes’, but a marquee matchup of unbeaten teams. While Olive’s blistering early season scoring pace had slowed to trickle mode over the previous three games, they were still finding ways to get the job done. Captain Geoff Downes’ ‘Little Cherry Seinfeld’ came in boasting no losses, half as many wins, but just three fewer goals-for than Captain Tyler Winstead & Company. By all ‘on paper’ logic, it was destined to be a very good game featuring to very good teams…and it was. Chris Tulio put Olive on top at 4:44 in the first (from Kyle Snyder), and Nick Vacchio doubled the lead early in the second (from Greg Wirth). You’re usually lucky to manage two goals against Silas Perks, and that is indeed all that Olive would manage, but Don Tran came in riding a FULL THREE GAME SHUT OUT STREAK (!), and any ideas Red had of avenging Perks was going to have to go through him. Kevin Dinino finally did snap that streak, which, at 106 minutes and 21 seconds may well be in contention for the longest in league history. Christopher Fiore and Mark Ennsmann had the assists on the Dinino marker, but it would be the only blemish on Tran’s night, as his 19/20 was good enough to give Olive their fifth win of the season, 2-1 over Red. Perks (14/16) and his Red mates absorbed their first loss of the season, but remain very much in a safe space in the standings at 2-1-3. Olive will look to embellish their already impressive record this Sunday against a rather woeful (but still playoff hopeful) Orange, but their calendars are definitely circled for a Week Eight battle with the tied-for-tops Teal. Red may or may not need another point or two to ensure a playoff berth, but with Perks in nets, and (hopefully) a healthy Jon Salt in the lineup (he was out again for this one), they will have no trouble holding their place in the playoff pool.
The term ‘must win’ is often inaccurate, and absolutely overused in sports…and while the Week Six game between Orange and Black was not a MUST win for either side, it was certainly close to it. It was a particularly crucial game for Captain Josh Tran’s Orange, who came in nursing an 0-4-1 record, and running out of games to make up ground on the teams (all nine teams) ahead of them in the standings. Captain Ian Crooks’ Black brought more points, but hardly much more standings stability to the table at 0-2-3. A win for Orange would put them back in the thick of the playoff hunt, and actually move them out of rock bottom for the first time. A win for Black would not only bury Orange, but would give them five points, and put them above the cut line, and in position to shore up a playoff seed with three weeks to play. Mark Nagy gave Black the lead just 1:08 into the first (from Mark DeGraffenreid and Gary Peters), but Jackson Tomaszewski responded less than a minute and a half later. DeGraffenreid wrested the lead back for Black later in the period (from Nagy and Steve Linke), but Captain Josh Tran banged home a delicious centering feed from Pat Gladstone to leave the score knotted at twos through one. Andrew Jacobsen threw a gentle lob towards net from distance that somehow made its way home at 9:21 in the second, and Andy Strathman followed at 7:13 (from Gladstone…so hot right now, Gladstone) to build a 4-2 lead for Orange. Black would find no more cracks in super sub Nick Vacchio’s pads, as he stopped 11/13 to give his surrogate team a crucial win. Tomaszewski would deposit an empty-netter with 1:27 to play (with Jacobsen collecting the most shameful of points…an empty-netter assist), bringing the final score to 5-2, boosting Orange out of their season-long hole, and driving a stake through an already half-beating Black heart. Black is still alive in the playoff hunt, and Orange is by no stretch of any imagination out of the woods yet, but that ‘must win’ mentality is vital for both teams going into the final third of the season. In a crazy twist of fate, both teams have exactly the same three remaining opponents…Olive, Grey, and White. Whichever team fares better against that trio, but particularly against White, will have the best chance of keeping hockey Sundays on the calendar into September.
The nightcap was another big game for another pair of teams that have struggled to succeed so far this season. Captain Sev Brown’s Purple entered at 1-3-1, with that one win coming against whipping boy, Orange. Captain Sean Bathgate’s team entered with an identical record, and an identical design to change the course of their season by winning a game against a standings neighbor. The energy and intensity was swirling from start to finish in this one…easily one of the best games I have witnessed all season. Luke Wolmer was the player of the game, and indeed the player of the week, and he struck first for Purple at 3:44 in the first (from Erin Plone and Zach Salt). The second period saw White rise up to even the score, then take the lead, as Chris Malki (from Emily Bennington and Joe Malki) and Jordan Pynn (from Joe Malki and Chris Malki) struck within about a minute of each other to give their team a one goal edge heading into the third. To quote Sublime, ‘that’s-when-things-got-out-of-con-trol’, with Wolmer evening the score with his second of the game at 8:05 (from Sev Brown and Jason Northrup), Ty Pereira giving Purple a 3-2 lead minutes later (from Salt), and Wolmer padding that lead to two just sixteen clicks after the Pereira strike. White would rally, though, with an unassisted Joe Malki marker making it 4-3 at 3:34, and Pynn’s second of the night bringing things all the way back level at 2:51 (from the Malkis). Purple would have the last laugh in this one, however, as Pereira potted his second of the period with just 0:42 remaining (from Salt and Wolmer) to stun White, and send them home with another tough loss around their necks, 5-4. Nick Meglich (11/16) did his best under what seemed like constant siege, but the wacky, wild, Kool-Aid style win went to Chuck Bender (22/26) in a fill-in role for Syd Costello (who…get this…’thought it was Saturday’, according to her captain, who was left scrambling to find a goalie sub after a frantic game time phone call). Much like Orange and Black, both of these teams will need at least a decent showing in their final three to lock in a playoff spot. Purple now has five points, head to head wins against both Orange and White, and reasonably challenging, but not too crazy remaining schedule (Red, Yellow, Blue). White’s next two are against Black and Orange, and they will absolutely need to win at least one of those, since their final opponent of the season is…Teal.