We have arrived at the eleventh and final week of play, and there is still one playoff spot remaining to be claimed. Orange can only sit and hope, while White and Pink put hope into action against…the top two teams in the standings (the schedule never fails to disappoint). Both teams will look to find that extra notch on the dial when they need it most, as the Summer 2021 season rocks and rolls to a close this Sunday.
Yellow let a would-be-win slip away late, but still sewed up the top playoff seed with a hard-fought and entertaining 1-1 draw with Green. Eric Willard had the top dogs on top less than twenty seconds in, but neither side found twine for nearly three full periods thereafter. The early strike was all that Chuck Bender (17/18) would allow in a fill-in stint for Nick Vacchio, and his counterpart, Don Tran (9/10) only had his substitute shutout bid spoiled by a Tyler Winstead strike with just 1:34 to play. Captain Chad Goins suffered a nasty cut/contusion to his nose in a collision with Ash Wadhwa (in to replace the departed Philip Burke) midway through the third. He has been patched up, and expects to be in the lineup for Green when the playoffs commence on September 12th. Meanwhile, in the ‘insult to injury’ department, Goins was actually called for interference on the play. Green’s skipper took it in stride, and both sides have expressed an eagerness for a potential playoff rematch. Yellow will officially enter the playoffs as the one seed, while Green can reach as high as two, and land as low as five.
You can’t spell ‘Teal’ without ‘L’, and Teal have now racked up enough L’s to spell ‘licking large, luscious, lavender-scented llama labia’. It was Brown’s turn for the ‘second summer season bye week’, as Marc and Mark (Lapointe and Nagy) scored the first period game-winner and the second period insurance marker, respectively, in a 2-0 tip toe past terrible Teal. Matt Rogers served up assists on both goals, and Don Tran stopped all fourteen shots he faced to earn his first shutout on the season. Teal will finally put an end to the misery against Silver this Sunday, while Brown hope to improve (or at least maintain) their playoff position against a revitalized Red side.
Red’s ‘revitalized’ state was a direct result of their stunning 3-2 Week Ten takedown of run and gun Navy. Coming off an only slightly less stunning 4-1 loss to a pedestrian Pink, Red needed a win against Navy (and against any and all odds) to keep their eyes on the playoff prize. Enter Brian Sheptycki. The POTW honoree scored first and last for Red, and provided the primary on Steve Linke’s power play punch to willpower Red to an improbable victory. Captain Jon Salt had Navy on the board early, and brother Zach kept it close in the third, but Chuck Russell (14/16) would hold on to even his personal record at 3-3-1, and vault Red into the playoff promised land at 4-4-1. This Sunday’s schedule will find Navy looking to eliminate Pink, and hold onto their second seed in the process, while Red will face Brown with little more than playoff posturing on the line,
Jeff Anderson’s mouth may well go down as the death of White this season. The super sniper’s Week Eight f bombs have blown a gaping hole in Captain Dinino’s line-up over the past three weeks, and have sent the once smooth sailing ship sinking…fast. Week Ten represented the second game of Anderson’s two game suspension, essentially their third full game in a row without him in action, and, well…White’s third straight loss. This one was particularly damning, as it came against Black…a team equally desperate to turn toward playoff safety. Erin Dowrey and Captain Chris Malki birthed twin 2 and 1 babies, and Janice Darlington and Justin Stege got in on the act in a 6-0 soul-crushing rout that propelled Black to second season security, and left White down to their last gasp. That last gasp comes against oxygen hogging Yellow, of course. White will need (a level-headed) Anderson and some good fortune to steer safely on, while Black can enjoy a nice playoff tune-up with some potential to improve their standings stake against Green.
It was all on the line for both sides, as a 3-5-0 Silver faced a 3-4-2 Orange in the most playoff-implication-laden match of the season. Orange would need at least a point in their final game to avoid a nervous, pacing bye week. Silver could ill afford anything but a win, in spite of the Week Eleven safety net waiting to cushion any potential fall. A trio of Silver scorers (Gideon Schon, Andy Strathman, Captain Ryan Karns) squashed any and all suspense early on, and Strathman added a (last second) second period strike to seal the 4-1 win. Chuck Bender (16/17) recorded his second win of the evening, this time for his own team, and this time one that REALLY counted. Silver have unofficially/officially clinched a playoff berth at 4-5-0, and can lick their chops and look longingly at their next scheduled opponent, Teal. As the only team to have played ten games, Orange’s regular season has already come to an end, but their season may not be over yet. Their hopes rest in the hands of the top two teams, as Navy faces Pink, and Yellow squares off with White. If things go ‘by the numbers’ in those two games, Orange will squeeze through…