Footage courtesy of 1980’s ‘The Shining’ (“you don’t want to get suuuuuuuuuued” -Groundskeeper Willie).
It was Miller Time once again, as Connor matched his four-ocious first week effort with another hat trick plus tax to lead Red in a 7-1 romp over a short-staffed Green. The SDFHL’s scoring leader (8 and 1) also added an assist on one of Joe Nguyen’s two tallies. Incidentally, Nguyen is now number two in scoring with 2 and 5 through two games, after racking up 2 and 3 in this one to match his linemate’s five point flame job. Captain Nick Adkins collected a ho-hum ‘W’, stopping 7/8, with his captainly counterpart, Nick Vacchio, finally breaking through for Green on the power play to spoil the shutout. Zach Siemer (31/38) drew the unfortunate lot of filling in for the absent Melissa Busby (missing from both teams, actually), facing a relentless shooting barrage in the lopsided loss. A loss is a loss, and this was a big one, but Green can take some solace in the fact that they were literally missing half the team (Busby, Wirt, Remple, LaVigne, Hanley). Mind you, no one is ever really ‘missing’ Busby…she just wasn’t physically present. Green even out to 1-1-0 with this setback, while Red improve to 2-0-0, and certainly look like a threat to the well-being of opposing goalies to come…
If Red has cornered the early market on dismantling opponents, Orange seems to have a lead in the back-and-forth-crowd-pleaser sector. Their Week One tilt with Black went — Orange up, tie, Orange up, tie, Orange up, tie, Black up, Black up two, Black up one, tie, Orange up one, Orange up two, Orange up one….Orange holds on to win, 6-5. There was less scoring, but the same pleasing pattern of parity against Tie Dye in Week Two — Tie Dye up (Chris Malki), tie (London Peters), Tie Dye up (Chris Malki), tie (Mark DeGraffenreid), Tie Dye up (Kamal Gill), tie (Kevin Dinino). That’s how this one would end, a 3-3 (scintillating) sister kiss. Zach Siemer kept his first year goalie ledger loss-free with an 11/14 performance, while Sean Kelly’s first action of the season was sharp enough (18/21) to earn Tie Dye their first point in the standings.
Another see-saw battle saw second season seafarer, Sailboat Lewis, hoist the main and bring the pain, scoring twice to power Maroon to a 3-2 win over White. Shawna Hamon stayed hot, but it was all for naught as Lewis’ two tallies negated her first and second period strikes, setting up Captain Brett Cohen to cash in the game-winner with just 0:47 to play. Chuck Bender’s 14/16 pleasant surprise win was Christian LeClair’s 15/18 hard luck loss. Oh, by the way, Week One saw Maroon win 3-2, with Lewis firing the money shot with 1:21 remaining. So, we have another trend here…watch out for this team in the late going of a close/tie game! Captain Cohen’s cardiac crew join their Red brethren as the only two teams to emerge from Week Two with two wins. Would you rather have the confidence conjured from convincing wins (Red), or the poise and patience produced by close, clock-watching coups? Tune in Week Seven for Siege v Sneak Attack.
You can’t win if you can’t score, and Alan Razoky’s first period goal to put Purple up 1-0 in a 4-1 Week One loss to Red was the first and last non-zero output for Captain Chris Tran’s side thus far. Pink was perfectly pleased with Purple’s poor production, of course, capitalizing with a 3-0 win to even their record at 1-1-0. Captain Chad Goins scored the middle goal, and returned the assist favor on Tim Vick’s insurance in the third, with Dale Stuzka netting the game-winner back in the first. Tiffany Fox had 20/20 eyes on the prize, ironically shutting out her ‘other team’ in the process. It’s too early to freak out about an early season funk (unless we’re talking about the Sharks, then it’s panic time, for sure), but an 0-2-0 start, with one goal to show for six periods of play is nothing to shrug off. Tran & Company will have to hope that the return of Andy Strathman in Week Four will be the turning point…they just have to hope they are not 0-3-0 by then.
Things aren’t going much better for Captain Jon Salt’s (historically purple-clad) squad…in fact, they are going a bit worse. Baby steps, though…Royal improved from their 4-0 opening week loss to White with a 4-1 Week Two loss to Black. Min-Soo Smith knotted the score on the power play early in the third, equalizing Ty Pereira’s last minute marker in the second, but Black proceeded to throw down a three spot to wash away any hope for a Royal redemption. Jim LaGrossa remained white hot for Black, notching the game-winner with his fourth, and an insurance marker with his fifth on the young season. Adam Schindler joined the team to replace the injured Troy Ohlsson, and was immediately awarded with an empty-net welcome basket. Tiffany Fox doubled down on the Week Two wins, stopping 10/11 as a substitute for Matt Henderson. Alex Theis is not accustomed to losing, but 14/17 is not perfect, and he clearly needs to be perfect until Royal finds their scoring punch.