You’ll forgive me for sounding like a broken record in these recaps, but Silas Perks looks to be on pace to break some records this season…I’m just trying to be like him. Silver and Maroon are both good teams, but Perks makes the former great, and continues to make opponents look, well…’meh’. With the goaltender being the only player on a team who is on the court for the entire game (unless he/she gets pulled in the waning minutes), having a great one gives you a great chance of prevailing…this is simple math. So, in a matchup between the (statistically) best goalie in the league and the worst, it should probably come as no surprise that the former won…handily. You do have to score goals to win, no matter who your goalie is, and Zach Salt did the honors (with honors) in this one, opening and closing the scoring in the first period for Silver, completing his hat trick in the third, and assisting on the only two Silver goals that he didn’t score himself (Matt Gottfried’s game-winner in the first, and Sadie Hellstrom’s insurance marker in the second). That’s five total goals, which is WAY more than enough when you have King Silas behind you. Perks (19/20) collected his fifth win on the season, keeping his team at ease throughout, and keeping Silver at the top of the pile at 5-0-1. Steve Deppensmith (11/16) saw his record (and his team’s, in turn) fall below .500 with the 5-1 loss, having been afforded only a fifth the goal support of his counterpart — Chris Malki’s fourth of the season late in the second period. Silver will look to add to their already impressive win total this Sunday, when they take on Black…a team that has exactly the opposite record (0-5-1), and has scored just ONE goal all season. Maroon will look to bounce back against Red (AKA…’The Other Maroon’), who have also failed to find their footing this season at 1-5-0.
The only team other than Silver without a loss this season put that mark on the line against a desperate, nearly down and out for good Tropical Blue side. Captain Maureen Ruchhoeft’s squad has proven to be the most resilient and least put-away-able team this season, by far, having survived the clock against Royal Blue, a three goal deficit with four minutes to play against Maroon, and even managing a tie against the well-oiled winning machine that is Silver. In short, you’d expect a fair amount of confidence from White as they strode onto the court in Week Ten, and you would certainly expect no panic to set in when Nick Vacchio converted on the powerplay (from Ian Crooks and Luke Wolmer) to draw first blood for Tropical Blue at 2:58 in the first. You’d be very right in assuming that White would bounce right back, as Vance Morra evened the tide just 1:20 later, scoring on one of twelve (!) first period shots for the favorites. Sean Kelly (27/29) has had a shaky season (especially by his lofty standards), but he was (paradoxically) ‘The Old Kid’ in this one, keeping Tropical Blue in it from start to finish. Unfortunately for Captain Kyra Forsyth’s crew, that score at the finish was 2-1 in White’s favor, and even more unfortunately, this loss may be the one that finishes them for good. Morra came through again in the third period, as well, but this time providing the helping hand on Geoff Downes’ game-winner at 4:37, wasting Kelly’s vintage valiance, and making the ho-hum effort from Chuck Bender (9/10) at the other end good enough for another win. So…White at 3-0-3…nine points…just tuning up for the second season, at this point. Tropical Blue…0-5-2…just three games left to play with hope (against hope) that winning out may get them into the final playoff spot. That hoping starts this Sunday as they take on color cousins, Aqua, while White look to remain undefeated (and help Tropical Blue in the process, incidentally) against cut-line-adjacent Purple.
Captain Emily Bennington’s Red has shared basement accommodations with Tropical Blue and Black all season, and while they have a ‘game in hand’ on Tropical Blue, and while they have proven they are capable of…you know…actual quantifiable offense, unlike Black, they have also reached the MUST WIN phase of their dismal Winter 2023 campaign. The back door is open (TWSS) for Red (more on this in a bit), but a loss to run and gun Charcoal in Week Ten would certainly not help their chances. Spoiler alert…they lost to Charcoal. The first period was not only scoreless, but the two teams managed a combined FIVE shots…one shot for either side every two minutes…wow. The shot totals ramped up considerably in the second period, but only for Charcoal, and one of those shots found a home behind Nick Vacchio to break the scoring seal, and put Red in an all too familiar position going into the third. That second period game-winner came off the stick of Owen Perks (from Mark Ennsmann), who is really doing his all to keep pace in the press with brother, Silas. Perks rattled off his second and third goals of the game in the third, and assisted on Ennsmann’s tally at the top of the period to bring his goal total on the season to eleven (tied for first with Eric Herrmann), and his point total to seventeen (one back of Herrmann). So, basically, if you have The Perks Boys™ on the same team, you’d win every game something like 17-0…give or take. Vacchio (17/21) was very sharp, and did all he could in the losing effort, but the operative word here is ‘losing’, and that is a word with which Red can no longer afford to be associated if they want to play into May. Don Tran (7/7) returned from his whirlwind vacation and got all suited up to stop seven whole shots…not the stuff of legends, but it’s not his fault the team in front of him is that strong. So…about that backdoor (TWSS) for Red…they have four games remaining. They face a tough challenger this Sunday in Maroon, but if they can generate more than seven shots against Deppensmith, they can expect more than zero goals. They then have Tropical Blue…a very beatable team that has been very beaten this season, Purple…a team Red would need to pass, and a team that has lived as close to the cut line as any team ‘in playoff position’ has all season, then one final hurdle in Aqua to wrap the regular season. Is a Red playoff berth likely…no. Is it possible…yes. Red can at least take solace in the fact that they have a certain amount of ‘berth control’ heading into their final four games.
Our cover team, Royal Blue, are probably overdue for some attention…some hype…maybe even a little Cup buzz. Captain Janet Goins’ team has, by most standards, ‘flown under the radar’ to this point, in spite of waging an impressive march toward the tippy top of the standings ladder. Were it not for a 4-0 loss to Purple, a game in which they were without the services of Nik Thompson, Glenn Pinto, and a scrappy role player by the name of Eric Herrmann, and an absolutely last millisecond (perhaps…extra millisecond) tie with White, this team might be 6-0-1, atop the standings, and (for now, anyway), holding the high ground on their April 23rd opponent, Silver. Yes, I know, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas, but…my point is that this is a damn good team that is maybe not getting their due in the ‘lamestream media’ (that’s me, in this case). Aqua (one of ‘the other blues’) has held their own this season, but quite honestly have yet to earn the kind of respect and buzz as the teams at the top of the standings have proven they deserve. They entered the fray with Royal Blue at 2-1-2, with just ONE player on their roster having recorded more than one goal through five games (David Schlatter). Eric Herrmann has a lot of goals this season, and he had the first one in this tilt, converting a pass from Captain Janet Goins into a 1-0 lead at 5:33 in the first. It was the captain herself doubling the damage less than a minute later, on a fluky/bouncy passing play from Kyle Prior. Down two, with Matt Rogers headed to the box for roughing up Carl Vankoughnett at 3:25 in the second, the situation looked grim for Captain Steph Palomo Schmidt & Company. Enter the aforementioned Schlatter, racing onto an outlet pass from Anthony Cerasuolo to cut the lead in half on the penalty kill, and give life to a limp Aqua bench. It was Schlatter again early in the third, scoring from distance (from Matt Rogers and Chris Tran) to knot the score at two apiece, and bring an already heated match to a boiling point. In hindsight, I regret congratulating Erin Plone on her first career SDFHL goal before the opening faceoff. That is because Erin Plone scored her second career SDFHL goal in this one (from Herrmann and Glenn Pinto) following her own rebound to slide the game-winner past a baffled Tran to seal the deal for Royal Blue, 3-2 over Aqua. I think maybe my pat on the back was the push in the right direction (well, the wrong direction, for me) here. Were it not for Chris Tran (21/24…and, oh yeah, an assist!), this game would not have been as close as it was. Nick Meglich (18/20) was no slouch on his end of the rink, stopping a good number of quality chances, including at least one Schlatter breakaway. The win has Royal Blue at 4-1-2, tied with Charcoal at ten points, and one point behind Silver for the catbird seat. Intrigue abounds, as both Charcoal and Silver remain on Royal Blue’s regular season slate…place your bets, and bring your popcorn. Aqua, meanwhile, will lick their wounds, and look to officially punch their playoff ticket with a strong showing in their remaining four games.
To say that Captain Shelby Shattuck and her ‘Black Widow’ have had a rough season is a pretty massive understatement…it’s a Hindenburg-level tragedy. With five games in the books, and zero (yes, zero) goals in that 0-4-1 span, the playoff door was already only VERY slightly ajar as Black took to the court against Olive in Week Ten, with the sense being that this might be the week that door slams shut for good. Olive came in riding a league-best three game win streak, flipping the script on what might have been their on horror story season after an 0-2-0 start. Olive’s resurgence has largely been led by Josh Kosh B’Gosh™ (Wirt and Tran), with the two accounting for the lion’s share of goals and assists over that stretch, but the hero role was played on this night by Erin Dowrey. Dowrey scored first for Olive in the first (from Wirt), assisted on Will Heinl’s game-winner later in the first, and sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minute of play to snatch first star honors with a 2 and 1 showing. But…wait…Pope…surely I have misread the previous sentence…or, you have clearly made an error! If the second Olive goal was the ‘game-winner’, then…that would mean that Black actually scored a goal. Please explain how this is possible. Faithful reader, I do understand your confusion, but I can assure you that BLACK ACTUALLY DID SCORE A GOAL! Now, granted, I am told it was something of an odd/broken/fluky play, but Mike Chiaco (who else) finally broke the scoring curse for Black (from Justin Stege), and actually made this one a game down to the bitter end. That bitter end was a 3-1 loss…another on the pile for Black, and another in the sprint the other way for Olive. In all seriousness, congratulations on ending this historic streak, Black! Captain Shattuck and the gang will have to settle for the moral victory, as it may well be the only kind of victory they manage this season. At 0-5-1, with two of their remaining games coming against the likes of White and Silver…I feel confident in the assessment that this team is officially done. Hopefully they are able to just relax and enjoy the rest of the season…maybe score a few more goals…stay healthy, and live to fight another season. Zach Siemer (10/11) may suffer the stain of being the only goalie to have allowed a Black goal this season, but he is also now 2-0-0 with a snazzy .926/1.00 since coming on as Olive’s regular backstop. His efforts have helped to extend Olive’s win streak to four, and Captain Wendy Enright’s team is quickly becoming that ‘team you don’t want to draw’ come playoff time.