The postmortem plod to the regular season finish line continued for ‘Black Widow’ in Week Thirteen, with Captain Shelby Shattuck, Alan Razoky, Mike Chiaco, Harsh Wanigaratne and Justin Stege all staying safe and cool at home, away from the blazing dumpster fire that will finally (mercifully) be extinguished with this Sunday’s finale. Captain Leah Gonzales was absent, as well, as were Vinny Santora and John Boddy, but there was plenty of Malki moxie in the lineup to take care of business for Maroon. Chris Malki scored twice in the second, with Ryan Karns and sub Kaitlyn Brusso assisting on the first, and son Joe helping out on the second, and we all know that a lead (let alone a two or more goal lead) against Black is an auto win this season. Jordan Pynn’s first of the season (let that sink in) early in the third from Rich Shane and Matt DeBerry cut the lead in half, and kept things interesting for a bit, but Ezra Cohen would restore the two goal edge roughly four minutes later, and Steve Deppensmith (14/15) and the overdogs would hold on for a 3-1 win. Matt Henderson (23/26) was the whipping boy once again, keeping his team in the game from start to finish, knowing full well that his efforts would be in vain. The loss was just another on the pile for Black, who have been eliminated in spirit for a month, and officially eliminated for weeks, but the win is an important one for Maroon. At 3-3-3, they have now officially punched their playoff ticket, and can play a loose, confident game versus a tough Olive side to close out their regular season this Sunday.
Royal Blue looked to wrap their regular season with a wrinkle in Silver’s plan for standings domination. A win would move them to 6-2-2, and check Silver to 6-1-2, leaving the door open for Captain Janet Goins’ crew to snatch the top playoff seed whilst enjoying their Week Fourteen bye. Numbers don’t lie, and inertia is a thing, so handing an undefeated team their first loss in their ninth game of the season is unlikely, but…we play the games because anything is possible…right? Nope…beating Silver appears to be impossible, or as close to it as possible. Royal Blue outshot Silver FIFTEEN to four in the first period, and yet…Alexis DaCosta accounted for the lone piece of paydirt, converting a Justin Ker pass to give Silver a 1-0 edge on the power play with just 0:37 to play in the frame. If you have been paying attention at all this season, you know that a 15/15 period is just another day at the office for ‘The Silencer’ (Silas Perks) but outshooting an opponent nearly 4:1, and finding yourself behind for all of your efforts just has to break spirits. Ker doubled Silver’s edge midway through the second (from Arnold Gonzales), and DaCosta’s second of the game (from Sadie Hellstrom) to make it 3-0 came with just 0:57 left in the middle stanza. Eric Herrmann righted the Royal Blue ship a bit just eighteen seconds later, but a two goal hole with one period to play is tough to climb out of against an average team, let alone an undefeated juggernaut with a brick wall in nets. Justin Ker capped his POTG evening with his second of the game early in the third, and while Carl Vankoughnett did manage to fire a second strike past Perks, it would not be nearly enough to slay the Silver dragon…Silver over Royal Blue, 4-2. Perks’ stopped 34/36 (!) to collect his seventh win of the season, and he continues to be the iron backbone of a team that is now 7-0-2…alone, and unreachable in the top playoff spot, regardless of what happens in the final week of play. Royal Blue will sit their bye this Sunday, currently clinging to the three seed, but in danger of falling as low as the five, should both Olive and White prevail in their final matches.
The odds of surviving the regular season were very much not in favor of Captain Emily Bennington’s Red side coming into Week Thirteen. At 1-6-1 (with that one win coming at the expense of season doormats, Black), Red would need to win out, and get a fair amount of help to preserve even a faint whisper of playoff hopes. Their penultimate opponent, Purple, has been an absolute enigma all season long, shifting swiftly from world beaters to world-beaten and back again with each passing week. Two scoreless periods ticked past, filling Red with equal parts hope and despair. They would need to score to win, and they would need to win to survive the regular season, but…all it would take was one shot…one goal, and a continued stellar effort from Nick Vacchio in nets. Joe Nguyen answered the bell, providing that one goal (from Joe Gaudio and Captain Bennington) at 6:59 in the third, and Red got that stellar effort from Nick Vacchio (22/22) to cobble together the 1-0 win over Purple they so desperately needed. As noted, Red would still need a number of cookies to crumble correctly to stay alive in the playoff picture. They would first need Olive to take care of business against Aqua later in the evening, then would need to prevail over Aqua in their finale, and hope that Charcoal would dispatch Tropical Blue in the final game of the season. Some hope is better than no hope, and Red now had ‘some hope’. The loss does little to damper Purple’s position, as Patrick Theis (14/15) & Company still sit near the creamy middle of the pack at 4-4-1. They will look to wrap their season with a ‘statement’ win over a seemingly unstoppable Silver side…a win which would be more about building playoff confidence than jockeying for a better seed.
A hot start to the season (2-0-1) for Aqua quickly cooled off, and it doesn’t get much colder than an 0-4-1 run. Futility begets frustration and fear, and the eleventh hour resurgence of Tropical Blue, and now Red (!) had Captain Steph Palomo Schmidt’s crew in an unhappy place coming into Week Thirteen. Facing an Olive team that was the red hot yin (5-0-1) to their ice cold yang only meant more frustration and fear. Falling down 0-2 through one period of play…palpable…downright edible frustration and fear. Not surprisingly, it was Josh Wirt who delivered not once (from Erin Dowrey and sub Janine Ulloa), but twice (from Will Heinl) to put Olive on the front foot, and send every ‘panic’ and ‘desperation’ chemical rushing through Aqua veins. David Schlatter broke in and finished a glorious scoring rush just eleven seconds into the second (from Mark DeGraffenreid and Janice Darlington), but Gary Peters was there to restore the two goal lead later in the period, and Olive moved into the third with a 3-1 lead, and Aqua’s will to live in a vice grip. It was at this point that all of that frustration and fear flowed into a ferocious fight back. Schlatter cut the lead back to one early in the third (from Tim Hamon and Janice Darlington), then threw a sweet centering feed that Mark DeGraffenreid poked home to knot the score at 3-3 with 6:12 to play. Schlatter would complete his hat trick (from DeGraffenreid) less than a minute later, accounting for the game-winner, with DeGraffenreid applying some paint and polish on the breakaway at 2:28 (from Tom Darlington). Chris Tran (17/20) was steady and strong throughout, giving the team in front of him the footing they needed to find their form, while Zach Siemer (10/15) suffered his first loss in an Olive uniform as a result of the crazy third period coup. When the smoke finally cleared on the sneak attack 5-3 win, Aqua lungs could finally draw a deep, clean breath, and rest reasonably assured that they would live to fight into May. ‘Reasonably’ is the operative word here, as a loss to Red (now officially eliminated) this Sunday, followed by a Tropical Blue miracle over Charcoal, and Aqua’s playoff air supply (fresh, or not) will be severed for good. Olive’s unbeaten streak has come to an end, but they can still rise as high as the two seed with a win against Maroon in their finale. An Olive win and a Charcoal win, and Captain Wendy Enright’s team will pull into the bronze position as we turn toward Week One of playoff action.
Two playoff bound teams met to measure themselves (and one another) in a regular season showdown with purely pride and a plum playoff perch at stake. Captain Shawna Hamon’s squad would look to shake off being ‘Herrmannated’ 3-1 in their last outing, while Captain Maureen Ruchhoeft’s White hoped to continue to bounce back from their first loss of the season to Purple (a 6-1 spanking) two weeks prior. The sub plot…Eric Herrmann’s one goal in Royal Blue’s final game of the season left the super sniper with 22 points on the season (14 and 8), with Charcoal’s Owen Perks looking to add to his already impressive total of 18 (12 and 6), close the scoring race gap, and bring us closer to a season COMPLETELY owned by The Perks Boys™. Perks would get that one goal late in the third (from Mark Ennsmann and Shawna Hamon), but that would be his only point in a rather decisive 4-0 win over White. Kalen Hunter opened the scoring early in the first (from Jackson Tomaszewski and Captain Hamon) before Captain Hamon herself scored a very pretty powerplay goal (from Chris Tran and Ryan Loughran) to double the advantage. The aforementioned Perks tally, and Ennsmann’s early second period strike (from Hunter and Hamon) accounted for the remainder of the scoring, as Don Tran (22/22) outdueled Chuck Bender (18/22) to leave White in the five spot in the standings at 4-2-3, and boost Charcoal into second place at 6-3-0. At the risk of sounding like a complete dick (would not be the first time), both White and Charcoal face little threat of loss in their final regular season games, with the former taking on the 0-8-1 Black, and the latter squaring off with a 2-5-2 Tropical Blue. The only major significance to either of these games will come if Aqua should lose to Red, which would keep Tropical Blue’s playoff hopes alive…but only with that Aqua loss and a (massive) upset win over Charcoal in the last game of the regular season slate. Lest I fail to mention it, Melissa Busby did not record a single point in this game. I realize that is not ‘news’ any more than ‘water is wet’ is ‘news’, but…I’m contractually obligated to point these things out.