It was too little, too late, but still felt pretty great for Teal, as they poured every remaining ounce of pride and passion into a 6-2 Silver smackdown. Jon Zygleman (1 and 4) was a Zygel-man possessed, factoring in all but one of the half dozen strikes, as Teal exorcised a full season of frustration in one thirty minute stretch. Steve Scott, Ryan Belbin, and Sadie Hellstrom each contributed 1 and 1, Ramsey Ksar accounted for the game-winner, and Sally Jackson scored her first career SDFHL goal to add a delicious ribbon of icing to the farewell cake. Nick Meglich stopped 14/16 to earn his second win in forgettable season full of fantastic, but futile efforts from the returning netminder. Andy Strathman and Vinny Santora provide the pair of responses for Silver, who back into the playoffs as a shaky seven seed. They will need a much better effort to survive a first round matchup with powerhouse Navy. The two points could not prevent Teal from a dead last finish, but this win will sustain them over the string of hockeyless Sundays to come…
It was an equally meaningless win for entirely different reasons for Yellow. Pereira’s pride and joy kept purring right along, putting a wobbly White down and out for good in the process with a 3-0 knock out punch. Josh Wirt put up the game-winner early in the first, and tucked home empty net insurance in the third, with Captain Pereira himself providing the second period strike, and Sean Kelly stopping 21/21 to seal White’s fate, and keep Yellow great going into the second season. It’s hard to believe that Yellow, who finished atop the pile at 8-1-1, started the season with a loss! It was a 5-0 thrashing that came courtesy of Navy, but also came in the absence of superstars Josh Wirt and Shawna Hamon. Yellow will have to wait until at least Week Three of the playoffs to avenge that outcome, but the focus has to be on taking care of business this Sunday against Orange. Captain Dinino and his crew battled valiantly down the stretch, but scored just one goal in their final four games…all after losing sniper Jeff Anderson to lunacy in Week Eight. They will be golfing and watching football with members of Teal and Pink, counting the days to Week One of the new season.
Green and Black represent the middle of the playoff pack at four and five, respectively, so it seems only fitting that the two met in the middle at 0-0 in the final week of play, just one week before playing for real stakes. Yes, the rare, socceresque scoreless tie…perhaps a bit less unique, considering Sean Kelly was guarding one of the nets. Kelly remained perfect on the night, stopping 26/26 (!) (that’s 47/47 in back to back games, if you’re scoring at home), while tenderfoot tender Nick Vacchio (13/13) did half the work for the same pay. So, no ground gained or lost for either side, and the dance partner will remain the same this Sunday. Steve Jones should be back in the lineup for Green this weekend, which should push the potential for a non-zero output from that side, and Black will hope for more Kelly heroics…one goal may be enough for them, at this rate.
It was do or die for Pink in the final week of play. Spoiler alert…they died. The underdogs could have salvaged a sad sack season with one big win in their final outing. Unfortunately, that final outing came against resident throat-ripper-outers, Navy. It was a great game (described by our own Min-Soo Smith as ‘very intense’), and Andrew Jacobsen did put Pink in front 1-0 in the early going. The second period belonged to Navy, with Luke Wolmer equalizing, and Zach Salt flipping the lead short-handed (ouchie). Patrick Walker put more fuel on his claim to Calder with his ninth of the season to knot it at twos early in the third, but it was Lil’ Salt again with the soul-crushing, season ending game-winner with 2:13 to play. Big Salt assisted on all three Navy goals, and Don Tran filled in fantastically for his distant, distant cousin, Chris, stopping 14/16. The 3-2 loss leaves Pink lounging with the other losers, planning Sunday events for the next five weeks with…family (*shudder*). Navy advance as the second seed, and will look to take the first step toward the Cup against Silver this Sunday.
Brown and Red…another playoff preview in the final week of play! Brown remained the three seed, and Red held at the six, after Brown took care of business with a tone-setting 4-0 win. Jordan Pynn and Mark Ennsmann each produced 2 and 1, and Captain Nagy wrapped an incredible season with a pair of assists to keep the favorites favored going into Week One of the playoffs. Don Tran stopped all eighteen shots he faced from Red attackers, who must have been having fits of futility. One player who was definitely having fits was Captain Joel Gattey. Gattey was assessed a game misconduct for his, well, misconduct in dealing with officials. He will be out of the lineup for his team’s first two playoff games, which of course means he may not have a chance to join his team again this season. The moral of that story, as with that of White’s Jeff Anderson…don’t lose your cool with the officials out there!