Stunned!

Week One was something of a parity sandwich, with the first and last games on the slate going in the books as tight, tense, low-scoring nailbiters, with three thick slices of lopsided lunchmeat in between. The bottom slice of bread/season opener saw Captain John Boddy’s Blue taking on Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime, and with Boddy riding off into the Oregon sunset at season’s end, one might expect him and his mates to have an extra dash of motivation coming in. Ramsey Ksar kickstarted the manifestation of that destiny with the first goal of the season at 2:01 in the first from Eli Schonbrun and a jail-broken Sean Kelly, recording a point in his first action as forward since the Spring 2018 season. Blue dominated the first period shot totals by an 11-3 count, but Lime found their footing to reverse that trend in the second (10-4 shots, in their favor), and finally find a response off the stick of Nick Vacchio at 2:13 (Silas Perks & Brennen Abel). It took just fourteen seconds for Blue to recapture the lead, and who else to do the honors but our season-long player of honor, Captain Boddy. Boddy’s first of the season from Steve Linke and Schonbrun restored his team’s one goal lead…a lead that Chris Tran (13/14) would preserve through a scoreless third to seal Blue’s opening win over Lime, 2-1. A strong effort from Don Tran (17/19) was wasted by a shockingly anemic Lime attack, though much of the credit for that anemia is clearly due to Blue’s defense…keeping Brennen Abel goalless is a remarkable feat. The win has Blue on track to send Captain Boddy out with a bang, but it’s way too early to start labeling any team a Cup contender, especially with close-cut results like this one…a result that would SURELY set the trend for the rest of the evening…

…nope! Our first slice of ‘lopsided lunchmeat’ came next, with Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green facing off with Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal. Honestly, my preseason thoughts on these teams were that Green would be on the weaker side and Teal would be one of the favorites…proving I know absolutely nothing after nearly thirty years of league play. I suppose I had not factored a possible breakout season for young William Teglia into my math, and Teglia definitely made sure I won’t fail to factor him in, going forward. Teglia’s first of the season at 7:00 in the first (Jon Zygelman) came short-handed, and he added an even strength second at 4:12 (Zygelman & Chad Goins) to push Green to a two goal lead. Joe Malki made it 3-0 Green with an unassisted strike at 2:35, and this one looked to be a legitimate laugher going into the first break. That first break came ONE second after Teal’s first response, however, as the (very) highly-touted newcomer, Alex Giummo, notched his first career goal, and Teal’s first of the season at 0:01 (Gordon Schmidt) to bring hope to a deflated bench and signal a potential tide shift going into the second. CONGRATULATIONS, ALEX! That shifting tide did continue to rise in the second, with Jim LaGrossa cutting the lead to one (Schmidt), but a pair of counterpunches from Chris Malki at 7:57, and Joe Malki at 3:45 (Chad Goins & Chris Malki) put Green back on the crest of a winning wave. Josh Tran would thicken the plot again at 7:04 in the third (Schmidt & Palomo Schmidt), but ‘within two’ was as close as Teal would get, and Teglia’s hat trick-capper with 2:00 to play wrapped the scoring in a convincing 6-3 win for Green over Teal. Chuck Bender (22/25) continued his personal streak of strong play in the win in place of absent net-newcomer, John Kushneryk, while Matt Henderson (20/26) fell victim to Teglia’s triple threat and an otherwise formidable Green attack from start to finish.

The middle layer in this whole sandwich concept that I am (for whatever reason) running with featured Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple taking on Captain Rob Gaudio’s White. True to form, I would have lost my bet that this would be a close game, with Purple edging out White to start their season on a winning note. It actually was a close 2/3 of a game, but White really made that last 1/3 count in their favor. The first ten minutes very nearly slipped past as just the second scoreless period of the night, but Dan Jurgens put White in front with just six ticks to go before the break (Captain Gaudio & Jackson Tomaszewski). Jurgens-Gaudio-Tomaszewski…remember this trio of names…it will be THE theme of this game. Gaudio doubled his team’s advantage at 3:46 in the second (from…yes…Tomaszewski & Jurgens), but Pat Gladstone wristed home the first response from Purple at 2:52 (Carl Vankoughnett & Tyler Winstead) to restore the one goal gap through two. Unfortunately for Captain Karns’ & Company, the Gladstone strike would be the first and last for Purple, and even more unfortunate, White’s three headed dragon was far from done. Gaudio from Tomaszewski and Jurgens at 5:57…Gaudio from Tomaszewski and Jurgens at 3:11…Jurgens from Tomaszewski and Gaudio at 2:12…game, set, match for White, who rode this terrifying trio to a 5-1 boat race win over Purple. All five goals, and indeed all fifteen points produced by White were credited to the scoring firm of Gaudio, Jurgens & Tomaszewski. It generally takes at least a few games to develop that kind of chemistry, but White clearly decided to forgo the ‘getting to know you’ phase. Will Heinl (10/11) earned the win on Jon Cima’s behalf, while Chuck Bender (15/20) absorbed the loss for his actual team on the heels of securing a win in a fill-in roll for Green. Gaudio captured POTW honors with his 3 and 2 statement game, and (of course) the ‘big three’ go into Week Two as co-leaders in the scoring race with five points each.

The third and final slice of ‘lopsided lunchmeat’ was layered on next, with Captain Hima Joshi’s Gold snatching a season-opening win off the very shiny silver platter carried in by Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red. With Josh Wirt, Alec Noraditsky, and John Kushneryk all out of the lineup, and a new/unproven Gabe Davenport in nets, even my poor prognostication skills could not cloud the vision that this was Gold’s game to lose. Red came out strong, though, outshooting Gold 7-5 in the first, and when Shawna Hamon capped the first period push by snapping home a gorgeous feed from newcomer, Ali Nabipour, it brought hand wringing and doubt to a previously pumped Gold bench at the break. The museum piece assist from Nabipour was his first career SDFHL point…CONGRATUALTIONS, ALI! Gold would find their form against a thin and tiring Red side in the second, with Owen Perks bursting in with a brilliant solo effort to tie it at 7:03, and Mark DeGraffenreid wristing a fluke past Davenport at 6:16 to give Gold their first lead (Evan Melcher). Perks struck again at 3:32, completing a give-and-go series with DeGraffenreid, then again to complete his hat trick at 2:02 (DeGraffenreid & Shelby Shattuck). Vance Morra flicked a fifth Gold goal over Davenport’s shoulder with just 0:07 to go in the second (Vinny Santora), and as tough as any late period goal is to swallow, this was a clear and present back breaker for Red. Mason Holcomb (17/18) was VERY sharp from start to finish, and (in spite of a rough second) Davenport was solid in his first career SDFHL start. Neither goalie would allow any further scoring in the third, so 5-1 Gold over Red was the final in this last of three not-so-close Week One contests.

The Week One nightcap…a perfectly-toasted slice of parity bread laid atop our ‘sandwich’ by Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange and Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black. While I did not personally watch every Week One game, I can assure you that this was the most hard-fought, entertaining, and ultimately bizarre hour of hockey in this opening week of play. Trevor Vick struck first for Black at 7:00 in the first (Captain Wolmer), but a late (and very untimely) turnover led to Kalen Hunter’s unassisted equalizer with just 0:09 remaining in the period. A scoreless second saw very close shot totals (10-9 in Black’s favor), signaling a righting of the ship for Orange after being outshot 11-4 in the first. The ship was un-righted again in the third, though, with Black blasting away to the count of 15-6 in their favor, only to allow the first goal of the third at 5:38 (Eric Willard from Captain Nagy) to give Orange their first lead with half a period to play. Captain Wolmer leveled the ledger again at 3:59 (Trevor Vick & TK Mason), setting up a fierce fight to the finish. With just 0:27 to play, it’s safe to say that both teams had resigned themselves to a tie…a well-earned one point for each side…back pats and high fives all around for a valiant non-losing effort. I know that I was expecting nothing else as I dropped the ball in Orange’s zone to close out the final half minute of play. As an Orange defender circled behind that net and aimed a clearing pass out of the zone, we would surely see some standard late game jousting…maybe a late, long range shot on one goal or the other, or….*then it happened*. That Orange clearing attempt…bounced off a forechecking TK Mason, then bounced into the net behind an absolutely stunned and confused Nick Meglich! From 99.9% tie probability to 99.9% Black win probability in a split second. The buzz from this Twilight Zone turn of events had hardly subsided when Trevor Vick pushed the ensuing center ice faceoff forward…and into Orange’s empty net to make it 4-2 Black…the final score in this one, amazingly enough. Kudos to Mason for never giving up on the play, and for earning POTG honors for her 1 and 1 sparkplug performance, but you just have to feel for Meglich (32/35) who was absolutely breakdancing in this one, and really deserved a better fate. Another Mason, Mason Holcomb (17/19), was perfectly happy to benefit from the reciprocal good fortune as a stand-in for Black’s Will Heinl (because Black was facing Orange’s Will Heinl), backstopping his surrogate team to a 1-0-0 season start with his second of two strong performances on the night.