The stakes were high for the two lowest teams in the standings. A loss for either side would mean one more nail in the playoff coffin, while a win would give either team new life. The coffin nail went to Dark Green, with Green’s Jerry Gonzales doing most of the pounding. Kevin Dinino opened the scoring for Green late in the first, and Gonzales added the game-winner in the second, and an empty net insurance marker in the third to seal Dark Green’s fate, 3-1. Emily Lincoln had cut the lead to 2-1 with plenty of time left in the third, but Andrew Lockard was strong again in nets (15/16), locking it down from there to earn his second straight win. Dark Green remain in playoff contention, but they will need wins and help to make it now. Green can survive without winning both of their remaining games, but a third win in a row this Sunday will go a long way to bringing their redemption hopes to fruition.
Another crucial cut line conflict saw Pink and Grey battle to a 3-3 draw. Andrew Jacobsen netted a pair for Pink, while Justin Stege and Jordan Pynn each accounted for 1 and 1 the other way. Pynn’s goal was a game-saver, and possibly a season-saver for Grey, coming on a wild scramble in front of the net with the goalie pulled and just :20 to play. That one point gives Grey a little extra oxygen as they enter their bye week at 2-4-3…currently good enough to secure the final playoff spot. The tie, while a deflating disappointment for Pink, keeps them very much in the playoff hunt as they brace for a showdown with a formidable White contingent this Sunday.
The current two and three seeds squared off in Week Eleven, and left the rink all square and still there. Josh Wirt (2 and 0) paced White out to a two goal lead, but Black battled back on the back of…who else…Steve Jones. Jones continued his torrid scoring clip with a pair of goals to match Wirt’s output, and a helper on Mark Daquipa’s second of the season. Captain Mark Ennsmann rounded out the scoring for White, who flirted with an upset win, but ultimately settled for yet another tie, 3-3.
Things heated up as the sun began to set on Week Eleven. Orange and Royal rumbled through three periods of chippy, chirpy hockey, and Royal was lined up nicely to hand Orange their first defeat of the season as time wound down in a 3-2 game. Tyler Dyment saved the day with a timely first career SDFHL goal — a short handed stunner with 1:21 to play. Jon Zygleman and Connor Miller tallied their seventh and sixth of the season, respectively, for Orange, with the latter also racking up fourteen PIMs in the process. Param Gill, Vance Morra, and London Peters each contributed a goal for Royal, who improved their playoff odds in spite of the come-from-ahead 3-3 tie.
Captain Jon Salt and Light Blue found some relief after a 1-3-0 stretch that put them through the gauntlet of the three top teams (Orange, Black, and White). They lost those three games by a combined 13-4 margin, and fell into the middle of the pile in the process. The captain himself secured the 3-1 win over Gold with two goals in the third, after Stephanie Chen equalized Mark Nagy’s first period tally. Both Light Blue and Gold control their own playoff destiny, but with ‘9’ tending to be the magic number, they will both need at least another point or two to punch a ticket to the second season.