Captain Greg Wirth’s Orange has been consistently competitive, yet dangerously cut-line-adjacent all season. A Week Eight showdown with (once mighty) Black was the first of four crucial contests between bottom half combatants. Much to Captain Chris Malki’s relief, there was a Kamal Gill sighting at the rink! Gill popped two goals in his SECOND appearance of the season, but the tried and true triumvirate of Carl Vankoughnett (2 and 3), Kris Tosczak (2 and 2), and Jim LaGrossa (1 and 2) smashed and grabbed Orange to a 5-2 win. Vankoughnett snatched POTW honors for his offensive outburst, and he and Tosczak now account for two of the top three spots in the player points race. Speaking of the points race, Orange now find themselves much more comfortably situated in the standings at 3-3-2. They will face Navy this Sunday without any ‘must win’ juju to juggle. Black…well, they ‘must win’ at least two of their remaining three games, starting with standings neighbors, Silver. It’s probably too much to ask that Kamal make a third game in two months, but they will need everything they can get to make sure they don’t lose everything they have.
Brown v Pink…much like the age-old rhyming innuendo, usually tight, sometimes an unwanted surprise, and always a tough decision. Pink got out in front early, Brown took it in the end 2-1, moving Captain Copp & Company closer to being ass out of the playoffs in the process. It was rookie sensation, Patrick Walker, putting Pink in a pretty position early, but Captain Mark Nagy just will not be denied this season. Nagy tied the game with his eighth of the season later in the first, then assisted on Mark Ennsmann’s game-winner late in the second. It was an all-Mark show for Brown, with Marc* Lapointe recording the lone helper on Nagy’s strike. London Peters arrived with 0:34 left in the game, but alas…his ability to turn the tables in that span were on a par with his ability to tell time and check the league schedule. Pink is now truly on the brink. With their bye week still looming, a loss to Silver on Sunday will spell the first official playoff elimination. A win does not guarantee that they are back in, but it may well render their last game meaningful. The win has Brown perched peacefully in third place at 4-3-1…very likely a lock for the playoff promised land already.
*Us Marks don’t really count Marcs as ‘one of us’.
Captain Mark DeGraffenreid picked up the ball off an opening faceoff win from Steve Scott, set himself, aimed…and fired a dribbling dud to a waiting Dan Jurgens. Jurgens set, and ripped a scorching slapper off Nick Meglich, then watched as the top spin propelled it past the prone and panicked goalie to make it 1-0 Red just 0:29 in. That’s pretty much all you need to know about this game, and about Teal’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season thus far. Jurgens struck again later in the first, assisted on Phil Nguyen’s first of the season in the second, then completed the hat trick in the third to march Red to an easy 4-1 win. Any hope that Ramsey Ksar’s counterstrike in the second had stirred for a desperate and decimated Teal was quickly dampened, and Teal walked away another step closer to a hockey-free September. Reinforcements (finally) arrive this Sunday in the form of Ryan Belbin and Rob Gaudio, but Teal will surely need to win out or be left out of the postseason fun. The win was huge for Red who, in spite of uneven play this season, have leveled their record at 3-3-1, and leveled their sites on a playoff position. A Week Nine win will sink Pink, and further solidify that spot in the last eight standing.
The battle of the slightly different shirt colors got off to a bit of a dramatic start, as Jeff Anderson was shown the door for…antics unbecoming…following a routine tripping call. That loss certainly hurt White’s chances…about as much as the ensuing 2-1 loss to Silver hurt their bid for playoff safety. Gideon Schon put Silver in front in the second, and Alan Razoky converted on the powerplay to double the lead late in the third. A late, goalie-pulled strike from Chris Tran kept the tension on eleven to the final whistle, but Chuck Bender (20/21) and Silver would hold on for a vital victory. Cory Brin (20/22) absorbed the tough loss at the other end…a loss the leaves White in cautiously optimistic playoff limbo at 3-3-1. Even with the W, Silver are still tight rope walking on the cut line at 3-4-0. I know I have been playing up the ‘must win’ nature of many recent games, but Silver v Black this Sunday is as critical as it gets. White will likely still need at least a point or two to punch their playoff ticket, but their Week Nine tilt with Green definitely does not drip with do or die drama.
The Week Eight night cap was a refreshing change from the standings scrapping and scrambling of the first four games. Navy have been in cruise control all season, and while Green have had some setbacks, they have remained in the top tier, in the clear, with very little fear of missing September Sundays. Still, this one was as exciting as a ho hum showdown gets, with the two sides trading punches from start to finish…a 3-3 finish, which left fans happy and lent some luster to a possible bracket rematch. Captain Jon Salt put his team ahead in the early going, but his counterpart (Captain Chad Goins) equalized exactly five minutes later. A scoreless second set up a wild third, which saw Navy jump to a 3-1 advantage on a pair of Zach Salt markers, then Green start (Jason Dick) and finish (Kevin Wilkinson) a rousing comeback to produce the no-win situation with less than a minute to play. Math is hard, but our statisticians are reasonably sure that Navy has already sown a playoff seed at 4-1-2. Green are less of a lock, but a victory over White this weekend would certainly be the key they need.