Rainy days have made for a slow start to the Winter 2023 SDFHL season, but leave us with time to take a proper look back at last season’s champions, ‘JOntario’. BACK L=>R: Justin Ker, Silas Perks, Kimberly Hernandez, Kyra Forsyth, Josh Tran, Zach Siemer MIDDLE L=>R Jon Salt, Gary Peters, Jon Champine (C), Eric Willard FRONT: John Hwang. CONGRATULATIONS on an amazing season!
It has been six weeks, so my memory is a bit hazy, but here’s (more or less) how the Final went down…
Captain Luke Wolmer and ‘Celine Neon’ came strutting into the final showdown with the nothing-to-lose swagger you’d expect from a seventh seed on a hot streak with house money. A 4-2 loss to White in their playoff opener landed them in the Losers’ Bracket, but that’s where the revenge tour began. Their 4-1 regular season loss to Red…avenged with a 4-1 script flip playoff win. Their 4-3 regular season loss to Navy…3-1 smack back when it counts most. A 1-0 loss to Black back in Week One of the regular season…a 5-2 knockout response in the second season. White beat them 3-1 in Week Nine…Neon ended White’s Cup hopes to cap the stunning sweep through the 5, 4, 3, and 2 seeds…only the 1 remained…
Green had not played since dispatching White 5-1 back on November 20th…nearly a full month prior. If Neon was playing with ‘house money’, Green was the house itself…sitting pretty, powerful, and poised in the pole position. Having lost just twice all season, Neon would need to find a way to match that total in one night. Silas Perks was running a Calder/Vezina campaign for the ages, but the legend, the GOAT, Da Kid stood in nets at the other end. Something would have to give…would Neon complete the comeback coup, and check the final box on their loss revenge list (Green beat them 4-0 in Week Six), or would Green hold serve and take what seemed destined to be theirs…
The evening started with a tough, tense, tight battle. Both goalies were as advertised or better (if possible), and the shot totals (Neon 9, Green 17) underscored just how stingy the defense was as a whole on both sides. Captain Luke Wolmer put his team out front 1-0 on the power play in the first, rapping home a feed from David Schlatter, and putting a charge into the underdog bench. The game ground on, with both teams finding chances, but also finding a wall of well-oiled goalie will. The clock finally ticked its last tock, with Wolmer’s goal standing alone in a 1-0 win for the seventh seeded stunners. The stage was now set for a true winner-take-all tilt. Neon had the momentum, had the bite, had the bark, and seemed ready, willing, and able to divert ‘destiny’. Green would just need to regroup and find the game that had gotten them to this point…
Enter, Captain Jon Champine. Having scored just one goal in nine regular season games, the skipper for the top seed would not have been the obvious choice to finally solve Sean Kelly and put Green on the board for the first time in their last game. He did just that, converting a John Hwang helper into pure joy and relief for his team. The goal came at 7:17 in the first…still plenty of time for play to open up, and for Neon to find a way to bounce back and snatch the Cup from the catbird’s claws. As it went, the twenty-six total shots in the first game were a downright bonanza compared to the SEVENTEEN total in the sequel. Unfortunately for Captain Champine, his team would muster just a sliver (FOUR) of that meager total. Unfortunately for Captain Wolmer, the only numbers that really matter are goals for, and goals against. Eric Willard’s empty-netter in the final minute of play would not further blemish Sean Kelly’s 3/4 outing, but Silas Perks’ 13/13 sutdown shutout meant a 2-0 win for Green, the final ‘revenge’, the last word, and a Cup in hand. Congratulations again to both teams for two great runs, and to Captain Champine and Green for sticking the dismount.
Here are some additional photos from the champions’ celebration gathering…
