Upside Down

Captain Salt and ‘AmaJon Prime’ sat for weeks, waiting for one last challenger. That challenger was primed for elimination in the first of two final fights, as the clock wound down to the last minutes of play. White had other ideas, turning a one and done Cup clincher for the incumbents into a two game delivery of their own championship glory. Congratulations to Captain Mark Ennsmann and ‘White’ for a remarkable finish, and to Captain Salt’s side, who fought hard to a bitter end.

A very tough, tight two periods of play finally cracked open to allow for a Prime scoring opportunity. With Anthony Cerasuolo barely seated in the penalty box for interference, Captain Jon Salt turned the first face-off win into an orange blur past Fred Fournier’s ear. The 1-0 lead would hold, as the game returned to the earlier established grind, but Cerasuolo would have the next laugh, and his team would have the last. The rare, timely, and poetically apt goal for the White defender at 2:04 made it 1-1, and less than a minute later, Josh Wirt had White in the lead. Wirt added empty net insurance to close out the comeback, wrap a 3-1 victory, and force an equal footing finale…

Wirt carried the hot hand into the second game, scoring just 1:09 into the first period. The one goal edge held through the remainder of the first, and all of the second, in spite of a number of power play opportunities for Light Blue (including more than a full minute of 5 on 3 play). As the dust finally settled on White’s penalty woes, it kicked up on the other side. Chris Malki watched from the box as Captain Ennsmann doubled the lead to 2-0. Joe Malki atoned for his father’s folly minutes later to cut the lead to 2-1, and set up a tense and terrific last act. Time wound low, and Wirt’s fourth of the night (his second empty-netter) wound Light Blue even lower, as White found a way to prevail once again by a final of 3-1.