Much of the world today has become a popularity contest, with ‘likes’, ‘retweets’, and ‘follows’ the cultural currency du jour. The SDFHL is sticking with good old fashioned wins and losses, and Orange managed to amass seven of the former, and suffer zero of the latter. Captain Shawna Hamon guides her undefeated ‘Freddit’ into the playoffs as the top seed, hoping to cap a near perfect season by defending her team’s position as the popular pick to win it all.
Captain Chad Goins left for his honeymoon knowing that his team would need at least a point in their final game in order to secure a playoff spot. Vance Morra secured two points, for good measure, scoring the unassisted game-winner midway through the third to give Royal the 1-0 win over Dark Green. Tiffany Fox wrapped a statistically sound, but ultimately futile season in nets with a 22/23 hard luck loss, while Jerry Russell concluded his impressive debut regular season stretch with his second shutout (11/11).
Much like Royal, Pink came into their final game knowing that they needed a good result, and likely some help to punch their playoff ticket. Fortunately for them, their opponents punch was sorely lacking in the absence of Captain Jon Salt. Alex Theis filled in more than admirably for Captain Sean Kelly in nets (21/21), while Ryan Irving, Dale Stuzka, and Andrew Jacobsen did the damage at the other end. The 3-0 win for Pink over Light Blue moved them from cut line concern to 5th seed, setting up an immediate playoff rematch between these two teams in the process.
Captain Copp’s Teal was the next batter up in the playoff hopeful lineup. As fate would have it, they were facing a Cy Young ace in Orange. With Royal and Pink already having added to their win and points totals, it was going to take a win and some help for Teal to survive. Jim LaGrossa had Teal on the board first in the first, but Alan Razoky erased that deficit later in the period. Ian Crooks tallied his first of the season at 3:39 in the third, but Nick Adkins brought Teal back to even with a short handed strike just over a minute later. Teal could not find the game-winner, as Andrew Lockard did his best impression of Fred Fournier (21/23) to preserve the 2-2 tie for his surrogate team. Teal joined Dark Green in the regular season recycle bin, leaving just one post season position yet to be determined…
With all but the final playoff spot settled, the outlook was clear for both Grey and Green. Grey needed a win. Green needed a tie. Jerry Gonzales gave Green a 1-0 lead late in the second, but Tom Darlington tipped Captain Jack Traughber’s point shot home to make it 1-1 early in the third. The rest of the period progressed without too much in the way of a clear scoring threat either way, and as the clock wound down, it looked like Green would complete their miracle rise from dead last to middle of the playoff pack. Alas, Julie Ott had different ideas, as she banged a nifty ball off the post and in with :37 to play to lift Grey to an incredible 2-1 win. In spite of their season struggles, Grey had found a way, at the literal last minute, to photo bomb the playoff picture…amazing stuff!
The final game of the season was a mere matter of playoff positioning and momentum for both teams. White was looking for a bounce back after a 3-0 loss to Pink, while Gold looked to build off of their playoff-clinching squeaker over Dark Green. Mark Boulanger (1 and 1) and Mark Nagy (1 and 1) made up for the absence of Kris Tosczak, powering Gold to a 4-1 statement win over White. Gold move into the three seed, while White drop down to the seven spot as the playoffs kick off this Sunday…