Frothing Hyenas vs Hungry Hippos
2nd Period:
HIP (1-0) – Elliot (1) (assisted by Lily) (9:52)
FROT (1-1) – Riegler (1) (unassisted) (12:55)
HIP (2-1) – Hicks (1) (assisted by Jason) (13:33)
3rd Period:
HIP (3-1) – Cheeky (1) (assisted by Dave Liang) (4:27)
HIP (4-1) – Elliot (2) (PP) (assisted by Tracy) (5:46)
HIP (5-1) – Jason (2) (unassisted) (12:01)
NOTES: After arriving at the rink and seeing it covered with leaves, games were pushed back by 30 minutes as an elite cleaning crew armed with hockey sticks and a broom procured from the Shell station across the street cleaned the foliage off the rink…the Hyenas only had one rostered lady available for this game and thus game was delayed an additional five minutes due to a protracted negotiation. The game finally began with red having one rostered girl and Meg playing right handed. Due to her field hockey background, she was still pretty good…the first period finished tied 0-0 as neither team could get much going. In the 2nd Elliot opened the scoring with 5:08 left, then Riegler answered with a goal off the faceoff 3 minutes later, then Hicks answered that one just 38 seconds later with a goal and a yell. After the yell, the rout was on…in the 3rd the Hippos opened it up with two goals in a span of 1:19 early on. Jason buried the dagger through a screen with 2:59 remaining and that was all she wrote…tough season for the league’s red franchise as they experience quite a fall from grace, going from a championship victory last season to a last place finish and a historically bad goal differential. Whether bad attendance led to losses or bad losses led to low attendance is a chicken-egg conundrum that will puzzle D5 historians for years to come…yellow picked up their fifth win in six games and would go on to face the 4th seeded Hooligans later in the evening.
THREE STARS OF THE GAME:
3rd – Hicks (GWG)
2nd – Elliot (2G)
1st – Jason (1G, 1A)
Orange Royals vs My Cup Size Is Stanley
1st Period:
CUP (1-0) – Cro (1) (assisted by ScottyK) (12:45)
CUP (2-0) – Mike Wright (1) (assisted by Jeff) (14:32)
2nd Period:
CUP (3-0) – Nicole H (1) (assisted by Cro) (6:59)
3rd Period:
CUP (4-0) – Nicole H (2) (assisted by Jeff) (7:10)
ROY (1-4) – Totis (1) (assisted by Russo) (13:52)
NOTES: With most of the league backing orange in the playoff challenge poll despite them being the lower seed and missing Cherie & Malik, they came out strong and could have had 2 or 3 goals in the first 10 minutes. Unfortunately a combination of bad puck luck and elite Max play left them with nothing to show for their early domination and they paid dearly for it…Cro picked up the opening goal and actually looked pretty solid for someone who’s just been drinking by a lake for over a year…defensive breakdowns by the Royals left Cup Size players alone with time in front of the net multiple times and they capitalized to take a 4-0 lead midway through the 3rd…Otis broke the shutout with just over a minute left but Cup Size advanced to the next round where they would face the Goaldiggers…orange was the toughest team to handicap all season with regulation wins over the Barrel and Hooligans and a season sweep of the Hippos but also a -13 goal differential and the victim of red’s only victory of the season. I picked them to go to the final four so I was surprised to see them lose here but overall still a quality first season for former draft MC turned captain Russo.
THREE STARS OF THE GAME:
3rd – Cro (1G, 1A)
2nd – Max (W, 1 GA)
1st – Nicole H (2G)
Hungry Hippos vs Green Street Hooligans
1st Period:
GSH (1-0) – Pags (1) (assisted by Austin Lyons) (7:08)
HIP (1-1) – Hicks (2) (unassisted) (8:58)
GSH (2-1) – Probie (1) (assisted by AK) (10:33)
HIP (2-2) – DRo (1) (assisted by Jason) (13:14)
2nd Period:
GSH (3-2) – Jess (1) (assisted by Pags) (8:48)
HIP (3-3) – Jason (2) (assisted by Hicks) (9:45)
3rd Period:
GSH (4-3) – AK (1) (assisted by Probie) (9:49)
GSH (5-3) – Jess (2) (assisted by AK) (13:30)
NOTES: The most exciting game of the night was this back-and-forth affair between two talented teams playing wide-open hockey all night…Pags showed the Hooligans what they’ve been missing as he’s been traveling for what feels like weeks with the opening goal and a sweet assist on the third…every time the Hooligans scored, the Hippos would answer. Game was 2-2 after one when the aforementioned third goal was potted, a Jess one-timer in front that took Scotty from six to midnight.
The Hippos tied it on the very next shift and it stayed tied until just 5:11 remained when AK buried a rebound off a Probert shot to put green ahead. Then with 1:30 left poor coverage by the Hippos led to Jess being alone in front with all day to pick her shot and she chose bar-down to give green a two goal lead and make Probert happier than anyone at the rink except for Scotty.
Green was able to hold on and preserve the 5-3 victory to move onto the next round where they will face the 1st place Ducks. The Hippos ended the season on a tear but came up just short against a full-strength Hooligans squad…Jason ended up with the most points on the evening with four but ironically lost money since he bet on Guido. I think McQuade’s successor has officially arrived.
THREE STARS OF THE GAME:
3rd – AK (GWG, 2A)
2nd – Pags (1G, 1A)
1st – Jess (2G)
My Cup Size Is Stanley vs The Goaldiggers
1st Period:
DIG (1-0) – Guido (1) (assisted by Yehuda) (0:28)
DIG (2-0) – Guido (2) (assisted by Greg) (8:40)
2nd Period:
CUP (1-2) – Ryann (1) (assisted by Jeff) (1:07)
CUP (2-2) – ScottyK (1) (assisted by Cro) (4:59)
3rd Period:
DIG (3-2) – Guido (3) (unassisted) (13:29)
NOTES: With Tarnow missing this game the plan for black was surely to cover Guido at all costs. I’m assuming letting him score on the first shift of the game was not part of that plan…just eight minutes later Guido struck again to give the Goaldiggers a 2-0 lead. Shortly after, a major turning point in the game as Guido once again got the ball in front and took a shot that Max and ref Sully were certain hit crossbar but which Guido and some others felt hit back bar. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your vantage point), there was no video of the 1st so video review was not possible. Max made a couple Hasek-esque flopping saves and black was lucky to go into the break only down 2-0…opening the 2nd with a renewed sense of purpose, Cup Size scored two goals in the first five minutes and completely changed the course of the game. For some reason Cro celebrated the 2nd goal by sliding his stick towards his own bench which just confused everybody…black controlled play for long stretches and could have opened up their first lead of the game if not for the heroics of Casca who kept white in the game until they could regroup…with just over a minute and a half left in the game Guido got the ball in his own zone and for some reason got all the time in the world to walk in and tee up a shot. He made no mistake and buried his 3rd of the game for the hat trick and the late 3-2 lead which Casca and the Goaldiggers defense would make hold up…Cup Size finishes the season with two strong playoff performances but not quite enough to move onto the next round. The Goaldiggers will face the Barrel in the 2-3 matchup for the right to play in the championship game.
THREE STARS OF THE GAME:
3rd – ScottyK (1G)
2nd – Casca (W, 2 GA)
1st – Guido (3G)