Public opinion was evenly split on this one and with good reason. Purple was the public darling of the preseason, partially because they had the top two picks of the draft and ended up with both Caleb and Jo Robin. But green was my personal sleeper pick and finished the season strong, coming into the playoffs on a roll. This was the closest of all the votes but timely scoring by Nurple, Ariel coming late because he thought the game was at 6:50 rather than 6:40 and some bad puck luck doomed Slime Time to a 1st round exit.
At 82.9% to 17.1%, this was the most lopsided of all the games. And black certainly didn’t disappoint with a fairly dominant 5-1 win despite playing most of the 1st period without Hilary. Pink had a solid squad with speed, depth and Emma but unfortunately the first two weren’t enough and Emma only made 3 games this season. Hopefully Yehuda will do better with scheduling next time around.
I thought both Purple and Slime Time would be live dogs in this one with a fighting chance to upset a Satok-less Ducks team, but the Ducks’ resilience this season is really incredible. It was another game that was tighter than it looks but in the end a 3-0 win sends them into a showdown with the MilkMob.
I’ve been on the Pie Pie bandwagon since day 1, probably because I’m biased having drafted this beautiful team, but even I was surprised to see the 70% to 20% margin over Cup Size, a team which presented a difficult stylistic matchup for them and won their lone regular season showdown 5-1. But that game was played on that record breaking heat night and on that night, it was orange’s second of the night and black’s first. With the tables turned in this one, black still led 2-0 with 10 seconds left in the 2nd period before Pie Pie completely turned the tables with a goal with one second left, then a goal in the first minute of the 3rd. They would add three more late in the 3rd for a 5-3 win, sending the public home happy yet again.
Not sure if you’ve sensed a pattern here but the public has been very boring thus far, favoring the higher seeded team in every single matchup. And this is where their luck would end as despite being a 5th seed, the Ducks do actually come into this matchup tied for the most wins in the entire league with 8…it just so happened that 4 of them took place in OT or the shootout. And true to Ducks form, this game had an insane third period that led to OT as in true milkMob form, they mounted an insane comeback down 3 in the 3rd and down 2 with just minutes left. After 10+ minutes of OT, with both teams trading chances including a Hicks backhander that was just inches away from sending Milk to the final four, Zuck sent a seeing eye shot from center top corner and gave his team their 10th win of the season and a trip to the final four. Don’t look now, but a 5th seed did win the cup last season.
In keeping with tradition, voters took the favorite in this one although the 57.5% margin was hardly overwhelming. Perhaps the absence of Campbell scared off some voters; perhaps it was that orange was just as hot as red entering this game. In any case, the public won the first four but they took it on the chin in the final two as Pie Pie controlled the game from start to finish and punched their ticket to the final four, the franchise’s second in two seasons.
Current Standings
Winning Scenarios
The Pie Pie Strikes Back beats Fertilizin’ Eggs – Gelman wins
The Pie Pie Strikes Back beats The Mighty Ducks – Seb wins
The Mighty Ducks Championship – Adam Herman wins
Sex Education Championship – Ryan or Mikey win. If Chad passes Gelman in playoff points, Mikey passes Ryan. If Gelman maintains his lead (he had like 5 the other night), Ryan maintains his.
Fertilizin’ Eggs Championship – Pete or Bramson win. Both have Ryan for playoff leading scorer so tiebreak #2 is championship game goals. 6 or less and Bramson wins; 7 or more and Pete wins. I should note that the championship over/under is usually set at 5.0 Goals, giving Bramson the slight edge. That said, the last 5 have all gone over.