League News

After ten weeks of intense competition, the Fall 2024 session has come to a close. This session's playoff finals took place this past Monday night, and saw an exciting slate of games including two battles for top honors and two between the runner-ups from the semi-finals.

Did star players shine?

Did unlikely heroes rise to the occasion?

Were there more upsets?

Read on to find out!

Northern Division championship - Grey Squirrels vs. NHMS

Regardless of who came out on top in this championship matchup, history was going to be made. Either the team who knocked out the top seed would emerge victorious, or the team who has never captured the league's top honors would raise their first cup. The gravity of the moment wasn’t lost on either squad as both were riding high on the upsets they handed out last week.

White's squad came onto the ice fired up after a rousing pep-talk from their currently injured captain, Jeff Cole. He addressed the room in a spirited fashion - no doubt borrowing inspiration from Miracle - and got them pumped for their shot at history. It’s been a long road for this squad, who has regularly bounced between the top 4 and bottom 4 since joining the league when it was expanded to eight teams (in 2016).

The championship is something Grey are no strangers to, having captured the title several times over the last decade. They even did the unthinkable and won the cup with a clean sweep (undefeated) in the summer of 2020. They've been here before and having been knocked out last week, surely, they were fired up for the battle to come, too.

Just past the halfway point of the first period, Ryan Baer would open the scoring to give White a 1-0 lead. This clearly gave them the momentum they needed, because in the second, Baer would score another a few minutes into the stanza to extend their lead to 2-0.

It wasn't until the third period that Grey showed some life when Dalton Briggs scored Grey's first of the night, cutting the deficit to one. Unfortunately, it seemed the ice had tilted firmly in White's favor as Grey couldn’t find another goal. With 18 seconds left to go in the game, John Comrie would score an empty netter for White's third and final goal of the night.

White would emerge the winners of the Northern Division championship for the first time in their history with a final score of 3-1!

Southern Division championship - Black Knights Who Say Ni vs. Blue Roosters

Near the end of the previous session, Black had found an unusual stride where the best their opponents could hope for was a tie. Their net-minder Ed Gontarz, with the help of his D, found his form and backstopped his squad to multiple stalemates. It felt like a case of always the brides' maid, never the bride, however, as wins would elude them; but at least they weren't losing.

This carried over into the Fall 2024 session where Black's campaign started with three consecutive ties. The streak would end when they'd lose a lopsided game to Green in week four. They would go on to record a few losses, some shootout losses, and two wins.

Their opponent in this "Best of the Worst" matchup was Blue. The Roosters spent most of the session in the bottom four, along with Black. They struggled to find their offensive touch and their goaltending was hit-or-miss. They tallied a few wins against other bottom-4 teams, but generally gave up 2+ goals in most of their losses. They faced Black twice during the session and came out a 1-1 tie and a 3-0 loss.

This game would be scoreless during the first two periods with both teams trading chances, but neither being able to solve each othey's goaltenders. Black’s Gontarz was on his game, as was Blue's Chris Duplouy who was filling in for their regular tendy, Troy Slowik. The stalemate would come to an end in the third period when Blue's Chris Rohan would score their first of the game taking a 1-0 lead. Blue would later add another goal via Joe Bartlett to take a 2-0 lead, which they would hold onto until the final buzzer.

Blue would get the 2-0 shutout and the Southern Division championship!

North Consolation game - PowerPro Electric vs. Dover Purple Pain

This game was the very definition of a grudge match. Green and Purple both stood atop the standings for the whole session, neither giving opponents an inch and constantly jousting for the top spot. Green started off the session undefeated through six before they stumbled slightly and found Purple leapfrogging them in the standings. Regardless of who was number one or number two, it seemed all but certain that one of these squads would be playing for the championship in the finals.

Fate had other plans, however, as both teams fell to their semi-finals opponents, and found themselves facing off in a consolation matchup this week. Both teams had something to prove, and this drive led to a high-scoring affair in a battle of regular season monsters.

Purple would come bursting out of the gates with the first goal of the game roughly three minutes into the first period. This would later be followed by two more goals within minutes of each other to give them a commanding 3-0 lead. Late in the period, Green would finally solve Purple's Todd Holway and decrease the deficit to 2.

The second period would be more of the same as Purple's offense continued to flow. They'd score two more goals to increase their lead to a commanding 5-1. Green was able to find the back of the net to cut Purple's lead to 3, but this would seemingly only anger the Purple Pain who answered right back with even more goals; one within ten seconds of Green's second.

Going into the third, Purple held a commanding four goal lead. Green would manage to score another goal about with about 7 minutes left and another with under two to play, but it simply wouldn’t be enough.

Purple would come out on top, 7-5.

South Consolation game - Dover Gold vs. Red Wolverines

The last game of the night and the session was a rematch between Gold and Red. Earlier in the session, the two teams skated to a 1-1 tie in a very tight, closely contested game. To no-one's surprise, this game was another war with neither team giving the other an inch. The entire game saw sustained pressure at both ends of the ice; both goaltenders stopping high-danger chances at key times.

Red would open the scoring with captain Phil Saltmarsh getting a fortuitous bounce off one of Gold's skaters for an own-goal, giving them a 1-0 lead. It wouldn't be long before Gold would bounce back though and score the equalizer via a snipe from Jeff Duquette on a 2-on-1. Gold would score another courtesy of Jameson Savage to take a 2-1 lead into the second.

It wouldn't be long into the second period before Red would come up with an answer of their own via Frank Gillespie, scoring their second and re-tying the game at 2 a side. Both teams would trade goals again later in the period to knot them in a 3-3 tie.

It wouldn't be until the third period that it looked like Gold was going to emerge victorious after an early tally, but clearly, Red had other plans. Late in the third, they would tie the game on a second-chance opportunity following a big stop by Gold's goaltender. Gold would have a few grade-A chances in the waning minutes to regain the lead, but would ultimately come up short. Red’s tying goal forced extra time and a shootout to determine a winner.

The shootout would go three rounds (per usual) with both goaltenders stopping two out of three attempts. Red’s sole shootout tally would come from Cory Adams, and Gold’s would be courtesy of Brett Ricci. While this meant the game ended in a 4-4 tie and also a tie for 7th place on the session, both teams had smiles on their faces during handshakes after a fun, close game.

Closing Thoughts

If there's anything predictable about the COED league, it's that it's anything but predictable. The Summer 2024 session's top dogs and Northern Division champs found themselves in the Southern Division and eventually a consolation game. The usual odds-on favorite team found themselves atop the league by the end of the session, only to fall in the playoff semi-finals. A team nobody saw coming set a new record for points percentage on a session and wound up in a consolation game versus their fiercest rival. And a team who never won the championship were crowned kings for the first time.

I mean really, who saw any of that coming?

Thanks to everyone who takes time out of their Monday nights to come play a bit of shinny. Win or lose, it’s always fun to get out there and play the sport we love. In a little over two weeks the next session will be starting, and I for one can’t wait to start the chase for the cup all over again!

Will history be made again? We shall see!