League News
The final week of the Winter 2020 Co-Ed season has arrived, and it culminates with a docket of intriguing games that will ultimately decide which teams are anointed Champions. The 9-week, abbreviated schedule gave us an intense race for the four top spots and a chance to hoist the North trophy. Ultimately Red, Black, White and Gold finished atop the standings and battled it out last week. In the South, Purple, Green, Grey and Blue competed in the semifinals.
The first game of the night saw the #1 seed Red take on the #4 seed Gold. Both teams came in with strong lineups and both turned in stellar defensive performances with only 3 goals being tallied. Red was able to get on the board first when Captain Phil Saltmarsh buried a shot past keeper Matt Cormier to put Red up 1-0. To the dismay of Red, that would be all Cormier would let up through the contest. Gold tied it up in the third when Craig Regis found the back of the net and things stayed knotted at 1 apiece until a few minutes later when Gold's Sam Raynor tucked one past Red Goaltender, Chris Childress to make it 2-1. After a late flurry of activity by Red, Gold was able to hold on for the 2-1 upset. Both teams battled in a hard-fought, clean game and both Tenders stood on their heads.
The second game of the night pitted # 5 Purple against # 8 Green. The Vegas odds had the goals over/under at 5.5 for this matchup but both teams nearly exceeded that on their own in what turned out to be an offensive shootout that ended in Overtime. Purple was without veteran netminder Todd Holway but had the able-bodied Ryan Gionet filing in for him. Green was led by Vinny Kasabian between the pipes. Purple opened up an early 2-0 lead when Brian West and Todd Shaffer put two in the net less than a minute apart. Green would answer back when Joe Kewley got on the board to close the gap. When Purple's Justin Need scored, they were able to open the two-goal lead back up, but it wouldn’t be long before Green would answer. Dennis Pelletier would score the first of his two goals on the night to close out the second period down 3-2 and setting up a wild finish. Purple's Brian West potted his second of the game and again, a two-goal lead for purple. Pelletier and Adam Kelly led the furious comeback for Green and forced OT but in the end, it was sniper Justin Need that ultimately banged one in, his second of the game, and sent Purple to the South 'ship.
Wrapping up the Sunday night action was # 2 seed Black and # 3 seed White in a what would be another defensive dogfight. Tendies Ed Gontarz for Black and Andrew Goldman for White waged a battle between the pipes that would make any NHL scout take notice. The first half of the game was a scoreless affair with both keepers turning away some great scoring chances. It wasn't until Black defensemen, Tim Colletto rushed the puck into the offensive zone and snuck one by Goldman on the short side to make it 1-0. That would ultimately be all the offensive Black would need because Gontarz and the Black D-men stood tall and helped keep White from notching a goal for the first time this season. Late in the third Tobin Farwell was able to seal the win with Al Iafrates' least favorite type of goal... The empty-netter. The 2-0 loss was the first regulation loss for the White squad and the win sent the Black team back to the Championship with a chance to repeat.
The final game of the week featured the #7 Grey Squirrels and the #6 Blue Roosters in a Monday night affair. The Squirrels Mike Moore turned away all the shots he faced for his first shutout of the year. Blue's backstop Holly Zeldenrust gave a worthy performance as only two managed to get by. In the first, Nick Foxlow was able to find paydirt and give the Grey squad all the offense they would need and the 1-0 lead. Later in the second, Mark Bezanson provided the insurance goal to lock down the 2 -0 win. Word from the refs was that Tom Chase was nearly had a hat trick if the goalie didn't stop all three shots!
The North Finals will see Black and Gold square off and they are certainly not strangers to each other or to the title game. Since The fall session of 2016 Black has played in 3 Championship games winning once (Fall '19) and losing twice; once in the Summer '17, and once to Gold in the Winter of '18. In that same time frame Gold has competed in 4 title matches winning 3 of them (Fall '16, Fall '17 and Winter '18) and losing 1 to purple (Fall of '18). Both teams employ speed, defense and goaltending and both have tremendous offensive firepower so this will be a test of wills. The season series stands at 1-1 between these teams and Vegas sees this this game as a pick ‘em which means this could go either way. It will all be decided Sunday night at 7pm.
The final games of the season schedule is as follows:
Black vs Gold in North Championship - Sunday, 3/15 @ 7pm
White vs Red in North Consolation - Sunday, 3/15 @ 9:30pm
Purple vs Grey in South Championship - Sunday 3/15 @ 8:15pm
Green vs Blue in South Consolation - Monday, 3/16 @ 9:30pm
Good Luck to all the teams!