Regular Season Standings after February 20th Games: Points for and Points Against in parenthesis.
1. Eagles 9 (34/23)
2. Knights 8 (40/28)
3. Colonials 8 (33/26)
4. Slap Happy 8 (28/26)
5. Mayhem 8 (43/49)
6. Slashers 2 (34/44)
7. Walkers 2 (34/47)
***Just a heads up for the playoffs. The top 3 teams at the end of the regular season will be guaranteed a best of 3 semi final series. The bottom 4 teams at the end of the regular season will have to play in a single elimination 4th place tournament to determine who the 4th and final playoff team will be. 4th place will play 7th place, 5th place will play 6th place. The winners of those games will play against one another on the same night to determine who the 4th and final playoff team will be. The top seed at the end of the regular season will get to choose which team they want to play when the best of 3 semi final series’s begin.***
February 20th Results
Knights 6 Eagles 5 (OT)
Mayhem 7 Slashers 6
Slap Happy 5 Colonials 4
Knights 6 Eagles 5 (OT)
We had our first overtime game of the season last night. Based on the way the game started, it did not look like overtime would be necessary. Thanks to a lot of goal scoring from Jerred Amick, the Eagles got off to a 3-0 lead after the first period and had a 4-0 lead at one point in the 2nd period. Amick had 4 goals to lead the Eagles offensively. Brandon Reiter was late arriving to the rink last night but his late arrival may have conserved his energy. He would end up scoring 5 of the 6 goals for the Knights including the game tying goal with 49 seconds to go in the 3rd period and the overtime goal. Overtime lasted less than a minute. Reiter scored the Knights first goal of the night on a rebound (not sure who shot it) to close the gap to 4-1. Andy Calvert scored the Knights 2nd goal to make it 4-2. The Eagles were up 5-2 before Reiter closed the gap to 5-3. The 3rd period started slow for both teams but Reiter scored on a shot that bounced off Eagles goalie Henry Sutters pad into the net to make it 5-4. The Eagles appeared to play a little bit on their heels as the Knights inched closer late in the 3rd period. Despite the overtime loss, the Eagles moved into first place by themselves in the standings. The Knights, Colonials, Slap Happy and Mayhem are all a point behind them. The Knights avoided losing their 3rd game in a row by coming back from the 4 goal deficit. The Knights will play the Colonials for a 3rd time next week while the Eagles look to bounce back against the Slap Happy.
Mayhem 7 Slashers 6
The Mayhem had a 3 goal third period lead against the Slashers last week only to see that lead disappear with less than a minute to go before Brenden Chesley scored with less than a second to go to give the Mayhem a one goal win. Last nights game was different but the end result was similar. Tyler Waltman got the scoring started last night when he got a shot by Slashers fill in goalie Tony Dodd to make it 1-0 but the Slashers would end up scoring 5 times before the first period was over. When the roster was put together a week before the season started, there was going to be some limited availability for about half the slashers players. It seemed like the limited availability really kicked in last night when Zach Smith, Matt Cole, Corey Bassett and Vinnie Deloia could not be there last night. Josh Clontz filled in the past 3 weeks for Zach Smith but he too was not able to make it last night. Tony Benanti got his first taste of action in over a year (he messaged me before the season started wanting to fill in when the right opportunity presented itself). Jeff Wehner was there last night but the mild winter weather has left his status for games uncertain as well as he works outside on nice days. With all that said, Adam McKinley likes to skate out from time to time and he got a chance to skate out for the Slashers last night. He contributed their first goal of the night. He later made a pass to Jeff Wehner to set up another goal for the Slashers. From there, it was the Anthony Schuckers show for the Slashers. He would score 3 first period goals for them and would score a fancy tying goal with around a minute to go in the 3rd period. Unfortunately, that tying goal would be their only goal in the last 30 minutes of play. Following the game, Jeff Wehner said he missed out on some good chances to score when he overshot the net on some different occasions. With the score 5-2 in the 2nd period, Jeremy Sawey scored on a nice pass from Brenden Chesley to close the gap to 5-3. Tyler Stitt would later score to get them to within a goal at 5-4 going into the 3rd period. With around 5 minutes to go in the 3rd period, Tyler Waltman would end up tying the game at 5. They would later go up 6-5 before Schuckers goal tied it up at 6. All this set us up for a similar result as last week. This time, there was 49 seconds left when a Tyler Walman pass down the court made its way to Brenden Chesley’s stick near the opposing net. Chesley was able to get the shot by Tony Dodd to give the Mayhem the lead which would end up holding up. It was Chesley’s 2nd goal of the game. He scored on a pass that he intercepted in the first period. The Mayhem will get their 3rd meeting of the season against the Walkers next week. They won the first two games by 2 goals with each of the wins going down to the wire. Tony Dodd will not be there for the Walkers next week. If any goalies see this write up, let us know if you want to goalie for the Walkers next week. The Slashers fell to 1-6 on the season but all their games have been decided by 3 goals or less. They will be off next week before Zach Smith returns the following week for a double header night. Peach was the only player missing from the Mayhem last night.
Slap Happy 5 Colonials 4
Slap Happy picked up its 3rd straight win with an impressive 5-4 win over the Colonials last night. As mentioned above, Adam McKinley got to skate out before putting his goalie gear on last night. It seemed to do him a lot of good as he made his share of good saves in the first two periods last night. Slap Happy found themselves up 4-0 going into the 3rd period before holding on for a 5-4 win. Derik Day scored 2 first period goals for the Slap Happy. Nate May would end up scoring their next 2 goals on impressive rebounds to make it 4-0 going into the 3rd period. Phil Mace and Kevin Smith each scored two goals in the 3rd period to lead a Colonial rally, but the rally was cut short when a Steve Pompeii shot found its way past Colonial goalie Tim Herman with about 4 minutes to go to put the Slap Happy up 5-3. It did not appear that Tim Herman saw the ball until it sneaked by him. Derik Day was in front of the net which could have prevented Herman from seeing the ball. Kevin Smith would get the Colonials to within a goal with enough time remaining to push for a tying goal, but Adam McKinley and the Slap Happy would end up hanging on in the end. Both teams now have 8 points in the standings. The Colonials will get the Knights for a 3rd time next week while the Slap Happy get another shot at the Eagles. The Eagles beat them 8-1 earlier in the season with 5 of those 8 goals coming in the 3rd period. We would like to thank Jason Stamler for stepping in to ref this game last night. With his team on a bye week, he was there to observe the good action last night. Little did he know that he would be reffing.
Steve Pompeii (Slap Happy)
1. 5 to 4 win tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort and performance tonight? I thought we played an overall good game. Adam was excellent in net and we played smart. Our team defense is was what we’ve been looking for all season and that created opportunities for some great scoring chances.
2. What does a win like this do for confidence going forward? It’s good. It shows that if we play as a team we can beat anyone. I think we played our best game this season. Hopefully we can carry that through the rest of the year.
3. You scored in what turned out to be the winner. Were you expecting that shot to have a chance to go in or were you just hoping someone would get a rebound? . Any shot is a good shot. I seen Derik in front of the net and just tried to get it towards him. He had a good screen on the goalie and found it’s way in
4. They got within a goal. Were you getting worried? . We just had to settle down a bit and regroup. We kind of slowed things down and that started to play into their hands. Once we started to put our foot back on the gas again we picked up we’re we left off.
5. What can you say about Adams performance in net tonight? Adam played great! I told him we need him to start playing out the game before ours for his other team like he did last night. It was good to see him back in his groove last night. Hes one of the best, if not the best in this league. Once he’s on his game he can carry us to a championship for sure. But last nights performance is a good sign for the rest of the way for us.
Jeremy Sawey (Mayhem)
1. 7 to 6 win tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? The team effort is what allowed us to make the comeback in the second and third periods. Rather than getting upset with each other after a rough first period, everyone remained calm and we all talked out strategies and discussed what we needed to do to crawl our way back into it.
2. You guys started slow and got down by 3 goals. What do you think the team did better as the game went on? . I think that a big part of our slow start is that nobody had any time to really warm up for the game, so we just kind of went in cold and without any strategy. Trent Bembenic stepped up and was vocal about what we needed to change. We really buckled down defensively. In the first period, we were letting a lot of guys make runs free towards the goal, but in the second and third, guys were keeping their heads on a swivel and working back to help out.
3. You scored an important goal in the comeback. Are you feeling more confident as you get more practice? It was a great pass from Brendon Chesley (if I’m spelling that right) and I’m glad I was able to capitalize on it. I’ve still got a work to put in going forward, but I definitely feel more confident as I spend more time out there and since I have a lot of support from my teammates.
4. What can you say about the play of Tyler Waltman tonight? Walt, much like the rest of us, certainly had his struggles in the first period. He had a good look early on that he put in the goalie’s chest, and I believe he hit the post shortly after that. He looked really good going forward, though. He puts in a ton of effort on defense and is a big reason why we were able to hold the other team so well. His offensive output was good. He has a great wrist shot, so I’d like to see him fire off more shots. I believe it was his long pass from the back to Chesley that resulted in the game-winning goal.
5. Do you like playing in these competitive games? . I’m a big fan of it. I grew up playing competitive sports my whole life, but unfortunately around this area there are not a lot of organized sports to be a part of after high school/college. Being a part of nail-biting games like the one tonight helps scratch that competitive itch and also brings the team closer together. I look forward to what the rest of the season has to offer. Thank you for the questions.
Tony Benanti (Slashers fill in)
1. Back on the floor tonight after a long absence. How did you feel following the game? Well Brian, not great haha. My lack of cardio alone is awful. Waiting a year plus to come back doesn’t help either. But I didn’t feel too awful after. During the game was rough. I took a sub as often as I could while letting them get their legs back.
2. How would you describe the overall effort and overall team performance? I thought it went well at first. Took plenty of shots and played back decent enough to hold them a few goals behind us, just fell short at the end with odd man rushes and some lazy play by myself with no legs. I take some of that on myself. They seemed to play well with each other though.
3. You did not want to play in a game that would be a landslide. How did you like playing in a game that came down to the final minute? It was a lot of fun. Getting the tie towards the end of the third with Anthony’s nasty goal was great. Hell of a goal to keep us in it. We didn’t give him much help letting them score shortly after. Some bad play there.
4. A 3 goal lead got away. What do you think went wrong at the end? Lack of backcheck killed us there. Gave them too many chances with odd man rushes which too often resulted in goals. We could’ve done better.
5. We all know you are a new York giants fan. What kind of future do you think they have following a good season? Haha, good question here. It was nice to see them make playoffs and get a win. A team that’s been rebuilding for 5+ years, were deserving of a win. Our future depends on good decisions with Barkley and jones. Hard to keep them both with the market, and not knowing whether we should or not. Daboll and company are good fellas to have on the staff so I trust them whatever they do. I’m hopeful for another .500 season at-least, as the rebuild will continue for a few more years I’m sure.
Bob Anderson (Colonials)
1. 5 to 4 loss tonight. How would you describe the overall team performance tonight? In the infamous words of Louis Domingue, “not the best.” We were pretty sloppy early and dug a 4-0 hole. It’s not easy to come back from a deficit like that against a team with skaters like the Slap Happy have with a goalie like Adam in net. We didn’t give up by any means, but it wasn’t our night. We are a much better team when we play patient.
2. Steve Pompeii scored in what turned out to be the game winner. How deflating was that after the team almost battled back from a 4 goal deficit? What can you do? Herman couldn’t see it because of a screen but Steve probably shot it in the only place that it could have gone in. Sometimes the bounces go against you and most of them did for us tonight. It’s hockey. They tend to even themselves out throughout the course of a season. We still had time to come back though and Kevin got us within one shortly after. We just couldn’t get that one to tie it up at the end.
3. Slap Happy had struggled a little even in their 3 wins prior to tonight. What kind of game were you expecting going in? I always expect a tight game against those guys. But I do give them a lot of credit for playing a gritty game against us. They battled from the start and didn’t get rattled as we started to get things going in the third. I was particularly impressed with Nathan May’s game. He really hustled and made it tough for us to get out of our zone at times. Great game all around to them!
4. The tough stretch of games will continue against the knights next week. What did you observe from them tonight in reffing their game against the Eagles? You can never count them out, no matter the score. Brandon was an absolute beast. He scored 5 of the 6 goals for the Knights. If you want to beat that team, you first have to slow him down. Of course they have a lot of weapons that can make you pay. But you can’t let Brandon take the game over like he did. That said, I think any of the top 4 teams can win on any given night. All the games tonight were 1 goal games. That’s good to see!
5. You reffed 2 one goal games and played in a one goal game. As a person who formed the league many years ago, how do you like seeing this kind of competitive hockey all these years later? It’s still a lot of fun for me two decades later. This season has been very competitive. The weighted schedule helps too. I think most of us enjoy playing in closer games. Like I said before, I can see any one of the top teams winning the championship. And the other teams could surprise you if you take them lightly. With that said, I also enjoy the draft leagues. It’s just fun to have a chance to play on a consistent basis pretty much all year round. It’s not something I take for granted.
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