Down to 2
Last Nights Results (12-12):
Team Matchock 5 Team Lingenfelter 4 (Team Lingenfelter eliminated)
Team Dodd 6 Team McKinley 2
Team McKinley 8 Team Matchock 4 (Team Matchock eliminated)
One of the downfalls of double elimination tournaments is that it eliminates the best of 3 series’s, but we will have our 4th rematch of the playoffs next week when Team McKinley battles Team Dodd at 6:30. Team Dodd and Team Sutter met each other twice with Team Dodd winning both games, team Matchock played Team Lingenfelter twice with Team Matchock winning both games and Team McKinley played Team Matchock twice with Team McKinley winning both games. Team Dodd hopes that trend continues when they play Team McKinley next week. Team McKinley will need to win at 6:30 and again at 8 for a fall league championship.
While the double elimination tournament took away bye weeks for the top 2 seeds and guaranteed every team at least 2 more games, its safe to say that Team Lingenfelter did not benefit from it. For the 2nd time in 3 weeks, they fell to the bottom team in the standings (Team Matchock). Team Matchock got off to a good start when they scored the first 2 goals last night. Brice Miller continues to play very well and was a big part of that first win last night. Jerred Amick scored a big 3rd period goal and set up another goal ( to Laken Dodd) late in the 2nd period to give his team a 4-3 lead going into the 3rd period. Rooster and Jake led the way offensively for Team Lingenfelter, but they were unable to get that tying goal in the 3rd period when they fell behind 5-3 in the 3rd period. They scored their 4th goal with around 5 minutes to go in the 3rd period but could not score the tying goal. Clint made some big saves to keep his team in the game, but John Matchock was sharp on the other end and was able to help his team earn a hard fought 5-4 victory. Team Lingenfelter finished with 15 points in the regular season but only managed one playoff win against Team Van Scyoc last week. Three of their players (Clint, Jake, Rooster) will look to avenge their playoff disappointment when they try to lead the Knights to a championship this coming XHL Season. Jeff Wehner was not present last night. Tyler Waltman filled in. On the other side, Corey Bassett and Matt Cole were missing. Adam McKinley skated out for 2 periods and did a good job defensively. Noah Kline played well filling in for Matt Cole.
The 2nd game of the night may have been the most important game of the night when the remaining two unbeaten playoff teams squared up against one another. The winner was guaranteed to play next week only needing one more win for a championship. The loser would have to take the scenic route to a championship. Team Dodd was missing their goalie again (Tony Dodd) but John Matchock filled in. It may have appeared that he would be at a disadvantage having already goalied the game before that, but John Matchock held the opposition to 2 goals in the 6-2 win. Cory Schuckers scored the first goal roughly 10 minutes into the game to give Team Dodd 1-0 lead. Zach Foradori answered a couple minutes later to tie the game up at 1. In an interview below, Joe Roush mentions about his team getting burnt on 2 on 1’s. Bob Anderson did not score any goals last night, but set Brian Anderson up for 3 goals on two on one breaks. The first one came late in the first period to give team Dodd a 2-1 lead. Alex Waddell had the ball behind his own net with 10 seconds to go in the first period. Instead of running out the clock, he made a long pass to Eric Llewellyn. Llewellyn was able to get a good shot off but the ball did not cross the line until time ran out. In the 2nd period, Cory Schuckers scored again to make it 3-1 and Bob Anderson made another pass to Brian Anderson midway thru the 2nd period to make it 4-1. Eric Llewellyn scored late in the 2nd period to draw Team McKinley to within 2 but Team Dodd answered with a goal early in the 3rd period when Bob Anderson set Brian Anderson up for a 3rd time to make it 5-2. Trent Bembenic would later add an insurance goal to give Team Dodd a 6-2 victory. Both goalies looked good throughout the game.
Team McKinley earned a rematch with Team Dodd when they beat Team Matchock 8-4 in the 3rd game last night. While losing to Team Dodd, they may have gotten a little bit of a break when the top overall seed in the playoffs lost the first game last night. John Matchock was playing his 3rd game in a row and it quickly showed when Eric Llewellyn made a nice backhander just seconds into the game to make it 1-0. Team McKinley never surrendered the lead. Joe Roush scored one of his 2 goals when the first period ran out to give his team a 4-1 lead going into the 2nd period. They led by 5 goals going into the 3rd period but Jerred Amick and Brice Miller scored to draw them to within 3 at 7-4. They actually had a couple chances to get closer but Adam McKinley made some good saves in that stretch. Eric Llewellyn would later score again to make it 8-4. Zach Foradori and Nate Galentine chipped in with goals to keep Team McKinley comfortably ahead. Team McKinley won last week’s game against Team Mathock 8-3. While Team Matchock fell 8-4 last night, we would like to congratulate them for making an impressive run in the playoffs. They only had 3 points in the regular season but was able to beat the top seed twice in a 3 week span. If not for a shortage of goalies in this league, they would have been set up for a better chance in the final game last night. Even with that, they still had a chance to get back in the game in the 3rd period. Brice Miller and Laken Dodd are two of the league’s youngest players and will try to lead the Walkers to some more wins this upcoming XHL Season. They both put on good showings in this fall league. Morgan Lyons appears to be playing much better and is getting in the right positions defensively. She will be playing on the Walkers as well. Jerred Amick will try to lead the Eagles to a championship when him and some of the opposing players from last nights 3rd game (Llewellyn/Waddell/Galentine/Foradori) team up next month.
Adam McKinley already has a lot of championships on his hockey resume. Can he win another by taking the scenic route next week?
John Matchock (played 3 times last night)
1. 3 games last night. How are you feeling today? Little sore in the legs but not as bad as I thought.
2. The first game was 5-4. What can you say about the overall team effort in that game? We played really well defensively. We limited their chances and had some offense pressure. Everyone played great.
3. Do you like playing those kind of games (the one that ended up 5-4) when you are the goalie trying to prevent the tying goal? I like close games. Makes you focus more.
4. You filled in for an injured Tony Dodd and only gave up 2 goals. What was your overall observation of that game? Again, defense in front as great. A lot of blocked shots by Cory.
5. The 3rd and final game didn’t go your way. Did you have anything left to give when that game started? I played like crap. Not very happy with myself. I was getting tired but its not an excuse. The team was busting their butts in front of me and I let in some VERY questionable goals.
Morgan Lyons (Team Matchock)
1. 2 games tonight. How are you feeling? I was tired but felt good over all after the games were done
2. What can you say about the overall team effort in each game? . I think the team effort was good. Brice and Laken play really well together and Jerred was good on offense and defense. I also think Noah played well with us.
3. How do you think you were pull off the win in the first game? . I think we played good defense when it was in our end and were able to get it out and put it in their end.
4. The 2nd game didn’t go your way. What do you think went wrong in it? I think the red team just played slower and smarter. They kept possession of the ball more and were able to keep the ball in our end for a lot of the game.
5. You have gotten noticeably better in each league. Are you happy with how you are coming along? I’m happy with how I’m coming along. I use to only stay back on defense but now I’m going up and scoring but I’m still looking to improve and get even better.
Clint Lingenfelter
1. Disappointing ending to your season tonight. What do you think went wrong against that team in the playoffs? Turnovers killed us in both games.
2. Jeff only made about half the games. How tough was it trying to fill his void each week? Very. Jeff is such a solid 2way player it's truly hard to find someone that can fill his shoes!
3. Tonight’s game could have gone either way. What do you think was the difference between winning and losing? Turnovers
4. How do you think Match played on the other end tonight considering he hasn’t played as much in this league? I thought Match played great! We were getting alot of shots in the 1st and he held it down for them to get the first goal
5. What positives can you take out of this season going into xhl season? It was a good season. We just beat ourselves in the end! Can't wait for XHL to start! Go Knights!
Joe Roush (Team McKinley)
1. Two games plus reffing. How are you feeling after all that hockey? Feeling good. I had fun, wish that first game coulda went more in our favor
2. 6 to 2 loss in the first game. What can you say about the overall team effort? . First period seemed to go well. That was about it. We struggled with possession throughout and ended up with way too many 2 on 1s going against us.
3. You were able to bounce back and win the second game. Do you think it was an advantage getting to play them right after your first game instead of hanging to sit around for an hour before playing again? I actually had feared coming out and playing sloppy in that second game as a team simply because of being discouraged from the first game. But we managed to come out of the gates strong and gave ourselves a comfortable lead early on. Match playing his 3rd game in net for the night probably helped us a bit as well.
4. You had a couple goals in that second game. Were you happy with how yourself and the rest of the team played? Yeah I think we played much better that second game with keeping possession in the opposing teams end. Passes were finding sticks and we were able to get off shots when the opportunity was there
5. You will need to win twice next week to win a championship. Are you looking forward to the opportunity? Of course. Hopefully Adam can stand on his head for us and we play much better than we did tonight. Definitely need to make some adjustments defensively and knowing whose back because those 2 on 1 opportunities totally deflated us tonight.
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