November 24th Results, Updated Standings

Standings after November 24th Games

1.      Black 13 (76/29)

2.      Vegas Gold 10 (51/43)

3.      Blue 8 (48/50)

4.      White 8 (66/61)

5.      Green 3 (56/81)

6.      Orange 2 (38/71)

Blue 7  Orange 6

There aren't many things you can accomplish in 7 seconds.  You might be able to put on a pair of socks or butter a slice of bride.  In the case of hockey though, 7 seconds can be the difference between a win and a loss.  

That was exactly the scenario that played out Monday in the 6:20 game between Blue and Orange.  With the score knotted at 6, a rebound caromed off the pads of Clint Lingenfelter and ended up on teammate Zach Smith's stick in the defensive zone.  With 7 seconds left, Smith found himself with the ball on his stick and a lot of open floor between him and the opposing goal.  He flew down the court, made a move to the middle, and unloaded his patented wrister.  It found the back of the net 0.4 seconds before the final horn sounded to give his team another win in the Fall League standings.

For Team Orange, the loss compounded a season full of frustrations.  They put together perhaps their most spirited effort of the season, battling back from a 3-0 deficit and two, 2 goal deficits during the course of the game.  Tony Conforto had maybe his best game as a goalie, making several big stops, especially in the third period, to keep the score close.  Zac Gray looked like a whirling dervish, dancing around defenders and threading passes to his teammates.  His 2 goals in the third period tied the game late.  But 44:53 of burned calories, sweat, and effort was erased by a 7-second charge of the Smith brigade.  

In addition to Smith's heroics, Cody Haag added three goals for Blue.  Robb Reed also tallied a birthday goal.  Blue finds itself in a tie with White in the standings with 8 points.  Orange is at the bottom with 2 points.  An overtime point would have moved them in front of Green at the bottom of the standings with an opportunity to avoid a first round match-up against Noah's juggernaut.  Add it to the list of frustrations that was highlighted by the final 7 seconds in their Monday night match-up against Blue.

Vegas Gold 11  Green 6

Overtime wasn’t necessary this time around.  Vegas Gold jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the end of the first period the last time these 2 teams met, only for Green to rally late to send it to overtime.  In last nights game, Green cut a 9-4 deficit to 9-6 in the span of a minute.  Matt Jewell scored on a nice pass from Tyler Waltman and Dave Jewell scored soon after on a pass from Brian Anderson, but that’s as close as they got in this one.  Tyler Waltman scored the first goal of the game to put green up 1-0, which is one of the few times green has been ahead of anyone this season.  The lead was short lived.  Bob scored the first goal for Vegas Gold and it was followed by some good Cory/Coltyn connection.   Later in the game, Fred set Coltyn up for a nice goal to extend the lead for Vegas Gold.  Coltyn played a big part in last nights win for Gold.  Perhaps the turning point in the game came late in the first period with Gold ahead 3-1.   Green almost had a nice tic tac toe play when Dave Jewell passed to Brian along the side of the net, Brian then found Jay Edmiston open on the other side of the net but Jay’s shot was a little high, bouncing off the wall leading to a fast break for Yellow and another goal to put them up 4-1 at the end of the first period.  Early in the 2^nd period, Jay Edminston redeemed himself to close green’s gap to 4-2, but that’s as close as they got the rest of the way.  Bob, Cory and Coltyn led the way offensively for Vegas Gold.   Kaden played a solid game in net for Gold as Green had its share of chances throughout the game.  Cody Schaeffer made his share of good saves for green but Vegas Gold had a lot of good patience and good passing throughout the game.  The win puts them in 2^nd place in the regular season standings.  There is a chance Blue could overtake them for 2^nd if they win next week against white and if Orange beats Gold.   Unless something unexpected happens next week, it looks like these 2 teams will meet again in the first week of the double elimination playoff (2 vs 5).  Peach was not present for Vegas Gold last night.  Vinnie Deloia was not present for Green.

Black 10  White 5

Its safe to say that Black will be the team to beat when the double elimination playoffs begin in 2 weeks.  For anyone who has played in previous fall draft leagues, it was not long ago when the #6 seed beat the #1 seed twice in a 3 week span during the double elimination playoffs.   It doesn’t look like the #6 seed, or any seed for that matter, will have any chance of doing that this season.  White was playing without Jake, Ben Rossi or Andy, but they had 3 very formidable replacements in Zach Smith, Denny Stinchcomb and Jerred Amick.  Combine that along with Bubba playing another very solid game in net for White and it looked like white would have a very good chance to win this game.   Not only did black win again, they never trailed and while this was not a blowout, it felt like they were in control throughout the game.    Adam continues to be dialed in.  The crazy thing is that he is still trying to get enough people to play on his xhl team (maybe something has changed since last talking to him).  Noah once again led the way for black offensively but everyone else chipped in throughout the game.  Joe Roush had a really nice 3^rd period goal and Laken had a really nice 2^nd period goal.  Troy Gaydosh continues to put a lot of goals up, including the first one of the game last night to put black ahead to stay.  Braxton looks to be playing his best hockey right now as well.   Black went ahead 3-0 midway through the first period but Zach Smith was finally able to get a shot past Adam to close the gap to 3-1.  He later added another while falling down to close the gap to 3-2.  That’s as close as they would get.  Black went ahead 5-2 before Denny scored to close the gap to 5-3 but Black scored the next 2 to go up 7-3 before Jerred Amick scored late in the 2^nd period to close the gap to 7-4.   Joe Roush scored the first goal of the 3^rd period to give black an 8-4 lead which eventually turned into a 10-5 win.   The win clinches the first seed for black.  White is currently in 4^th and could possibly get up to 2^nd if some unexpected circumstances happen outside of their game against Blue next week.  It looks like they will be playing blue in the first week of the playoffs no matter what happens in their game next week.  If orange upsets vegas gold, the standings could get impacted.  Noah did not care if Zach or Cory filled in for white last night, which goes to show how confident he is in his team right now.  Andy was a late scratch for white which opened the door for Zach to fill in.  As well as Black is playing right now, it doesn’t matter who is skating for the opposing team. 

Tony Conforto (Orange)

1. 7-6 loss to Blue last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the loss? The team played great! Everyone contributed both on offense and defense. Ultimately it was the last second goalie failure that led to the loss.

2. You have made some big late game saves in recent weeks. Are you feeling more confident adjusting to the ball? Last night I decided to “play my game” and there were a few shots I would like to get back of course, but I felt comfortable in net for the first time in a while. I still prefer puck, but I am getting use to playing with the ball.

3. Unfortunately, Zach had just enough time to sneak one by you at the end. Do you think that outweighed all the big saves you made throughout the 3rd period last night? A loss is a loss regardless of how many good saves I was able to make during the game. I will continue to gain confidence and develop my game each week. But until it starts showing up in the win column I won’t be happy with my play.

4. What positives can you take out of a loss with less than a second left to play? We held it together throughout the game and having the whole team present provided more practice heading into the playoffs. We should be ready for next week to be even more competitive

5. XHL is around the corner. With Steve out of the picture, is someone else going to try to form a walkers team or aren’t you sure yet? We are bringing Venom into replace the walkers with Morgan at the helm as Captain. I am really looking forward to the XHL  

Zach Smith (Blue)

1.      7-6 win over Orange last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the win? We had our moments but I think we got outplayed for some portions of the game. We didn't have a good possession game. Our passing was lacking compared to last week, bit I'll give orange credit, they played a solid game.

2. 7 seconds. How were you able to score that quick?  I got the ball in our end and had some space in front of me. I heard one of my teammates yell 5 seconds, so I knew I had a chance if I hurried. At first I was thing to just skate down and shoot but I knew my shot was most likely going to be blocked because they had 2 defenders back. Instead, I opted to take a chance and cut through the middle and sell shot till the very last second. Once I got closer to the net and saw a clear path pass the defender, I shot it and thankfully it went in with less than a second. It would have been embarrassing to let time run out without shooting. Apparently the ticker in my head is still working.

3. Did you read any of Foradori’s final thoughts last week ?  If I remember correctly, it was something about wanting to buy me an expensive candlelight dinner. My memory is foggy from thinking about that nice no look pass though...

4. Speaking of Zach Foradori, how do you think he has fit in with this team?  I don't think I'm very reliable when I have to play defense and I'm prone to make bad turnovers every once in a while, so I enjoy having that safety blanket on the backend who can chip in a goal and make good outlet passes every now and then

5. Orange has only won once all season, but they gave you everything you could handle last night. What was your impression of them?   We had a sloppy game, but they contributed to forcing us into sloppy plays. They have the speed to compete and a solid roster. Hopefully the rest of their games are competitive and exciting like this one was.

Bob Anderson (Vegas Gold)

1.      11-6 win over green last night.  What can you say about the overall team effort?

It was kind of a relaxed game for both teams it seemed.  Not a lot of intensity; felt more like a pick-up game to be honest.  I'm guessing that will end in two weeks when the playoffs begin.

2.       Coltyn continues to play a large role on this team.  What can you say about his play last night and all throughout the season?

He's been great.  I think he leads our team in goals by far.  He's a hustler and plays hard.  I think he's going to be a really good player as he gets older and grows a bit.

3.      Kaden won’t get mentioned much considering you guys put up 11 goals, but what can you say about his overall play last night?

Kaden has been solid all season.  He gives us a chance to win every night.  The true test for all of us will come in the playoffs.  There are going to be some tough games where we'll need everyone to be at their best.

4.      Green quietly hung within striking distance never really threatened like the last time.  What do you think you guys did better in this game than the last game?

I think we did a little better job maintaining our structure and not getting caught with too many players in deep.  Green did get some decent opportunities, especially in the third period, but Kaden made some good stops for us to not allow them to climb back into the game.

5.      You reffed a couple games last night, including the game between black and white (a much different lineup than usual), what did you observe in those games?

The 6:20 game was a lot of fun to ref/watch.  We all know that Zac Gray is a really good player.  But if you watch him closely, I think you will be even more impressed.  He does so many little things that help his team and his passing is really good.  I think he factored in on every goal they scored in some way.  He was really solid last night.

In the 8:20 game, Bubba stood out to me.  I think he's getting better.  He made some really nice saves.  It's encouraging to see him improving!  I think Adam has found his game again too, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the league in the playoffs.  Finally, Noah's team is firing on all cylinders.  They won handily against a team that had Zach, Jerred, Denny, and Josh Clontz.  They are for real.  Beating them once will be an undertaking.  Beating them twice might be near impossible.  If we play them again, we will have to find a way to slow them down a bit.  That won't be easy.

Jerred Amick (Fill in for white)

1. Back on the court last night. What can you say about the overall team effort considering it was a much different lineup than normal for that team? The average age of the team was probably easily into the high 30s while team black had an average age of 19. And the old guys were iron man so only so much effort can be given!

2. Black has only lost once all season and that was in overtime. What was your impression of them after going up against them last night? They are young and can consistently skate the whole time while our team had to take small breaks to regen our stamina. With legs that can skate and Adam backing them up, I’d say they are the team to beat.

3. You were able to bring home another SRHL championship this summer. How would you compare that championship to the one you got the year before? They are all different but meaningful. Last year we had to go through interim which was basically the championship and was a rough series. This year, that was the knights because of how rough and competitive that game was. With me being injured, I had to watch most of the games from the sidelines and I took limited shifts in the finals. This one was a fun one and needed everyone to chip in to win against the knights. I ended up staying on the IR for two more months with an MCL sprain.

4. Eagles are coming back for another XHL season and Denny along with Clay Halpin are rumored to be joining. Clay will be replacing Henry Sutter. What do you think they can bring to the team for you guys? Clay is a great goalie that should fit in great as our backstop. Denny has a great history of being productive for carnesalis so we expect the same from him. It was a no brainer to add him and should help the team significantly come playoff time.

5. None of us are getting younger. Does your body hurt the day after playing hockey now or are you itching to keep playing more and more? About 5 years ago, I really started to feel my age. But after beginning to work out my legs on a daily basis and work on my conditioning, it makes all the world of difference. I remember feeling worried about going in late in the game that I might be tired and get beaten, however, the last year or two I have been feeling great and I don’t wake up feeling awful; I can easily play back to back days and have my legs late in the game. So as long as people keep asking me to play, I will.