Regular Season Concludes

Final Regular Season Standings

1.      Black 15  (88/35)

2.      Blue 10 (64/54)

3.      Vegas Gold 10 (59/52)

4.      White 8 (70/77)

5.      Orange 4 (47/79)

6.      Green 3 (62/93)

Playoff Schedule Monday 12/8

620  Orange vs Blue

720  White vs Vegas Gold

820  Green vs Black

Blue 16  White 4

Team Blue put an exclamation mark on a second half of the season surge with a 16-4 mercy rule victory over Team White on Monday at 6:20.  In combination with Yellow's loss in the 7:20 game, Blue vaulted into the second seed and avoided a first week playoff matchup with White or Vegas Gold.

A back-and-forth first period hardly suggested such a lopsided game was coming.  Both teams scored 3 times to take a tie into the first intermission.  From there, it was all Blue.  They would go on to score 13 of the next 14 goals in the game.  Zach Smith scored 4 of his 5 goals in the second intermission when it was still a game.  

The third period was more of the same as Blue piled on.  Both teams played ironman.  Everyone pitched in for Blue including Jaron Buffone, Cody Haag, and Zach Foradori who has been a key cog in Blue's second-half success.  White didn't put up much resistance from about the halfway mark of the game on.  Andy's second goal of the game came 12 minutes into the third period after a Blue defender flubbed a pass and left Andy with a prime scoring opportunity.  It was the only goal White mounted in the last 30 minutes of the game.  

Clint Lingenfelter had another solid game but he didn't need to be spectacular.  He, and the team, have flipped a switch after a frustrating 13-2 loss to Team Black on November 10^th that left Clint so frustrated that he deliberately broke his goalie stick.  They'll look to carry that momentum into the playoffs as the second hottest team in the league behind Black.  

Orange 9  Vegas Gold 8

Jerred Amick sounded like he was itching to play when he woke up yesterday.  The week before, he filled in for Jake and offered to fill in for him again, but Jake said his back was feeling great yesterday.  Soon after, Larry said his team would be without Zac Gray which opened up for the door for Jerred to fill in.   Not only did he fill in, but he played a large role in their upset win last night.   Standings wise, it was an upset, but after picking up Adam to take Tony’s place in net, the result hardly felt like an upset.  No disrespect to Tony or any other goalie in the league, but any team with Adam in net always has a chance to win.  After all, he has been doing this since the league was put together back in 2001.  At first, it didn’t look like Adam was going to be the difference maker when Vegas Gold put 4 goals on the board in the first period.  Bob scored early and added 3 or 4 more as the game went on.  Coltyn and Cory each scored to put Gold up 3-2  and then Bob scored again to put Gold up 4-2 at the end of the first period.  Jerred Amick and Rob Reed had first period goals for Orange.  Reed’s goal came on a delayed penalty against Gold.  Adam got into a better groove in the 2^nd period which helped Orange catch up.   Coltyn had another good chance to score but Adam may have made the best save of the season on him.   Despite getting robbed of that goal, it seemed like Coltyn was everywhere in this game.  He would go on to score a late 3^rd period goal but Orange had built a 2 goal lead by then.  The game was back and forth in the 3^rd period.  Cory accidentally put one in his own teams net in the later stages of the game and Jason Stamler added a real nice goal for Orange which saw them turn a 2 goal deficit after 1 period into a 2 goal lead late in the 3^rd period.  Larry scored the 8^th goal for orange which put them ahead 8-7.  Jerred Amick led the team in goals and a couple of them were pretty impressive.   He looks to be in midseason form after getting an ironman game to adjust to the Reynoldsville style of play.  Bob led the way for Vegas Gold while Cory and Coltyn each had a couple goals and assists throughout the game.   Neither Match or Derrian were available to fill in for Tony which made us turn to Adam.    He rarely turns down a chance to play more hockey.  As of  last night, he is still searching for a couple more people to form an XHL team this winter.  With the win last night, Orange gets to avoid playing Noah and company next week.   They will take their chances against team Blue next week.  Just a week ago, it took a last second Zach Smith goal for Blue to get by Orange.

Black 12  Green 6

This game was meaningless for Black as they had already clinched the top seed before the games took place last night.  They will get an easier road to start the playoffs when they go up against Green again next week and Orange the following week.   Joe Roush and Laken Dodd were unavailable last night opening up the door for Coltyn to fill in and gave Cory a little more motivation to stay to ref this game.  Coltyn was everywhere again in this game, but Cody Schaeffer turned down a lot of Coltyns good scoring chances.  Black put up 12 goals, but Cody may have played his best game in net for Green.  He made a lot of good saves in this game, mainly in the 2^nd period which allowed Green to cut a 6-0 deficit to 6-4 by the 10 minute mark of the 3^rd period.  Coltyn finally got a shot past Cody to put Black up 7-4.    Black only led 2-0 about 10 minutes into the game but goals seemed to come quicker after that.  Noah and Troy Gaydosh scored early to put them ahead 2-0 with Noah adding a couple more late in the first period to put his team ahead 4-0 before Braxton scored with less than 10 seconds remaining in the first period to put them ahead 5-0 going into the 2^nd period.  Noah put Black ahead 6-0 before Green rallied for 4 goals to close out the 2^nd period.   Green finally got on the board around the 5 minute mark of the 2^nd period but even that goal looked to be a struggle.   Dave Jewell overshot the net originally but the ball made its way to Brian Anderson behind the net with Dave Jewell still standing in the same spot in front of the net.  2^nd time was a charm when Jewell got the pass from Brian with Adam out of position in net.  Goals came a little easier for Green after their first one.  Dave Jewell set Matt Jewell up for their 2^nd goal and Brian scored on the ensuing faceoff to close the gap to 3.  Soon after, Dave Jewell got a rebound goal off a Tyler Waltman shot attempt to close the gap to 6-4 at the end of the 2^nd period.   Coltyn and Noah would go on to score goals for Black to put them in control again around the 8 minute mark of the 3^rd period.    Green got within 3 on a couple different occasions in the 3^rd period when Dave set Brian up for a goal and Tyler Waltman later set Brian up for another but Noah and team Black answered with 3 late 3^rd period goals to turn a 3 goal lead into a 6 goal lead. While not a complete blow out win, it felt like Black was in control throughout the game and will be heavily favored to win the double elimination playoffs.