Thursday, July 30, 2009

The final two Quarter Previews

The Arc Angels (6) and Ice Gators (3) will be squaring off this Saturday in what should be a good quarterfinal match up. These two teams faced each other only one time this season with the Gators losing 2-1 in a goalie battle. In net for this gators was Senators netminder Rush “Mexico” Rector who stopped 26 of 28 shots. The Angels rolled out James Ayala who stopped 34 of 35 in the winning effort. Mike “The Killer” Wolf (Killer Wolf is a classic song by Danzig) scored for the Bayou Bunch, and Kent “Super” Gordon and Dave Opalecky scored for the Angels.

Now the Gators have had a rocky season. After dropping a very close season opener to the Stingers, the Gators went on a tear, and absolute tear. Over the next four games they scored 29 goals, and only allowed 6! Now the rest of the season the team began to crumble a bit. Bruno disappeared (swallowed by gator? Promoting Movie?), and the team started having difficulties getting all together on game nights. But the Gators did pull it together, and after the loss to the Angels they won their last three passing over the Hurricanes, ending up in 3rd place for the season.

The Angels on the other hand have been a 500 hockey club pretty much all season long. Looking at the stats, they don’t have a guy who stands out with 14, 15, or 20 goals. The team is anchored by longtime Angel Kent Gordon, a veteran of the Bronze League. He has 4 goals and 4 assists this season, and has shown to be a rock on the Angels bench. Leading scorer Brandon Decker has found the back of the net 7 times, and is hoping to find it a few more times against the Gators. This team is coached by “Wild” Bill Ivey, and does have a Stanley Keg on their resume. All it will take for the Angels to win it all is a three game win streak, but that will all obviously start with getting through the Gators.

I predict a close battle on this one 3-2 Gators win in overtime.

Now for the last quarterfinal preview we have the Hurricanes and Senators. The one time these two teams met this season we had 44 penalty minutes, and a fight in the stands that spilled out into the parking lot. Tensions were running high for sure. The Canes took the game 9-6 thanks to former NHL draft pick #40 on the Canes who showed off some sweet skating moves in route to a five goal night. The main attraction here will be the Saylor/Donovan showdown. Donovan (Sens) leads the league with a record setting 34 points, while Saylor (Canes) is right on his heals with 33. A little bit of history for you, these two were teammates a few years back. I am expecting these two to be on each other like white on rice this game. Donovan is bigger, stronger, and probably has better hands, while Saylor is smaller, faster, and seemingly never tired.

The Hurricanes are a team that probably not many people are routing for in these playoffs. Last season we had a team come in (Lady Stars) and win the Keg, then bail on the league. The Lady Stars seemed to only have three or four people on their roster, and relied on an arsenal of ringer subs to win the league. So now enter the Hurricanes, a team that is in their first year, and what looks to be their last year. Next season the Canes are going by the way side, and a new team will enter the league…the Bandits. For this season it seems the consensus is that we would like to see one of our own teams that has been in the league a while win the Keg. The Canes have been accused from time to time of having ringers on their roster, and have been a team that has just seemed to be in chaos all season long. Relying on players from other teams, and outsiders, this Canes team finished the year with a deceptive 7 and 5 record. I say deceptive because three of their games were forfeits. The biggest thing about the Canes is that they don’t posses a full time goalie. Ryan Kelly has been in the pipes on most nights for these guys, and will no doubt be manning the net against the Sens. If the Canes are to win, who will they get as their goalie?

Finally we have the Senators, a team in their second season in the bronze league that at time has shown massive amounts of promise. Led by a pair of guys that are soon to plying their craft in the Silver League, Mac Donovan and Matt Davis, this Senators team can turn it on. The Sens had an up and down season. Mid way through they had a three game win streak where they were averaging 9 goals a game. However, this win streak was muted by a three game losing streak where the goals average dropped down to 6 a game. The Senators took on the Indians twice this season losing both games, but one of which was in overtime. They also faced the Gators twice splitting those two games. The Senators Achilles Heal has been penalties. 80 total penalty minutes for this team with two guys over 20. If this team is to beat the Canes, they are going to have to stay disciplined. Keeping guys out of the box and on the ice will prevent the Canes power play from taking over. Mid season the Sens made a coaching change with Steve Hall sliding down the bench to make room for new coach Julian Waters.

Next season the Senators will become affiliated with a new silver league team which as of yet does not have a name. New Senators are on the way, and several of the current squad is moving up to the Silver League. So once the new Silver League team is in place the Senators will have a silver league affiliate, and a gold league affiliate with their coach’s team, the Whistlers, in the event a player can take his game all the way to the top.

I say the Sens will take the Canes 6-4 in a high paced, high scoring affair.

9 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Rumor is the derby girls are going to come the Sens v Canes game and keep the jerry springer atmospehere rolling thorought the game. Thanks Gator 156 for coordintin this.
I overheard many of the players talking about breaking out the foil for this one.
This should be a classic battle.

Sens#2

Anonymous said...

I've got extra foil ready so that I can take on Mr. 17 PIM Siewert. My guess is he'll get even more in canes v. sens round 2.

Q

Anonymous said...

That is a malicious rumor started by the Gator Haters. However, Perry is dealing and wheeling with the Derby Girls. He needs to fill the roster for his new team, the BandTits. Now that team managers of other teams forbid their players from talking to Perry, he’s recruiting among the Derby Girls.
The team will furiously skate along the wall cutting across at the blue line. This circular forward only skating will shift towards the offensive zone, when the Ringer, not yet signed, gets the puck. Perry himself might play as the Ringer. As long as the Derby Girls don’t know jack about hockey, he can stay the Ringer-Star-Manager and play the full three periods…
For those of you, who think I’m just kidding, just watch Perry. He’s already practicing for this upcoming team. You will never catch him skating backwards…
That’s going to be one intimidating team…

Gator #156

Anonymous said...

are we getting a re-cap of the games from Saturday?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what time the all star game is?

Anonymous said...

9:00

Anonymous said...

Found in an older blog

"Then Saturday August 1st will be the quarter finals which will have games at 5:30, 7:00, 8:30, and 10:00. Then on August 8th we will have the big finale to the playoffs with semi final games at 5:30 and 7:00, an all star game at 8:30, and the battle for the Keg at 10:00."

so according to that it's at 8:30

Ice Hole said...

There were no games Saturday. WE both forfeited because nobody wanted to play. WE being the Monkeys and Jags.

Unknown said...

...There were games. You guys weren't the only ones playing.

Bullets - 68.

We had a hard fought game with the Indians, with a phantom trip both teams say was a bad call ending our playoff hopes.

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