Week 9 – Recap
JHRL Week 9 – Monkeys secure playoff birth with a win over the Parrots, Jaguars stop their losing ways by defeating the Blue Barracudas, the Orange Iguanas fall short to the Silver Snakes.
Green Monkeys: 7 – Purple Parrots: 5
It doesn’t get any more exciting than this!! If you win you’re in, and fortunately for the Green Monkeys, they came out on the winning side of this one. The Green Monkeys got off to an uncharacteristically strong start by scoring 5 goals in the first frame. Forward Chris Mical got the Monkeys on the board first with his 6th goal of the season and green held the Parrots to only 2 first period goals. As the game progressed, goal scoring was at a minimum, with both teams scoring only 1 goal sending the game into the 3rd with a score of 6-3. The Parrots came out determined to even the score by scoring two quick goals in the frames first 5 minutes. The Monkeys would bend but never break as they tightened up their defense and prevented the Parrots from scoring again. Fill in Goalie Brian Kaufman had a 3rd period to remember as he turned away a vicious flurry of shots from purple and finally closed the door with a glove save that would have made Tom Barrasso proud. Kaufman was on his back while sniper Bryce Bostian had a wide-open cage and out of nowhere, his glove extended to pull the ball out of the air. Just a few minutes later a very fortunate bounce found forward Bryan Scott and defensemen Alan Homan on a two on 0 and that’s all they needed as Scott scored the games final goal. Every Monkey recorded a point in this one with Scott and Homan leading the way. As to be expected for the Purple Parrots, forward Chad Davis left his mark on the game by tallying 4 of the Parrots 5 goals. Up next for the Monkeys will be a matchup with the Red Jaguars that may prove to be a standing positioning game if they should win. The Parrots will finish off their season with a matchup against the Orange Iguanas.
Red Jaguars: 7 – Blue Barracudas: 6
An interesting start to this game, to say the least, maybe the lowest action periods we have seen in JRHL History (short sample size I know). In a game that pinned 2nd place vs 3rd place, some of the league’s top talent and 3 of the league’s top 5 scorers, we watched a first-period explosion end with a 1-1 tie. Thankfully that was not the blueprint for the rest of the way as both teams found their stride and battled back and forth. As the second period rolled on we started to wonder if Red was ever going to snap their losing streak and start playing like the team we saw earlier in the season. The Blue Barracudas jumped on them early in the second to gain the lead by a few goals but Red battled back to end the period only down one, the score was 5-4. As the teams came out for the 3rd the feeling in the crowd was one of wonder, wondering what team had the guts and determination to put the other away. Red scored, Blue scored, Red scored, it went back and forth and with a little under 2 mins to play the score was tied. Would this be it for Red, or would they snap their skid or would Blue secure themselves in 2nd place in standings. Both teams wanted it bad and what happened next proved that. Jaguars Justin Baxendale came rolling into the Barracudas zone and goaltender Matt Pfiel may have thought the play was offsides, however, play went on. As Baxendale started towards the net, defensemen John Matchock, seemed to play the body low which forced Justin to topple over him. This play was going to be called a penalty on Blue but the ball trickled its way over to a wide-open Duane Reed who blew it by Pfeil with only a minute to go. A lot happened in that sequence that proved unfortunate for Blue but they still had some time to get the game back tied. It just didn’t happen that way for them as fell to the Jags by a 7-6 final. Two familiar names lead the way for each team, league scorer #3, John Poloyac finished the game with 4 goals and grew his total points to 49 and league scorer #5 Brandon Curtis saw his point total go to 41 with 5 points. Up next for the Barracudas will be a date with The Silver Snakes, they better be careful because a loss here could potentially drop them to fourth place in the standings. The Jags will play the Monkeys who are the ones trying to leapfrog the Blue Barracudas.
Silver Snakes: 10 – Orange Iguanas: 7
So the Snakes win again, that is all, see ya Sunday!!!!!
All Joking aside the callouts for this game: The Orange Iguanas continue to fight and get better week in and week out. It’s a shame it took 6 weeks for these guys to find themselves because they could have been dangerous. As for the Snakes, they were able to win even though starting tender Brandon Bird was out watching girls soccer overseas. Backup tendy Joe Lee filled in nice as Tim George rattled off 5 more goals giving him 15 in two weeks. Nolan Mock finished with his usual multipoint night and the Snakes have secured the President’s cup in the inaugural JHRL Season. Congrats Silver.
