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| July 23, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update Day 6
|  It’s about that time of the tournament where we start to lose track of reality. What day is it? What time is it? Instead one’s only connection to time and date is who is playing each other here at TECO Arena. Those who spend more time under the fluorescents than the overbearing outdoor sun were treated to some of the best hockey played so far here.
Today’s big game would be the Bantam Gold Final which featured the #1 seeded K-Tek Kondors and the #3 seed Mission Raiders. The Raiders, appropriately colored in the Silver and Black, defeated the Mission Marvel Silver Surfers in their semifinal in a down to the wire 3-2 win. The Kondors would continue to roll as they outscored the Nike Buffalo Wings 5-3 to move on to the Final.
The Kondors would open the scoring a couple of minutes into the game on a goal by Seader, and would have the goalpost to thank as the Raiders best scoring chance early on, at the 7:15 mark would clank right off the pipe. K-Tek would be content to play a possession game, oftentimes resetting their offense multiple times before attempting to score. The Mission Raiders goalie though, helped take away a low cycle game by consistently blocking passes across the crease with his stick. The two teams would have scoring chances but neither would be able to find a way to score and we’d finish the half with K-Tek still leading by 1.
Mission would have a quality scoring chance early but the Kondor’s goalie would corral the rebound and the game would remain 1-0. The Raiders would have perhaps their best to chance to score 3:30 into the 2nd half but once again were rebuffed by the K-Tek goalie who made a big glove save.
Just over 90 seconds later, K-Tek’s Seader would score his 2nd of the game off a backhand deke which he put in topshelf to increase the lead to 2-0. Seader then would finish off the natural hat trick just 61 seconds later and the Kondors would now lead by 3 with just under 6 minutes remaining. The Raiders would get on the board with a PP goal by Irwin off a long slapper. The Raiders would continue to take chances and have scoring chances, but in the end K-Tek was able to run out the clock as they continued to play a patient game and claimed the Bantam title with a 3-1 win.
In the Bantam Platinum it didn’t take long for the upsets to start as the Tour Tritons defeated Mission Honeybaked by a 4-2 score. The Tritons jumped out to a 2-0 lead and then 3-2 before sealing the game late as Honeybaked was putting on the pressure in an effort to tie up the contest. “We seem to play them the
first game each year, and it was nice to finally get the win” said Coach Keith Wolf. The Tritons had a strong showing here 2 years ago as 2nd year PW’s and with this win, could put themselves in a good position for the playoffs.
The Mission Empire Snipers and Mission Cooler Selects also faced off in another good matchup and the Selects held a 2-1 lead til late in the game where the Snipers tied it up on a PP goal before scoring the game winner with just tenths of a second remaining. The Snipers will be bolstered by the addition of Andrew Oliveri, who had flight issues and missed the game. Team Tour soundly defeated DMB and the Tour Bordercats looked strong early and all will need continuous improvement in order to challenge the pre-Finals favorite, AMB ’86 who defeated the Rivermen by a 5-0 score.
Squirt Gold saw early round playoff action and OC ’91, Tour Bordercats, Mission Marvel Spidermen and Upland AKS Empire, Oregon Rampage, and Palm Beach Nailers would advance to the quarterfinals where Team Breakaway ’90 and CPH Quest and Palm Beach Jackals would be waiting having received 1st round byes. The Breakaway - AKS game would go into OT after Breakaway came back from a 2-0 deficit. They would have a chance to win right off the face-off, but were turned away by the goalpost. As is typically the case, AKS would rebound and score the game winner soon after to advance to the semifinals. The two palm beach teams would wind up playing each other in the quarters and it would be the Nailers who would cruise into the semi’s with a 4-0 win. CPH Mission Quest and Mission Marvel Spiderman would also move into today’s semifinals as well.
Atom Platinum would continue and finish its round robin play today and it would be a decidedly east coast flavor despite an equal showing from east and west coast teams. The Jr. Wizards ’94 would claim the top seed after defeating the Mission Brea Oilers and Las Vegas Rebels. Tour Bordercats also look to be picking up some momentum as playoffs begin. Top seeded western team is OC ’91 @ #3. Today’s playoffs should feature some great games.
Mite Platinum continued as well with Nike OC Blades ’92 winning both of their games, including a hard fought 4-2 win over the Wizards ‘92. It was the 2nd tough loss of the day for the Wizard 92’s, who had dropped an up and down, 6-5 battle to the Tour Rapid Fire Smoke. Will Smoke and OC once again be on course for a meeting in a Final? It has happened the past 2 years.
Division 1 would close out its preliminary games as teams would strive for consistency in their play. Top seed Team Tour have been the closest so far in attaining it. They had rolled in their earlier games before hitting a small bump this evening where it seemed they were well in control against the New Jersey Sharks before closing out the 6-3 win. With a number of players from NARCh Pro (Allan, Leggatt, Brito, David, Bielstein) they will be satisfied with nothing less than a title. Standing in their way will most likely be either AMB, who despite losing to Mission Hotskates still have too much talent to not be considered. The 2nd contender would be Mission Empire Snipers who’ve played well enough to go undefeated and played quite a bit better in their comeback 4-3 win over Dry Ice in their last game.
That wraps it up for today, more to come tomorrow.
See the Latest News section for Jim's past articles on the 2003 Finals.
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