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| July 26, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update Day 9
Déjà Vu All Over Again
|  St.Louis Blast and OC Blades meet again, this time in the Peewee Platinum Final, and the Bantam Division continues to amaze and the PRO rolls on as we near the three quarter mark of the tournament.
The first Pee Wee semifinal would feature the reigning titleholders, Nike OC Blades ’88 and the Hosers ’88. The Hosers had played well and won some tough early round games before advancing to the semifinals. They would give OC all they could handle, but it would fall just short as the Blades would hold them off and advance to the Championship game once again with a 3-2 win.
St. Louis would automatically have a team in the Final as their 89’s played the 88’s in the second semifinal. While the 89’s were the higher seeded team, it would be the 88’s who would earn the spot in the final along with the bragging rights as they advanced with a 5-2 win.
In the Final it wouldn’t take long before the scoring would start as the Blast’s Stefan scored on a one timer after a nifty move out of the corner by Maroon, 2:38 into the game. OC’s best chance to tie the game would come at the 4:38 mark but were denied on a point blank save by the Blast goalie.
The Blades would tie the game off a strong 2nd effort goal by Jumbo Combs. Combs would give the Blades the lead at the 9:11 mark as he took a pass from Rakhshani for his 2nd of the game. The Blades would take a 2-1 lead into the half.
It would take less than 2 minutes into the 2nd half before Maroon would score off a feed from Kretzer to tie the game at 2. The Blades would appear to take the lead at the 6:40 mark, but the goal would be waved off as the Blades would be whistled for a penalty.
OC would take the lead with just over three
and a half minutes remaining as Gibo ripped
a short side slapshot and Stevens would tap
in a puck that richocheted off a defender to
stretch the lead to 4-2. OC did an excellent
job of keeping the Blast from generating any
consistent offensive pressure throughout the
half and they would close it out with a late
goal to win their 2nd consecutive Pee Wee
title with a 5-2 win.
Bantams, Bantams, Bantams: The only
team to make it through unscathed was AMB
86, every other team had a loss or a tie.
How even is this division? The Tour Tritons
defeated Honeybaked and Nike OC Blades,
then lost to the Las Vegas Tour Rebels and
tied Arizona. OC finished with 4 points and
barely qualified for the playoffs. Essentially
every game played so far was a playoff
game. When all was said and done and the
boards were figured out and teams seeded,
we’d have our early round playoff matchups.
First up would be Mission Honeybaked and
the Marvel Black Panthers. This had to be
the most attended game so far as the stands
were packed and people lined the green
rink. Marvel would take an early lead before
Honeybaked battled back to send it into OT.
Marvel would have nearly all the good
scoring chances in the first OT as they had a
few minutes of power play time.
Honeybaked would hold them off though,
with some good defense, timely goaltending
and a big of luck to send the game into a
2nd OT. Now it was Honeybaked’s chance
on the PP and they would convert early in
the 2nd extra session to clinch the 2-1 win
and advance to the quarters.
The Tour Mavericks would face off against
Nike OC Blades in the next playoff game
and the Mavs would jump out to an early 3-1
lead. The Blades would keep their
composure though and slowly get back in
the game and winning by a 4-3 score.
Las Vegas Tour Rebels and Tour Mudcats
would meet next, and as with the previous
40 or so games played within the division,
would be a battle. The Rebels TPC
champions status didn’t faze the Mudcats
who held off the Rebels 4-2 to advance to
the quarterfinals.
The last game would have the Tour Tritons
and Tour Bordercats as the Tritons tried to
be only the 2nd higher seeded team to
advance (honeybaked was the only one so
far) to the quarterfinals. Without Mike
Sanders, who was lost to dislocated
shoulder in their game against the Rebels,
their offense was limited (7 goals in 4 prelim
games) and the Bordercats took advantage
pulling away late for a 5-2 win. 3 out of 4
lower seeds win their early round playoff
games, and advance to the quarterfinals,
which start around noon today. Today
features a repeat of last year’s Snipers vs
Honeybaked, which featured a 4 goal
performance by Oliveri, and AMB playing
OC. The biggest question on everyone’s
mind though is who are Big Willie? They
quietly moved through the draw with only a
tie keeping them from a 4-0 record and
claiming the #2 seed. Whoever wins this
division will likely be the most deserving
champion of the Finals as there has been no
easy games.
Today will also feature the Squirt semifinals
with the OC Blades ’90 and Marvel Silver
Surfers facing off against one another in
what many west coasters thought would be
the Final. The 2nd semi features the east
coast version with the #1 seeded Rollin
Hogs and Mission Detroit 90’s meeting to
setup a true EAST vs WEST championship
game. A team to watch for next year will be
the first year squad of Sudden Death, who
fell to Marvel by a 5-2 score in the
quarterfinals.
In the PRO division, which will finish up its
preliminary games today and move into the
playoffs, Mission DNA and the Tour Mudcats
each won 2 games to assert themselves as
the teams to beat this year. The Mission
Snipers took a step back in their loss to the
Detroit Mission Hyper Stars. Team NIKE
came back into the fold with 2 wins on
Friday as well, it still looks like DNA and the
Mudcats are the teams to beat though.
35 & Over notes: Mission Snipers had a
comeback 4-2 win over the Tour Blast and
Can/Am looked good in their win over the
Mission California Coaching Staff. The Old
Hosers are always among the favorites and
also played a strong game as they beat the
Gulf Breeze Stingrays by a 5-0 score.
The women started play today, and the
reigning WN champions the Cal Selects
started it off with a 7-0 win over the Buffalo
Nightmare and Team Mission would hold off
the Labeda Easton Catz, 4-2.
Today the Jr. Division starts with some good matchups.
For more of Jim's articles on the 2003 Finals see the Latest News section.
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