Day 3 write up by Jeremy Ellis
By Jeremy Ellis
There have been many days in my NARCh Finals days that have started out with playoff games first thing in the morning. Few days can rival the start that we had here at Day 3 of the 2018 Finals. The last few days have been about 12u and 16u and today was no different.
In the 12u silver division, 8 teams made the playoffs. Often times the results of that matchup are lopsided. Farm Tough were the 8th seed with that daunting task. In this division, the break in level came at the 8/9 seed split. OC Marvel fell to 9th despite beating Farm Tough, based on the second tiebreaker of a 3 team tie; goals for. Despite the early puck drop, the Farm Tough parents were Farm Tough loud. The #1 seed Temecula Warriors were having a great run; undefeated while allowing only 2 goals. They found themselves locked in a 2-2 game late when Farm Tough scored with 10 seconds remaining on a beautiful pass and breakaway goal. They would move on.
Another huge upset came in the Club quarterfinal game between the 16th seed Voodoo and #9 seed OC Marvel. Voodoo pulled it off with a 3-2 win. Our third opening game of the day went to overtime after the Jokers tied the Rockets 06 with a half second remaining in regulation and then winning quickly into overtime. The morning games would continue to be close with a great one taking place between the Konixx Outcasts and the Bulldogs Yellow in 12u. The Bulldogs scored late to force overtime and it would be nearly the whole first OT before the Outcasts tallied the winner.
Two Championships were played today in 16u platinum and 12u platinum. The Angry Ducks awaited in 12u platinum and would face the Pama Labeda Golden Knights who stormed back from two goals down to edge the Revolution 05s 3-2. The Ducks looked the fresher of the 2 teams and cruised to the title with a 9-3 win.
Following that was the 16u platinum highly anticipated matchup between the North Shore Zulu and Revision Black 01s. The Zulu had not allowed a goal in the round robin and were utterly dominant. Within the first 20 seconds though of this one, the Revision team buried one for the first goal scored on the Zulu and also the first time they trailed all tournament. There was no dejection, however, on the face of the Zulu. They immediately fought back and in doing so shut the door on the Revolution. Final score here was 3-1.
Womens quickly became a 3 horse race with the Golden Knights, Revision Vanquish, and Republic all looking strong. Vanquish and the Knights tied each other already. Girls started up and the Rockets got off to a quick 2-0 record. They beat the Jets in their second game in what could be a championship preview.
The Mens Platinum Pro division is finishing up the final moments of round robin right now and we will have the seeds. There will be one team of 12 out of the mix altogether and 4 vying for the Pro title. Those 4 are the Tour Roadrunners, Mavin Tribe, Golden Knights, and Pure Maple. I give the edge at the moment to the Roadrunners, but I think they will get a tussle in both games. Platinum is a tight bunch with 5 teams each having 4 points. Right now my eyes are on the Konixx Pure for the platinum title as they seem to have gotten it together.
Tomorrow will be a workout as we tackle 12 finals. The Corey rink will be abuzz with awards ceremonies all day long. We should have another podcast coming up at some point tomorrow in between the action. Lots of hardware being handed out tomorrow – be sure to catch all the action here at the Rinks tomorrow.