Pro Playoff Preview

NARCh Pro Playoff Preview

By: Raine Hernandez

TAYLOR – The NARCh Pro playoff seeding came down to the final game, as the Pama Labeda Golden Knights came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Rink Rat and clinch the #3 seed. With Pama booking their ticket to the playoffs, the seeds have finally been set in stone.

After once again going through the round robin undefeated, The Mission Labeda Snipers take the #1 seed for the third consecutive year, while the Mission Bauer Bordercats snagged the second seed, finishing round robin play with a 3-0-1 record (finishing with the same record as the Snipers), but lost the tie-breaker with goals against. With that being said, the Snipers and the Bordercats will get a bye straight to the semi-final, waiting for how the quarter-final shapes how.

Here’s who they will be waiting for:

Quarter-Final #1: Pama Labeda Golden Knights (3) vs. Alkali Revel (6)

As mentioned previously, the Golden Knights had to claw their win a earn a playoff berth, yet, find themselves sitting with the #3 seed, due to the reason that they own the tie-breaker over Black Ice, as they defeated them in round robin.

On the other hand, the Revel also had an interesting ride to their way to the playoffs. Alkali lost their first two games of the tournament, losing to the Bordercats 6-4, and the Snipers by a score of 4-1. Things shifted during day 2, making up for their first 2 nights with quality wins over Hot Shots Inferno and the Bardown Excitement.

There is not much of a talent gap between these two hockey clubs, meaning it will be a very entertaining and competitive hockey game.

Quarter-Final #2: Mission Black Ice (4) vs. Tour RoadRunners (5)

In the second quarter-final matchup, it will be a duel between two friendly foes. Mission Black Ice and the Tour RoadRunners are both from the same area, meaning both will be very familiar with one another.

Aside from losing to the Golden Knights earlier in the tournament, Black Ice cruised their way to a playoff spot, convincingly beating Rink Rat, Revision, and the Inferno en route to a 3-1 record and the 4^th seed in the playoffs.

The other side features a young Tour RoadRunners team that easily had the most bizarre route to the playoffs in comparison to all the other teams. The RoadRunners had only one win in the entire round robin and ended up with a tournament-leading 3 ties, earning a draw against Rink Rat, the Snipers and the Excitement. The RoadRunners have been heavily relying on the strong play of their goaltender Rob Kowalczyk, allowing a tournament-low 8 goals through 4 games of play.

 An interesting matchup to look forward to is the battle among siblings, as PJ and Joey DiMartino are both the work-horse defensemen for their respective teams and the way they will control the tempo of the hockey game will be the true x-factor for earning a trip to the semis.