Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

Spring DIHL: Week 5

Week 5 resulted in a shake-up in the standings as we head into the last week before the finals. The Midgets were handed their first loss, FYC earned their first point and a loss by the Jets and win by the Bears opened up the A grade points race.

This week’s MVPs were as follows. Sam Sheard for setting up crucial, late stage goals to put Superfly ahead of the Midgets. Joe Orr’s three point performance earned him the honours. In Tuesday’s A grade game Mike Sam and Peter Lamb were given the award. Mike for his puck control causing endless frustration for the Jets and me just for looking so damn good.

Wednesday featured two close games between the Bullfrogs and The Chiefs, and FYC and the Stars, respectively. MVP for the Bullfrogs was Kara Ross who delivered a solid game in goal for the Bullfrogs. Gavin Kennedy earned MVP for The Chiefs; in his two point performance, Gavin’s first goal of the season was a result of thunderous head fakes on the Bullfrogs defense (the result of which caused patrons in the Octagon to butt heads, dogs sneezed, babies cried and Rhys groomed the ice in the opposite direction). Duncan Sykes, for the Stars, and Ben Roth, for FYC, were the MVPs in the A grade game. Duncan for scoring a hat trick, that included the game tying goal in the last ten seconds of the game, and Ben Roth for his two goal performance to keep FYC out front of the Stars until the final seconds.

A look at the standings shows how both grades have opened up with this week’s results. If we have ties for points after next week, finalists will be determined accordingly. To break the tie we will first look at ‘goals for’, the team with the most moves on. If that does not resolve the tie the team with the fewest ‘goals against’ will move on, then the fewest penalties and if the tie (by some miracle) is still not resolved a coin toss (unless anyone has any better ideas).

So, for Week 6, in the A grade a win or a draw by the Stars guarantees them a spot in the finals. Should the Bears beat the Stars they would both be tied with 8 points. In that case they would both hope for a Jets loss to both be in the finals. With a Bears win and a Jets win there would be a three way tie at the top. In that case, so far, the Bears would have to beat the Stars by three to guarantee their spot in the finals. Beyond that it will come down to ‘goals for’ and possibly ‘goals against’. I think there are probably two more pages worth of possibilities that I obviously won’t go into.

For the B grade, the Midgets have guaranteed themselves a spot in the finals. Their opponent will be either Superfly or The Chiefs. A Superfly win and a loss by The Chiefs would put Superfly in the final. A Superfly loss and a win by The Chiefs would put The Chiefs in the final. A win by both (or a loss by both) teams puts Superfly in the final unless The Chiefs can make up the 17 point differential in ‘goals for’.

Hope that makes more sense to you than it does to me!

See you next week.

Pete

Spring DIHL 2009 Standings WEEK 5