Halifax Floor Hockey League
The third-place Sabres faced-off against the fourth-place Sunnydale Slayers Thursday night to play for the league’s ultimate prize. It was the first time that the final did not include either of the top two teams in the regular season standings.
It was the Sabres who were slight favourites in the eyes of the oddsmakers, due in part to their overwhelming edge in the experience department. Present Sabre personnel had collectively played in 13 championship games, whereas the Slayers players had only combined to play in three final matches.
The first period began with both teams feeling each other out. Sabres leading playoff scorer Spiro Bokolas finally opened the account for the Sabres at 4:08 of the first period when he beat Slayer goaltender Graham Dodge. Sabres defenseman Chris Griffin doubled the Sabres lead shortly thereafter, when his precision wrist-shot found the top corner. After parrying several good Slayers attacks, it was another Sabres defenseman who tallied – Mike Sullivan’s low rolling shot found its way through traffic into the back of the net with just over a minute remaining in the first period.
Sensing the game was getting out of hand, and not wanting to have to make another miracle comeback, the Slayers came out flying in the second period. Tony Joyce had three whacks at the Sabres net, and made the third one count at 1:39 of the second frame to close the gap to 3-1. But the Sabres, who had a knack all season of replying quickly after opposition goals, promptly answered with another Bokolas goal. When first-year Sabre Rob Romaine scored two minutes later to give the Sabres a 5-1 lead, Sabres fans were thinking they were cruising to their fourth title.
But the Slayers, now facing a 5-1 deficit with over half the game remaining, could not have been too concerned, since in the semi-finals the Slayers fought back from a five-goal deficit with less than five minutes remaining.
After both teams went scoreless for a 10-minute stretch, Tony Joyce scored what proved to be a crucial goal when he deposited a wraparound goal with only 15 seconds remaining in the second period.
Down 5-2 and with momentum, and seemingly destiny, on their side, the Slayers again opened the third period with a fury. Slayer captain Gian Scalet squeezed a hard shot past McMaster less than a minute into the last period to cut the gap to 5-3. Then at 2:13, the Sabres were called for a controversial Too Many Men penalty during a line change. The Sabres, who had advanced to the final with a late shorthanded goal in the semi-finals, were able to fend off the Slayers powerplay.
But the Slayers kept up the pressure, keeping the play primarily in the Sabres zone. And their hardnosed forechecking paid off, when Sullivan was called for a roughing penalty over halfway into the final period. The Slayers would not be denied on this man-advantage, as Tony Joyce easily converted a cross-crease pass from Gian Scalet to trim the Sabres lead to 5-4 with only 5:32 remaining in the game. Joyce continued pressing the attack, finally knocking home the tying goal off a goalmouth scramble at the 10:48 mark of the third period.
Neither team was able to score what would be the decisive goal in regulation, and thus the game was sent into a unprecedented shootout to decide the 2003B champion.
Slayers goaltender Graham Dodge remarkably entered the shootout not allowing a goal in the final 25 minutes of regulation. The Slayers outshot the Sabres 45-31 in regulation.
Being the home team, the Sabres chose to let the Slayers shoot first. Brennan MacDonald started things off, as he did for the Slayers semi-final shootout, but was stopped by McMaster. Chris Griffin met a similar fate when his shot was turned aside by Dodge.
Matt Wheeler then tried a bold deke move on McMaster, but lost control of the ball in doing so. Bokolas, who observers figured had the best chance of scoring for the Sabres, was stoned by Dodge after making a move to his glove side.
Scalet was next to try his hand at scoring for the Slayers, but was stopped by McMaster again. Kevin Haddad, a point of inspiration for the Sabres during the playoffs, was up next. Haddad played the semi-final game on a badly sprained ankle and was still not at full capacity when he stepped up to take the Sabres third shot. But he was stopped again by Dodge, and more whispers of “destiny” were heard amongst Slayers fans.
Jason Fitzgerald then stepped up for the Slayers. Fitzgerald had scored a shootout goal in the semi-finals, but was stopped by McMaster in a semi-final shootout just over a year ago. Fitzgerald chose to deke, but was turned away again by McMaster. Romaine was the fourth shooter for the Sabres, and the fourth consecutive shooter to be stopped by Dodge, sending the Slayers bench into a frenzy knowing that sharpshooter Tony Joyce would be their fifth and potentially final shooter.
As he did when he won the semi-final shootout against the Hackers, Joyce flew down the floor with his trademark burst of speed. He deked McMaster out of position, but McMaster was able to make a splits save with his right foot to maintain the goose egg in the shootout. The gangly McMaster strained his left hamstring in the process, but his save meant that speedy defenseman Matt Monk would have a chance to win the championship for the Sabres with a goal. But Dodge was up to the challenge again, as he made a clutch save to send the shootout into sudden-death.
Both teams had to use their same shooters, in the same order in the subsequent sudden-death phase. This meant that MacDonald was first to take a second shot, and for the sixth consecutive time McMaster was up to the challenge
Chris Griffin, the last player selected by captain McMaster to participate in the shootout, then stepped up and finally beat Dodge with a dramatic stick-side deke, giving the Sabres a nerve-jangling 1-0 shootout win, and their fourth championship in league history.
Until that point, it seemed like the Slayers were the team of destiny, but a jubilant McMaster explained that it was Griffin who was meant to score the game winner. “I chose four out of the five players I wanted to shoot for me”, explained McMaster, “I asked the rest of the team who wanted to shoot – Griffin stepped up.”
Slayers players, though despondent after coming so close to achieving their “Miracle on Hardwood” dream, held their heads high after the game. “It was a fantastic year for the Slayers”, explained first-year Slayer Matt Wheeler, “our playoff-run almost makes up for me losing the Watson-Wheeler Challenge”. The Watson-Wheeler Challenge was a side-bet that Wheeler had with Commissioner David Watson during the regular season. The bet was to see who would score the most points during the regular season. League captains are investigating whether this bet violated any league policies. Some reporters are suggesting that Watson should be made ineligible for the ADC FHL Hall of Fame, citing a similar scenario with Major League Baseball’s Pete Rose.
Notes
Chris Griffin, Rob Romaine, Kevin Haddad, and Chris Davison won their first championships...McMaster won his fourth, Sullivan and Ortiz won their third, and Bokolas and Monk won their second title...The Sabres are 5-0 against the Slayers in playoff games…Bokolas wins the playoff scoring race with 22 points…Joyce’s 18 playoff goals led all teams, and is second only to his 2003A mark of 20 goals…Griffin becomes the second member of his family to win a title with the Sabres. Brother Chad won three championships for the Sabres…McMaster’s 132 total playoff saves is the second-best mark in playoff history…The Sabres have won four consecutive games in the final, after losing in their first two appearances…The Slayers were held under seven goals for the first time all season…The Sabres were held under six goals (in regulation) for the first time all season...Scalet was trying to become the 2nd straight captain to win a championship in his first season as captain.
