12/16 Marple Recap (Minor)

For the one and only time all season, all 12 teams in both the Northeast and Atlantic divisions would compete at the same festival.  The fourth of five cross division events took place at Marple Sports Arena on Saturday evening.  A number of marquee match ups would take place in what could be a preview of match ups at the PIHA finals in March.

The minor division once again proved how incredibly competitive it was on Saturday.  An incredible 9 out of 24 games went into overtime and 6 more games were decided by two goals or less.  Only one team would leave the event with four victories and that was the Empire State Legends Black.  While they earned fours wins, two of those were overtime games, one of which made it all the way to a shootout.  The Legends Black now have a 10 point advantage over the 3rd place Impact, who will need to run the table in their final four games to over take 2nd place and get the coveted first round bye.

The Impact went 2-1-1 on the day, but had the most impressive victory of the day, taking down the league's top team in the Trash Pandas.  The Pandas did win each of their other three games, including the battle of first place teams, beating the Suffolk Sting in a thrilling 6-5 overtime game.  The Sting had been dominant in their division this season, but also only managed a 2-1-1 record on Saturday against the Atlantic teams.  

One of the losses the Sting had on Saturday was against the defending champion Susquehanna Scream.  While the champs haven't dominated this season like they did at points last year, they were impressive at Marple going 3-0-1.  Their lone loss was in overtime to the Empire State Legends Black.

Of the 9 over time games on Saturday, remarkably one team was in the thick of all four.  The Philadelphia Deuces, who have worked hard to be a .500 team most of the season, always seem to find themselves in most games.  Saturday was no different, as all four of their tilts went into overtime, with the Deuces winning three of the four.

The Steel City Shockwave also had a fairly productive weekend.  They managed to go 2-1-1 on the day with both an OT win and loss.  There lone regulation loss was to the Sting at the start of the day.

The Marple Gladiators cemented themselves into a second place finish, as they posted a 3-1 record on Saturday.  Their lone loss was to the Legends Black, whom they had previously defeated earlier in the season.  Both the Trash Pandas and Gladiators have completed the regular season and will be the 1 and 2 seeded respectively.

The Legends Gold team, who went  1-1-2 on Saturday, find themselves in a solid fourth place in the Northeast division.  Either the Grizzlies or Flamingos would have to win all four games in their last set to over take them.  The Flamingos and Grizzlies both have 9 points on the season and will battle to not finish at the bottom of the division in their final set in January.