Deserted and Marooned
rescued by playoff wins
Marooned finished their regular season strong heading into the playoffs, winning five of their last seven games, earning the second playoff seed, and had all the team components for a long playoff run. The combination of one of the top goalies in the league, a solid smart defense, the league’s top scorer, and support cast the contributed throughout the season.
For White Lies, they struggled as a team all season trying to find their identity, finishing in last place. However, their last game of the season, while short-handed with only two substitute players, they shocked and routed their opponent. That momentum carried over into the playoffs and carried them into the Finals, as once again playing short-handed, they first upset and routed the third-place team, followed by upsetting the number one seed. Unfortunately, the Cinderella story came crashing to an end in the Finals when their impressive offense was shut down by a smothering team defense, timely scoring and a hot goalie.
Marooned rescued themselves when it mattered in the Finals, playing most of this season short-handed, overcoming this and played a solid overall team game with a 4-0 shutout of White Lies. The story of this Finals was a committed team defense shutting down a high-powered offense throughout the game while riding a hot goalie and timely early scoring to victory.
Heading into the Finals, White Lies appeared to be the favorite team, as they beat both the first and third playoff seeds, while scoring eleven goals in two games played. However, people may have forgotten that during the regular season, it was Marooned who owned a 3-0 head-to-head record against White Lies and outscored them by a 17-8 goal differential. Analysts were spot on by pointing to goaltending and the defense being the difference makers in this game.
As expected, the first five minutes of this game featured White Lies trying to run Marooned right out of this game and throw shot after shot on net. The rink was definitely tilted towards the Marooned end during this torrid star. Goalie Dale McIsaac calmly weathered this storm making save after save and not giving up any rebound chances. Dale and the team strategy was simple; stop (or block) every shot and cover up the ball to slow White Lies down. At the 5:07 mark, this strategy paid off as Ray Nickerson’s shot from the top of the left circle, off a pass from Don Maccini, was a knuckleball that found the back of the net. Stunning their opponent to open this game, at the 3:21 mark, Marooned grabbed hold of the early momentum and never gave it back, as Jamie Kehoe scored from the left point off a clean faceoff win by Mike Duggan (who was very impressive at the faceoff dot all game). Marooned never panicked during that early first five-minute onslaught. Rather, they patiently waited for defensive mistakes to occur (which they did) by White Lies in their own defensive zone. At the end of the first period, Marooned had a surprising 2-0 lead while getting outshot by a 12-9 margin.
As the second period played out, one observation was (as expected) Dave Norton was doing what he needed to do to get his scoring chances, but defenders were not giving him open opportunities. Shots were being taken from anywhere to get the ball to the net. On the other hand, the top gun for Marooned, Mike Duggan was playing a more strategic defensive role in the middle, and taking advantage of opportunities that opened up for him. Both teams generated scoring opportunities but there were both goalies Dale and Sean Roach snuffing these out, keeping this a two-goal game. Both team’s defenses starting controlling the pace of play. Sustained offensive zone time was limited as it was a one and done scoring opportunity then the ball moved out of the zone. Running three defensemen, Marooned continued to make smart defensive zone decisions with short breakout passes to relieve the forechecking pressure. Both teams continued to block or deflect a lot of shots, as open shots were held in check.
The best scoring chances in the period (and the game) were both by White Lies. First, Dan Poireir Jr. jumped on a rare defensive zone turnover on the right wing and ripped off a bullet of a wrist shot headed for the short side top corner that Dale attacked and flashed his glove taking away a sure goal. It was the save of the game! Second, Dave Norton had the ball in the left circle and drew multiple defenders to him and passed between the circles for a potential two-on-none chance. Only to have the ball go slightly behind his team mate preventing him from getting a full shot off that Dale smothered. At the end of the second period, it was still Marooned 2 and White Lies 0, with White Lies outshooting their opponent by a 21-17 differential.
As the third period started, this reporter noticed how Marooned sat back and stacked the blue offsides line that forced White Lines to resort to dumping the ball in or continuing to just settle for long shots on net. No one on White Lies tried to make a play to work the ball in past this defensive strategy. White Lies stayed with this long shot strategy and did not adjust in game. As soon as the ball was dumped in or shot on net, the sooner the defense would get the ball back out, or Dale would tie up and let Mike Duggan continue to do what he had been doing all game (winning and dominating most of his faceoffs). Marooned was content to sit back and not generate much offense and patiently wait for a White Lies turnover and make them pay. At 6:44, that strategy paid off as Mike Duggan was perfectly positioned in the middle of his defensive zone and jumped on a loose ball over by the White Lies bench. He got sealed off by the defense but still moved forward to break free along the boards in the right circle to snipe a top corner wrist shot past the goalie from a tough angle. It was an impact play at the right time and insurance goal that gave Marooned a commanding lead and put this game out of reach. With the goalie pulled, Mike scored an empty net goal for the final score. Final score was Marooned shutting out White Lies by a 4-0 score, while getting outshot 31 shots to 21.
On the way to the Finals, Marooned entered the playoffs as the number 2 seed, earned their way to the Finals with a gritty blue-collar effort in the semifinals against Tealsters Union with a 2-1 win. Ray Nickerson was the star of this game as he factored in on both goals scored by his team with 1-goal and 1-assist, including the game winner. Mike Duggan played more of the set-up role than his usual goal scorer role and assisted on both goals his team scored.
For White Lies, the sixth-place seed had a true Cinderella playoff run, while playing short-handed. First, in the quarterfinals they routed the third seed Sandbaggers to the tune of 9-5 as Dave Norton was impressive in scoring 5-goals while adding 3-assists as he factored in on every goal his team scored except one. They topped that impressive effort with an even more impressive performance, as again they played short-handed in the semifinals, to upset and surprise the number one seed and consensus playoff favorite Black Magic by the score of 4-2. Again, it was the Dave Norton show, as he scored a hat trick for his second game winning goal of the playoffs.
For his efforts throughout the playoffs by scoring 2-goals and 1-assist, with both goals scored as game winners in two close low scoring games, Ray Nickerson earned the Playoff MVP award. Congratulations Ray on winning your first-ever Playoff MVP award.
Congratulations to first time winners of the league championship, Tony Rolli and Rob Valley.
Congratulations to captain Jamie Kehoe who finally won a championship as team captain on his fifth trip to the Finals.
Congratulations to the Marooned team on winning the Winter 2023 championship of the Over-30 league. Players include: Captain Jamie Kehoe, Mike Duggan, Manny Nunes, Ray Nickerson, Tony Rolli, Don Maccini, John Mastrocola, John Carey, Bob Snyder, Rob Valley and Dale McIsaac.
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