Friday December 15 (Round 1,playoffs)

(5)Stones vs Blacksox(4)

Late push not enough for Blacksox

Although the Stones were spotty for 40 minutes, the same couldn't be said for the third period where they barely hung on. But despite the hard finish, what counts is that they got the result to move on to the next round. Sometimes it takes an unlikely hero to come through and make the difference. In tonight's case, J.Pizzuco was that player for the Stones. The stay at home defenseman was behind providing some vital offense that involved two big goals along with an assist. It was just a week ago that the Blacksox thumped the Stones with a hard 11-8 win. With that in mind, the Stones knew they had a hard challenge ahead of them which forced everyone to play a full out 45 minute game.

(7)Hawks vs Devil Dawgz(6)

Goaltending duel boils down to last shot on net

The way the game was going, both sides knew that every shot on net would count. P.Assadi of the Hawks and S.Sauk of the Devil Dawgz were clearly the targets in this contest. Both teams had the weapons to fire away and made sure to do so as many goals went in from-slap shots. For the Hawks, E. Girouard shoots it better than anyone. His one timer has to be one of the most effective in the division and tonight it showed as four came off his quick swing of the ball. Of course it helps having the right player setting you up. S.Govas controlled most of the game and patiently waited to feed his line up resulting in four points.

The SalumiVino player of the night goes to Joe Pizzuco of the Stones. Sometimes it takes that one player to have an extraordinary game and J.Pizzuco was that guy on this particular night. If not for his two goals and one assist, the Stones would be home celebrating the holidays instead of playing a semi final round.

The Masters' 35+ division is now down to only four teams. The HBHA Seniors and Bijoux skipped the opening round for capturing the top two spots and will return to action against tonight's winners. The match ups are as follows:

(1)HBHA Seniors vs Stones(4) Recent history has shown that the Stones give plenty of problems to the HBHA Seniors. Despite the rankings, and going up against the two time defending champs, the Stones have the elements to move forward. But it will take every aspect of their game to work on all cylinders in order to defeat a team like the HHA Seniors.

(2)Bijoux vs Hawks(3) Here is a match up involving two teams unfamiliar with one another. They only met once with both sides missing players. What is known however is that Bijoux has the goaltending that can take them past this round. If the Hawks get their net minder playing up to the task, then they'll have a great shot, if not, look for Bijoux to punch their ticket to the final.