Fire Climb Out of Last in Final Week

Second and fifth places were the prizes up for grabs in the final week of the regular season. On Monday night, the Chill and the Fire squared off to avoid finishing last. Five different Fire players scored at least 2 goals, and first star Jeff McCarthy stopped 47 shots to lead the Fire to a 13-8 win. The Chill were plagued yet again by attendance problems, dressing only five players for the contest. “No excuses, but we were tired”, was captain David Watson’s excuse after the game. For their part, the Fire were without their leader Harvey Snelgrove, who was bedridden with an undisclosed illness. It was later revealed that Snelgrove’s impassioned address to the team from his sickbed was more than enough motivation for his club.

Thursday night’s early game pitted the Lynx against the Lite-Sabres in a battle for the 2nd place bye. It was a back-and-forth affair for the first two periods, until the Lynx scored five straight goals to open a 9-5 lead in the third. The Sabres would not quit, however, scoring 3 times, twice in the last minute to pull within 9-8. But after one last gasp shot was stopped by Tony McCarthy, the Lynx escaped with the victory. Mark Leblanc led the way with a 7 point night, and Spiro Bokolas tallied 4 goals and 4 assists in a losing cause.

This result rendered the season’s final game matching the Hackers and Slayers meaningless, and though they dressed a full roster for the first time all year, the Slayers never seriously challenged the League’s first place team. Jeff Shute was named first star with a 6-goal performance. In his first game back after missing two games following reconstructive dental surgery, Hacker defenseman Darren Derocher scored a highlight reel goal, rushing end-to-end and beating Graham Dodge to the stick side.

The quarter-finals are set for next week: the Lite-Sabres will meet the Chill Monday, followed by the Fire and Slayers Thursday.

Notes: Not counting the inaugural season (when everyone was a rookie), Leblanc became the third rookie to lead the League in scoring, joining Shawn Currie in 2000B and Rob Tyrrell in 2001B…Leblanc joined Tyrrell as the only 50-goal scorers other than in 2000B. Each had 56. The Chill’s Andrew Mercer finished with 49…After starting the season 0-5, the Fire enter the playoffs with a 3-game unbeaten streak, tied with the Lynx for the League’s current longest…The Chill and Lite-Sabres will meet for the first time in a meaningful post-season matchup; they met twice in 2000B and 2001B in the now-defunct Consolation Game.