| by the CMM.com Editorial Staff (posted 11/19) – CAHA II was a weekend filled with ponderables. Consider that after two days of non-stop, hard-hitting hockey action (not just the 16AA games but also the AAA Stars v Jr Sharks and the University of Oregon Ducks v San Jose State University Spartans), a 9-1-1 call from the rink resulted in two fire engines and an ambulance rushing over to tend to a public skater who suffered a broken arm. Ironically, this occurred during the Heat v Gulls grudge re-match – everyone crowded into the South rink to see if the teams’ dads were going to reprise their verbal battle from earlier in the month at Escondido (Ref: SoCal-Hockey.com for the blow-by-blow details from November 2nd). Also, how come the most high-tech ice rink around, located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, one which we all know from the Labor Day tournament is totally wire up to its ass in circuitry (I.e. the scoreboards are hard wired into the facility's data system which can be accessed online and which automatically creates electronic scoresheets), couldn’t figure a way to post the CAHA game scores? Nobody could visually piece together the game scores to figure out how it all fits into the big picture. Ultimately it was all up to little ole me, scribbling game results on the back of a Stanley’s Sports Bar napkin with a hotel pen. I had to work the crowds - "excuse me, what was the score of your game last night against the Ice Dogs? Oh, 1-0? Wow, what a tough game..... ahhh, did you win or lose? Oh, you lost - I'm sorry - well thanks for your help." I felt like a real leech which is why I would never make a successful paparazzi. California's Team - Back in the late 1970s, NFL Films anointed the Dallas Cowboys as “America’s Team” due to their overall popularity across the nation. The nickname stuck and is still used at times to this day. During the 1990’s the MLB Atlanta Braves became America’s Team due to the fact that the team’s games were viewed nationwide on Ted Turner’s super-station TBS. This weekend at CAHA II in San Jose, a new team was tagged perhaps not America’s Team, but certainly “California’s Team”. The California Heat is everybody’s favorite. They marched through the weekend fairly easily, winning all four games including 3-1 over the powerful Anaheim Jr Ducks. They stand alone in first place with a perfect 9-0-0 record and are masters of all they survey. And everybody roots for them to win, and to win big - especially now that they’ve beaten over half the teams in the league. Nobody wants another team to beat the Heat and earn two valuable points in the standings. You see, when the Heat win, it doesn’t matter because they host the 2009 USA Hockey Pacific District championships and thus get an automatic berth into that event. They are a worthy host team but more importantly, exempt from playing in the State playoffs. If the Heat lose a CAHA weekend game, the team that beats them gets two points nobody else has – as valuable as a 1933 double-eagle gold coin. That’s why you get the big crowds at Heat games and that’s why everybody wants California’s Team to win, Win, WIN. GO HEAT!!! Kick some ASS!!! The Top Five - Last month, things still looked pretty murky after CAHA I. Teams won and teams lost but observers had difficulty working out what it all meant. After this weekend’s results, the shadows acquire more definition and we can start to draw some conclusions. Like last season’s 16AA league, we appear to have the makings of a solid Top 5: Heat, Wave, Jr Ducks, Jr Kings and Stars Black. They each won at least two-thirds of their games and have a solid positive goal differential (in fact, these are the only teams that even have a positive goal differential). We’ll give the Stars a mulligan for that loss on Friday night of CAHA I, when they shockingly dropped a 3-0 decision to the Saints, still the biggest upset score of the season. The significance in being in the top five comes from the old days (err, two years ago) when only the teams in the first five places in the standings advanced to the Tier II State Championships. This season, the remaining twelve teams in the league will engage in a free for all to determine who gets one of the remaining four playoff slots (remember, omit the Heat in this equation). Obviously, the ones who survive will be those that can win the most games among its peers – I.e. win the games you can win and keep accumulating those points in the standings. Once you reach the playoffs, anything can happen with a hot goalie or a team that gets on a roll. In the meantime, games we wouldn’t have expected to be significant became all important – games like Lightning 92 v Titans and Cougars v Jets were huge. Weekend Observations - The talk of the town was the one we’ll refer to as the Bearded Boy from Beantown - the California Cougars’ suburb goaltender who reportedly attends prep school in the northeast and flies in only for the CAHA weekends. On Saturday night, a large crowd witnessed him about single-handedly preserve a 2-2 tie with the Jr Kings, who desperately tried to score the go-ahead goal. In the last four minutes of the game, even the Cougar defenders seemed like mere spectators. One local observer noted that Coach Mario has a knack for digging up these gems from atypical sources….. Beach City Lightning (2) won three of four games this weekend to post an overall 5-3-0 record, currently good for sixth place in the standings. They beat BCL(1) on Sunday afternoon 4-2 to once-and-for-all lay to rest which Lightning team is the dominant force in that universe….. There sure were a lot of people crowded along the South rink boards, in the grandstand and above in Stanley’s on Saturday night to watch the Heat and Jr Ducks go at it. The two teams did not disappoint – the game was terrific, with the Heat winning 3-1. Unfortunately not as many people got to take in the other big game of the weekend, Jr Kings v Wave which took place in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday. By then, many teams were done and heading home while others were busy checking out of hotels. In this other match-up of unbeaten 16AA heavyweights, the Wave won 3-1….. Of the predictions we made for CAHA II in the Preview column last week, most of them were pretty close to the mark. The significant misses include the fact that the Jr Kings aren’t going to be 11-0-0 before suffering their first loss – getting only five points certainly tarnishes the crown. Also, the Heat proved three losses this weekend, let alone just one, was not within the realm of possibility – we stand corrected. OC certainly proved to be schizophrenic, picking up only three points after playing so well the past two weekends. We gotta cut them a huge break though – it must have been tough to concentrate on hockey with so much uncertainty swirling back home with Yorba Linda burning. The fire department issued an evacuation order for Ice Palace on Saturday….. A quick look at the Escondido CAHA III schedule indicates that a few interesting games are coming up. We mentioned in the Preview that the January CAHA would prove to be the undefeated Wave’s big test as they take on the Jr Ducks and Stars Black in consecutive games. In the fight for the bottom four playoff slots, BCL92 v OCHC, BCL92 v Gulls, and Jets v Titans will be real battlegrounds. That’s a wrap - Everybody have a great Thanksgiving. As we write this, it appears the Glacial Garden tournament is putting the final touches on its Midget 16AAA division, which will include the Jr Kings 16AA, Heat 16AA and LA Selects Bantam AAA. We’re still waiting for the final schedule. The CMM.com staff will be spending the holidays in Colorado and promises to pack the power cord to the PC this time around. Keep sending in those scores. |
| CAHA Tier II Weekend #2 - Recap |
