Week Six – October 24th

- Sabr and Ihsan come into this week in 1^st/2^nd and a game in hand over the other two teams in Tier-1, a big thing considering how tight the standings are right now

- Emaan faces Ihsan, a re-match of week one where Ihsan coasted to a 3-1 win and a win this week would put them in a great position down the stretch. 

- Sabr currently is tied for first but their offence needs to step it up as they only have eight goals so far and seemed to have lacked their usual offensive flow, the acquisition of Luqman Arshad earlier in the season seems to have helped their ball movement but time will tell if they can finish consistently

- Some injury news as Emaan has reportedly lost Haseeb Syed to a knee injury and Taqwa lost Camran Baig to a wrist injury.  While both players are expected to be replaced,  both were big pieces for their teams and will be missed.  Emaan is also missing Waqar Khan who may or may not be getting married overseas if you believe the rumour mill (the Facebook rumour mill - not this one)

- Despite some great players on defence, Taqwa managed to lose their lead late to Emaan last week in a game that ended in a 4-4 tie; lack of discipline was part of the issue as they gave Emaan late power plays but an overall weak team defence was obvious with forwards not working well with their defence to cover the defensive zone

- Waseem Kalair is putting up an early bid for defenseman of the year honours. The veteran has looked excellent in stopping the opposition on rushes and even more impressive in generating offence for his team

- After 4 games played Haya has a whopping shooting percentage of 40% (20 goals on 50 attempts). Their high octane offence is also 2/4 on power plays. Chances are the opposition will get bit if they visit the sin-bin

- Ikhlas forward Wakaas Khan earned the ire and disapproval of Yaqeen and spectators for scoring a meaningless goal in the final seconds when the game was considered over.   Safe to say his actions were noted and teams will be on alert in the final stages of the game when playing Ikhlas

- Ridha wins their first game using the “Rope-a-Dope” strategy. While Ridha was pounded with a relentless attack from Yaqeen, GM Farooq Sani commented on how is team “planned” on weathering the storm and then they’ll strike back at the right time when Yaqeen tires.   Apparently that’s just what happened.   Immediately after the team switched to the neutral zone trap and outlasted the clock for the win

- Heated words were exchanged when two bigs collided, specifically Nadeem Qureshi and Mohammed Hamoud.   After the exchange of pleasantries we can assure you the next Ridha-Shukr game will have some added spice to it

- Waseem Bangash has six goals this season, more than the entire roster of either Ridha or Yaqeen who both have only five goals.  He is on pace for another monster year offensively and seems to have flourished under the leadership of Coach K who has built his offence around this goal scoring powerhouse

- Zuhd exploded for seven goals in their last game, a great feat if they had not surrendered six goals so while their offence seems to be in great shape it is their team defence that needs some attention now

- Yaqeen endured a painful collapse against Ikhlas where they had a power play with 2:56 left in a tied game but were unable to score and ended up surrendering three goals in the final 35 seconds of the game – one being an empty netter.  It has been that type of season for Yaqeen where they outplay teams but bounces just do not go their way.  This week, they get a rematch against Shukr that trashed them 5-0 early in the season and this is their chance to start turn things around

- Haya's Coach K was upset with his team after their collapse to Zuhd last week, Haya had a 6-4 lead with five minutes left but managed to give up three goals down the stretch including the winner with just 10 seconds; watch for his team to come out strong against Ikhlas this week the teams are currently tied for first place and Haya feels that their big offence averaging five goals a game will overwhelm their opponents