- The Emaan vs Sabr game was a chippy affair with a lot of offsetting penalties for physical play and this one went right down to the wire. Emaan had an early 2-0 lead and a 3-1 lead with four minutes left in the game but Sabr kept working hard and the combo of Zaid Toorawa and Atif Mian sparked the comeback as the duo set up goals by Mustafa Alam and Azhar Kalair. But despite the great push from Sabr they could not get the game winner in the final seconds which is what they needed to bump Emaan for a playoff spot.
- Sabr also got a great performance from Zayd Agjee who made some spectacular saves to keep his team in it and give them a chance for the win. He was a
- The season is over for Ikhlas and Sabr, both face the disappointment for not advancing with very different points of view. For Ikhlas they were eliminated a couple of weeks ago and the combo of player absenteeism and some blowout losses to start the season doomed them. Ikhlas was to be featured around All-Star Goalie Ibad Khan who is one of the best around - therein lies the problem as he wasn’t around often enough for his team playing only five games. Missing arguably your best player is a recipe for disaster which is what the rest of the squad seemed to endure. Weak performances from some of their top draft picks certainly didn’t help the cause.
- For their season finale, Ikhlas was forced to call Ahmad Mobin to fill in for them between the pipes, it wasn’t clear if Ikhlas brass were hoping Mobin could carry them as he did last Spring Season where he almost repeatedly stood on his head to bail them out long enough to steal a win but that didn’t happen this day. Mobin faced more shots than he may have expected after a long layoff and made some big saves but wasn’t able to recreate last season’s magic for Ikhlas.
- Sabr came within a goal of making the playoffs but came up just short and looking back there were some close losses that hurt them but the loss to Ikhlas (for that teams only win of the season) has to particularly sting. Sabr had great balance on paper and coming out of the draft (assisted by Waseem “the Dream” Bangash) things looked up but little mistakes along the way cost them their chance at a championship. The team got great individual performances from Zaid Toorawa (2 goals, 7 assists) and Atif Mian (2 goals, 6 assists) and the growth of those two should be something to watch for next season.
- After their gruelling game with Sabr last week, an Emaan player summed up the effort with a simple, “we did enough to get it done and derail the TooToo train” in a veiled reference to Sabr’s Zaid Toorawa.
- Shukr ground out a win over Haya in a game where both teams had a short bench, Shukr with three subs and Haya with two subs. Shukr got a massive effort from Arssal Shahabuddin who was forced to play the entire game on D and scored his teams first goal on a spectacular solo effort.
- Ahmad Hathout wins the scoring title with 6 goals and 14 assists; edging out Waqar Khan from Emaan (8 goals, 10 assists). Players from Emaan felt their captain got robbed pointing to Hathout picking up 7 points in the final two games against last place Ikhlas and one of those game without a goalie.
- Playoff match-ups are set and should provide some great action.
- Shukr will face Emaan in what will be a great contrast in styles as Emaan’s high octane offence will face Shukr’s defensive approach to games. Emaan’s defence is solid as well while Shukr’s offence is anemic having scored almost half as many goals as Emaan did this season. Emaan has struggled in their last few games but they have a deep team and high ball hockey IQ. In the regular season, Emaan won the first meeting 6-1 while the second meeting ended in a 1-1 tie.
- Haya will face Ihsan in another solid match-up. Haya swept the season series with 3-2 and 5-3 wins. Haya struggled in their final two regular season games (tie and a loss) while Ihsan comes in hot (a pair of 6-1 wins) but considering Haya locked up a playoff spot long ago they didn’t have much to play for whereas Ihsan was in a battle to grab the final playoff spot. This one will down to a battle of the Malik’s vs the tag team of Soliman/Hathout’s.
- Emaan Captain Waqar Khan stated he expects a big playoff performance from Umair Ashraf who has had a notable season with various mentions in this column. Hopefully he doesn’t take another tumble like this one.
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