Week Thirteen - January 15th - Playoffs

- Then there were two as Ikhlas and Sabr now remain and will meet in the finals to decide this seasons champion.  A brief summary of the Semi-Finals:

• Sabr came in as the 6th seed against 1st seed Shukr but you wouldn't have known it as the game progressed.  Shukr had a flurry of chances early which they were unable to convert and Sabr managed to build a 2-1 lead at the half.  Shukr dominated parts of the second half with good possession and movement but were never able to make the final pass to get a great scoring chance.  Despite two power plays in the final seven minutes Shukr couldn't get the goal they needed to tie and an empty netter for Sabr in the final seconds iced it.
• Ikhlas came out flying against Ihsan and an early goal from Farrukh Khan set the tone as they managed to pin Ihsan deep and limit their offensive chances.  A goal by Farooq Sani put them up 2-0 and they locked it up the rest of the way.

- The Shukr upset loss comes as a surprise but at the same time does it?  Once again the first place team in the regular season has failed to win, continuing the dubious streak of regular season success not translating to post season glory.  This Shukr team had it all, three strong forward lines, solid defense and great goaltending.  They went undefeated in the regular season and seemed poised to win it all but just could not get their offense going - ironic considering they had the most goals scored in the regular season.

- Sabr now has as many wins in the playoffs (two) as they did all regular season and have toppled the third and first seeds and will now face the second seed in the finals.  An opportunity to take out the top three seeds to win the championship is an unusual path to a title to say the least.

- Post-game after Ihsan's loss, Coach K noted that Waqar Khan was instrumental for Ikhlas, commenting, "He used everything I taught him last season against me this night."

- Amir Multani made a surprise appearance on Friday and took a position behind the Ikhlas bench acting as their coach, his contributions seemed dubious at best considering he didn't seem to do or say much but he took credit for the win none-the-less.

- Sabr seems to be embracing their role as underdogs, before their game against Shukr they joked about breaking playoff brackets and after the win captain Huzaifa Manjra excitedly yelled "How you like us now?  I told you i'm Cinderella" apparently meaning that Sabr is a Cinderella Team.

- During his teams celebrations for their win over Ihsan, Umair Ashraf of Ikhlas was careful to not make any statements about being ready for marriage this time....what will happen after the finals is anyone's guess.

- Looking towards the finals, Ikhlas and Sabr split their regular season series with Ikhlas winning the first meeting 6-2 and Sabr getting a 3-2 win in the second match-up.

- The key match-up will be Waqar Khan vs Ahmad Hathout who have finished 1-2 in scoring the past two seasons and met in the Spring Season finals where Khan emerged as the winner.

- Video Recap for the Quarter Final game between Emaan vs Ihsan has been posted
- Video Recap for the Quarter Final game between Haya vs Sabr has been posted

Week Twelve - January 8th - Playoffs

- The first round of the playoffs is done and we now look forward to the Semi-Finals, but first a short review of what transpired in the opening round:

• Ihsan defeated shorthanded Emaan by a 2-0 score in a game that was a lot closer than expected considering the players available.  Ihsan also got a stellar effort from Sumeer Subedar in net to close the door on Emaan’s offense.
• Sabr shocked the world with a 4-0 upset win over Haya, many wondered what would happen if they had their key players show up and on this day we found out.

- Emaan ends their season on a disappointing note and came out of their playoff loss feeling as though they had a great chance to advance if they had their full line-up.  Missing Yousuf Soliman, Hany Soliman, Walied Soliman and Naiem Malik was too much.  Essentially their top line and top defenseman were AWOL.  Their second and third line stepped up brilliantly but the short bench wore them down as the game progressed.

- The fall of Haya comes as a shock considering that going into Week Nine they were in a good position to move into second place and a chance for first.  Instead a humbling 5-1 loss to Emaan followed by a 4-1 loss to Shukr had them stumbling into the playoffs but this 4-0 loss was not something any would have expected.  

- One last point about the first round, for the first time in history both higher seeds were toppled, resulting in a Semi-Final bracket of 1 vs 6 and 2 vs 5, it isn’t March but somewhere fans are complaining about their busted brackets.

- Shukr and Sabr open the night with a first vs worst match-up.  Shukr won both regular season meetings by 6-4 and 8-2 final scores and boast the best offence and best defence in the league from the regular season.  So Sabr has their work cut out for them but last week they showed that if they have their full lineup they are able to compete (and defeat) opponents.  

- Shukr will be led by Atif Mian who has blossomed into a dynamic forward and with his great speed and agility is a consistent threat to score

- Sabr will need another strong game on defense from Luqman Arshad who missed many games during the regular season but was a beast in the Quarter-Final with a goal and two assists while playing lockdown D.

- An under-rated match-up will be between the pipes, Yusuf Kapoor has quietly become a pillar of strength in net over the past few seasons and will be counted on again by Shukr in this one.  For Sabr they have Zaid Majoo who has been forced to play through injury and short benched team in front of him.  As shown in their win last week, when he has a team in front of him that isn’t gassed he can make the saves and get his team the win.

- The other Semi-Final match-up between Ikhlas and Ihsan will be interesting.  It pits Coach K against his prodigy from the summer season in Waqar Khan.  Coach K took credit for Khan’s success in the spring where he won every award he was nominated for; Coach K says that having worked with Khan he so much knows how to shut him down.

- Ihsan will look for their youngsters to give them another great game as happened last week.  The trio of Humza Chaudhry, Arslan Mian and Humza Ali created a number of great chances.  The duo of Chaudhry and Mian were particularly strong, finishing with a combined goal and three assists.  

- Ikhlas is coming off the bye and hope the break hasn’t given them too much rust considering their last game was on December 11th in a 3-2 loss to Ihsan.  The season series between these teams saw the teams each win a game with both matches decided by a goal.

- Coach K had his struggles during the season but has claimed that the hard work put in by his team to learn his system paid dividends with a win over Emaan in the first round and he expects another win here against Ikhlas.

- Ikhlas needs to be concerned coming into this game having lost their last three and after a layoff but with the talent they have there is no reason why they should not make a strong start to their playoffs.