Spring Season - Week Two - March 3rd

- Week One is in the books and saw both games end in a 1-1 tie, an unusual way to start the season but all teams appear to have great balance so it is unlikely to see many blowout games this season.

- Emaan and Ihsan opened up the season in a good rivalry game between Cambridge and Drake and his crew.  Ihsan came in missing their top defenseman in Farrukh Khan and reigning playoff MVP Osama Soliman while Emaan was without Furqan Salam.  A close game ensued with Ihsan displaying their solid team defense which blocked shots and played a tight game in the defensive zone and whenever Emaan did manage to get a chance, Zaid Majoo was there to turn it away.  Emaan did get a solid performance from Yusuf Kapoor with one highlight reel save with his glove.

- Sabr and Haya was a tale of two halves as Haya dominated the first half and took a 1-0 lead as new Sabr goalie Ahmad Mobin kept his team in it with some great saves while the second half saw Sabr pull themselves together and dominate stretches of play to tie it up but were not able to beat Haya goalie Khalid Mufti to take a lead.  

- There have been questions about the schedule for this season so a quick explanation, the season must be completed before the start of Ramadan and with the arena not being available some weeks it resulted in teams playing double headers.  For last week and this week, the arena was already booked by another group which is what caused the initial two-week break after Week One.  We were advised on Monday that the other group cancelled their booking for this week and a request was sent to GMs to see if their team would be available to play this week and eliminate one of the two double headers each team was scheduled to play.  Four teams did choose to play this week so we are back in action.  Taqwa and Haya were not able to play this week so it will be interesting to see how the double headers play out and makes them question their decision to not play.

- Since we only have four teams choosing to play in Week Two, the 8pm timeslot is being used for pcikup instead.  The names noted below have signed up and are asked to please bring $5 for participating:
Team Ansaar: Dressing Room One, Wear white/light colour:
1. Ahmad Ibrahim
2. Farrukh Khan
3. Zaid Majoo - Goalie
4. Saqib Sheikh
5. Amad Khan
6. Salman Khalid - Captain
7. Ahmad Mobin
8. Usamah Rao
9. Jaudat Wasty
10. Samad Hamidi
11. Ozair Naveed
12. Umar Muhammad
13. Imran Lankanpal
14. Nadeem Faqiri
15. Saad Khan

Team Ulaama: Dressing Room Three, wear dark colour
1. Arssal Shahabuddin - Captain
2. Atif Mian
3. Kashif Taqiuddin
4. Tanseer Khawaja
5. Hamza Waheed
6. Rehan Lakhani
7. Azim Siddique
8. Naeem Akhtar
9. Kaunain Saiyed - Goalie
10. Fuzail Thakur
11. Naveed Mohammad
12. Rayhan Taqiuddin
13. Arif Khan

The Three Stars from Week One:
1st Star: Khalid Mufti (Haya): 19 saves
2nd Star: Ahmad Mobin (Sabr): 15 saves
3rd Star: Salman Khalid (Emaan): 1 assist, 0 saves. 

- Ihsan expects Farrukh Khan to be back in the lineup this week, there are reports that Khan was in Hollywood to help his former colleagues at Price Waterhouse Coopers out with distributing the envelopes out at the Oscars.  No word if Khan played any part in the Best Picture fiasco.

- Emaan surprisingly has the league leaders for Scoring, goals and penalties after Week One.  Abdu Sharkawy leads the way in Scoring and Goals but unexpectedly it is Salman Alvi who tops the league in penalties after a pair of tripping penalties in the season opener.

- If Week One is any indication of how the season will unfold, expect majority of the games to be close affairs.  Looks like not much separate these teams so it could very well come down to which team’s goaltender can make that extra save when the game is on the line.