I-Slam Ball Hockey News and Rumours: 2018

- Game One of the finals saw Yaqeen roll over Haya by a 4-0 score. Yaqeen got a power play goal early and never really looked back as they caught Haya unprepared for the pressure of the finals. Was it too much hubris from Haya and their expected undefeated run this season that caused their fall or is Yaqeen that good? Only Game Two will tell us.

Three Stars of the Week for December 14th:
1st Star: Suleman Bhatti (Yaqeen): 2 Goals + 1 Assist
2nd Star: Fahad Mohammad (Yaqeen): 19 Saves, Shutout
3rd Star: Maaz Haq (Yaqeen): 1 Goal + 1 Assist

- At halftime, Haya GM Salman Khalid gave his team a passionate speech about showing pride and playing for each other being down 3-0 at that point. A positive speech from one of the great leaders in the league seemed to give Haya a bit of a boost to tighten up in their game.

- Some observers criticized Yaqeen for trying to score late in the game, something that seemed to irk a few players on Haya at the final buzzer and resulted in some tension to end the game.

- There are reports that both teams will be missing a key player tonight, Yaqeen missing Farooq Sani and Haya without Yasin Admani. Both have been key players for their respective teams so it will be up the the remaining players available to fill in the gaps.

- The path tonight for Haya is simple, they have to win Game Two in order to force overtime (AKA Game Three) and have a chance at the championship.

- After the finals, the award winners for this season will be announced so be sure to show up to celebrate the season!

REGULAR SEASON MVP
(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Mohammad Bilal (Sabr): _______
Kaunain Saiyed (Ikhlas): _______
Huzaifa Panchbhaya (Taqwa):_____
Ajmal Esmatyar (Ihsan): ______
Zubair Wahid (Emaan): _____
Maaz Haq (Yaqeen): ______
Yasin Admani (Haya): _____
Sufyan Kazi (Shukr): _____
Yusuf Ingar (Ridha): ______

BEST DEFENSIVE-FORWARD(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Ali Murtaza (Sabr): _______
Salman Syed (Ikhlas): _______
Ibrahim Hindy (Taqwa):_____
Faraaz Alvi (Ihsan): ______
Rizwan Hassan (Emaan): _____
Farooq Sani (Yaqeen): ______
Yasin Admani (Haya): _____
Arslan Mian (Shukr): _____
Mohamed Kazi (Ridha): ______

BEST DEFENSEMAN

(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Razi Ahmed (Sabr): _______
Emmad Khawaja (Ikhlas): _______
Humza Hussain (Taqwa):_____
Huzaifa Manjra (Ihsan): ______
Zubair Wahid (Emaan): _____
Arssal Shahabuddin (Yaqeen): ______
Sadat Malik (Haya): _____
Belal Hafeez (Shukr): _____
Umair Ingar (Ridha): ______

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Ahmar Wasif (Sabr): _______
Huzaifa Panchbhaya (Taqwa):_____
Abdur Nafea Zuberi (Ihsan): ______
Emran Singh (Emaan): _____
Suleman Bhatti (Yaqeen): ______
Mohamed Ahmed Quraishi (Haya): _____
Yahya Ingar (Ridha): ______

BROTHERHOOD AWARD(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Ali Khwaja (Sabr): _______
Umair Ashraf (Ikhlas): _______
Usamah Rao (Taqwa):_____
Farhan Siddiqui (Ihsan): ______
Khizer Lakhanpal (Emaan): _____
Maaz Haq (Yaqeen): ______
Samad Hamidi (Haya): _____
Kashif Taqiuddin (Shukr): _____
Mohsin Mehboob (Ridha): ______

TOP GOALTENDER(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Ali Khwaja (Sabr): _______
Kaunain Saiyed (Ikhlas): _______
Ahmad Mobin Taqwa):_____
Mohammad Kasuji (Ihsan): ______
Yasir Hussain (Emaan): _____
Fahad Mohammad (Yaqeen): ______
Yusuf Kapoor (Haya): _____
Zaid Majoo (Shukr): _____
Mohammed Patel (Ridha): ______

TOP GMs(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)

Yellow-(Sabr): _______
Green- (Ikhlas): _______
Black- (Taqwa):_____
Teal- (Ihsan): ______
Orange- (Emaan): _____
White- (Yaqeen): ______
Grey-(Haya): _____
Red-(Shukr): _____
Dark Blue (Ridha): ______

List of Unsung Hero-Winners:

*these winners were selected by the team’s respective GMs

Yellow-(Sabr): Ahmad Ibrahim

Green- (Ikhlas): Ibrahim Khan

Black- (Taqwa): Ibrahim Butt

Teal- (Ihsan): Tayyib Khan

Orange- (Emaan): Brian Beauvais

White- (Yaqeen): Ahsan Wasif

Black-(Haya): Jawad Majeed

Red-(Shukr): Yousuf Chatha

Dark Blue (Ridha): Belal Ahmad

Details for Registration for the Winter Season starting in January - spots are filling up so do not wait!

2019 I-Slam Hockey Spring Season Registration

Registration Begins Today!
Registration ends once all spots are filled!

Please secure your spot immediately as spots are extremely limited.

Cost:
Register as an Individual Player: $155

Location: The Hanger
(75 Carl Hall Rd, North York, ON M3K 2B9)

Goaltenders are advised to email hockey@i-slam.ca prior to registering as spots are very limited.
Timings: Games are played on Fridays beginning at 8PM and ending at 11PM
Regular Season Start: Friday January 11th, 2019
Divisions: Only one Tier (Competitive and Recreational)
Registration Includes: League participation and a free ultra-lite hockey jersey for each player!
Want to run a team?: Email hockey@i-slam.ca and submit your duo GM group!

How To Register:

Send your registration fee payment via Email Money Transfer to hockey@i-slam.ca (Through your TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, ING or other Online Banking website!)
Email hockey@i-slam.ca with your e-transfer password
Please fill out the registration form by clicking here.

Please note that spots will NOT be held through partial payment – registration is deemed complete upon payment of FULL funds AND completion of the registration form!

Thank you and Assalamu Alaikum.
I-Slam Hockey

Make sure to follow us and get your friends to follow us as well (this is another way you can help grow the league!):

- If you somehow missed it, here are some of the Video clips the league has put up to start the season:

- Live Draft

- Post-Draft Analysis
- Draft Behind the Scenes

- Listen in on our First League Podcast! Belal Hafeez of Shukr drops in with some health and fitness tips.

- Listen in on Podcast Two featuring Abdu Sharkawy and Ahmad "Black Panther" Ibrahim who weigh in on a number of topics

Make sure to follow us and get your friends to follow us as well (this is another way you can help grow the league!):
Facebook: I-Slam Hockey
Twitter: iSlamHockey
Instagram: IslamHockeyCanada
Youtube: IslamBallHockey

- The Semi-Final round completed last week with Haya and Yaqeen punching their ticket to advance to the Finals. Haya started the night with a 3-3 tie with Shukr where they did enough to get a tie and advance while Yaqeen had to face Sabr who was missing most of their key players which resulted in a 6-1 win for Yaqeen who advanced.

- Haya did just enough to advance to the finals as they squeaked out a 3-3 tie with Shukr who played a good game but little mistakes cost them as Haya picked up some easy goals with blown defensive coverage to keep the game tied up.

- Sabr was sent home after a resounding defeat at the hands of Yaqeen and will look back at what might have been, their final game saw them missing many key players which put them at a large disadvantage which Yaqeen was more than happy to take advantage of.

- Haya's Samad Hamidi was commenting after his teams win that he has already assessed the strengths and weaknesses of Yaqeen and expects his team to win both games in the Finals match-up to end the season undefeated. To this point his predictions have been correct as he guaranteed that Haya would defeat Shukr in the Semifinals but it was closer than his team would have liked considering they won Game One where Shukr was playing their second game of the night and got a tie in Game Two where Shukr was missing Farrukh Khan.

- Shukr ended their season with a bitter taste in their mouth, a talented squad that showed flashes of being a top team mixed with poor decisions and straying from the game-plan that cost them games. The game against Haya was an almost perfect microcosm of that duplicity as they gained the lead multiple times only to cough it back up - the most egregious was when they scored with 21 seconds left in the first half to take a 2-1 lead only to give the ball up in their end and let Haya tie the game with 7 seconds left. That said still a solid season and an exciting playoffs where they knocked off the number three seed in Taqwa and had a chance to take out the number two seed in Haya - in the playoffs all you can ask for is a chance to compete and win which is something that they had.

- Haya is confident in their chances going into the finals, while not posting a Hamidi Report for this week, Samad Hamidi held an open-mic session after his game and as noted above predicted that his team will end the season undefeated and one of the reasons he felt confident in this prediction was the strength of Haya's defence. He noted that the combination of Salman Khalid, Adeel Awan, Sadat Malik and Luqman Arshad combined with himself is a blue-line core that is nearly impossible to break down as they all bring a skill and physical presence that few teams can match. Hamidi teasingly went as far as to refer to himself as the "Minister of Defence" to account for his strategic input into how the team will contain opposing teams forwards.

- Onto the finals we go now with the Top-Two teams in the Regular season matching up. Both teams have deep talented squads with loads of experience so it will be interesting to see how things play out with the Championship on the line. It may come down to the performance of both teams third line where the advantage is gained.

Three Stars of the Week for December 7th:

1^st Star: Farooq Sani (Yaqeen): 1 Goal + 3 Assists
2^nd Star: Faisal Mehboob (Yaqeen):2 Goals + 1 Assist
3^rd Star: Humza Chaudhry (Shukr): 2 Goals

REGULAR SEASON MVP
(select 1=1^st Choice; 2=2^nd Choice; 3=3^rd Choice)