Elimination Frustration

The four seed FLYING ACES closed out their tenth season in the Federal C with a first round playoff loss to the five seed FLYING DUTCHMEN. Craig Jones brought the 'Ace Case'. Steve Leoszewski and William 'The Mark' Marcolini were healthy scratches.

At seasons end the two teams were separated by a single point in the league standings. The ACES split the regular season series with the DUTCH winning the first in OT 8-7 and losing the second 4-5 in a shootout.

Sunday night the defending champion ACES found themselves down 4-1 early in the contest. But they rallied back in true ACE fashion to knot the game up 5-5 late in the third period. Ace forward, 'Juvy' Lou Johnson, had the possible game winner on his stick, but the DUTCHMAN goalie stood tall and shut down the break-away effort. Then with 1:50 on the clock the FLYING DUTCHMEN put in the game winner. An empty net goal made it 7-5. As the ACE season came to a painful halt, the reality of what a privilege it is to have your name etched upon and to raise the Ira Vail Cup started to sink in. The thrill of victory would not be so awesome if it were easy to come by. After the two teams participated in the time-honored tradition of sportsmanship in hockey, the customary end-of-series hand shake, a tradition started over 100 years ago, all the FLYING ACES had left to do was clean out their lockers and head to the off-season.