2010 FHL Championship Preview

by Bill Kostkas

Over the last few years, we as sports fans have come to expect things like this, although I did not just a few weeks ago. The Steelers did it as a sixth seed in 2005. The Giants did it just two years after as a five seed. The National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Playoffs featured a seventh seed against an eight seed in the Eastern Conference Finals. My point is that parity is certainly not a surprise anymore in today’s sports scene. We now have our own dose of that in the Franklin Hockey League with Bishop Boyle and their magical run. With captain Brian Grise, who has been silencing all of his critics this post season, Boyle took out the heavily favored Pirates in the opening round and advanced past the Moose last Saturday to secure a spot in the FHL Championship. The run Boyle is on is truly a script that can only be written by the sappiest Hollywood producer. They have one player in the top five in any of the three top categories (Tom Fetsko 17 assists.) Grise is tenth in the league in goals. When it comes to stats, Boyle isn’t represented very well. Nor were they represented in wins throughout the regular season. Does it take away from where they are now? Certainly not. As my father told me before the 2001 AFC Championship with New England and Pittsburgh, you just don’t sneak into this game. If you’ve made it this far, you deserve to be there. On the other side of the rink will be the heavily favored Jets, with the league leader in goals, Brian Barca (41) and in points (56.) Last week, Boyle went through the Moose who had the second and third-best point-getters in the FHl (Jeff Pingor and Jeff Rogers.) So, to say they couldn’t deal with the league leader is an over-estimation. Both teams come into the title game playing extremely good defense. In two games, Boyle has only allowed two goals and theJets shut out the Kings in their only playoff action. One thing the Jets definitely have on their side is the last two FHL Championships. They’ve been here before, and know what it takes. So, expect a good game from them at least. My prediction? The Jets for a three-peat, as Pat Riley likes to say. Don’t take my word for it, because I’ve been wrong on most 0f my picks this post season.