The Reno Ice Adult League Winter 2022/23 season is now behind us. What an incredible season it was. The Reno Ice Adult League Spring 2023 season has already started. It’s time for a review of Reno Pond Hockey’s fifth season in the Reno Ice Adult League. It was a the best follow up to Reno Pond Hockeys Summer 2022 season we could have hoped for.
Reno Pond Hockey got the bounce back they needed in the RIAL Summer 2022 season after a poor performance during the RIAL Spring 2022 season. They finished the RIAL Summer 2022 regular season in second place with a record of 6-4-0. With that, they became the number two seed in the playoffs. In the semifinals, they beat Mid-Ice Crisis 6-3. That was the first ever playoff win and trip to an RIAL championship game in Reno Pond Hockey history. They would lose the championship game 1-5 to the Slappy Gilmores. It was a good season overall as it was a massive improvement over their performance in the RIAL Spring 2022 season.
Reno Pond Hockey had a long offseason. The RIAL D-League was on hiatus for the RIAL Fall 2022 season. Reno Pond Hockey had August to December off. As Reno Pond Hockey was preparing for the upcoming season, quite a few players had left the team to play for Silver State Wire. Silver State Wire is a B-League team that was put together during that long off season and starting playing in the RIAL Winter 2022/23 season. After basically going through a rebuild for the Summer 2022 season, Reno Pond Hockey had to rebuild their team again for the Winter 2022/23 season.
Going into the season, the Slappy Gilmores moved up to the C-League which put Reno Pond hockey in the position of being perceived as the best D-League team going into the Winter 2022/23 season. There was a lot of pressure, and a big target on Reno Pond Hockey’s back going into the season. They knew every team was going to bring their best against them this season. On top of that the E-League and the C-League were on Hiatus for the Winter 2022/23 season. That meant that the D-League was going to get flooded with the best E-League players and a lot of C-League players. With that pressure their was a lot of drive to get back to the championship game. I think all of the players who played during the Summer 2022 season wanted to prove Reno Pond Hockey was the best team in the league. However after a lot of roster changes and a long off season, there were a lot of questions going into the season.
Reno Pond Hockey didn’t get the start they wanted. They lost their fourth season opener in a row. They lost the first game of the season 1-3 to the Jurassic Pucks. There were a lot of positive takeaways from this game though. I think this loss came down to the great goaltending of the Jurassic Pucks. Reno Pond Hockey was still working out the kinks of having so many new players. They still needed time to become a team.
Reno Pond Hockey turned it around for game two. In game two they beat the Nevada Police Foundation 6-3. This was their first win of the season and their last win of 2022. They were able to take the positive aspects of their first game and turn them into a winning strategy. This was also the first game of their historic winning streak.
Reno Pond Hockey took on The Guardians for game three. That game was a big test for Reno Pond Hockey. It was a good goalie battle. The game went to a shootout that Reno Pond Hockey won. The final score was 2-1 Reno Pond Hockey. This was the first game of 2023.
Game four for Reno Pond Hockey was against Mi-Ice Crisis. Reno Pond Hockey won the game 5-4. Reno Pond Hockey scored with under 2′ minutes to go in the game to win. This was their third win in a row to tie their previous longest winning streak.
For their fifth game, Reno Pond hockey took on the Grrrowlers. Reno Pond Hockey won the game 7-5. This was an offensive-heavy game. This was the first RIAL game where Reno Pond Hockey had scored more than 6 goals in a single game since their September 26th, 2021 10-4 win over Q&D Construction. This was the most goals Reno Pond Hockey allowed in a single game. This is also the most combined goals in a single game this season at twelve. This game also broke the Reno Pond Hockey record for the longest winning streak. Reno Pond Hockey would finish the first half of the regular season with a record of 4-1-0.
Game six was a rematch with the Jurassic Pucks. This time around the game wouldn’t even be close. Reno Pond Hockey won the game 7-1. For the first two periods of the game, the Jurassic Pucks goaltending was keeping them in the game. That fell apart in the third period. Reno Pond Hockey found another gear and was able to score six goals in the third period. even though the Jurassic Pucks had a lead they struggled offensively. This win gave Reno Pond Hockey their fifth win in a row putting them one win away from securing a playoff spot. It was the second game in a row where Reno pond Hockey had scored seven goals giving them fourteen goals in two games. That was the first time Reno Pond Hockey had scored seven or more goals in back to back games. This was the fourth game last season were Reno Pond Hockey scored five or more goals in a single game.
For game seven Reno Pond Hockey played the Grrrowlers again. Reno Pond Hockey would win the game 4-2. This game was slowed down by the officiating. There were a lot more calls in this game than any other up to that point. I think that contributed a lot to Reno Pond Hockey not scoring more than four goals in this game. There were also a lot of chances that didn’t end up in goals. For many of the chances in this game, the puck would not go into the net. Part of that was also that the lines got switched up a little for this game. Reno Pond Hockey still got their sixth win in a row. This was the fourth game in a row where Reno Pond Hockey scored four or more goals. This was also the fifth game of the season where they scored four or more goals. This was also the first game since their shootout win over The Guardians that they had not scored five or more goals. With this win Reno Pond Hockey clinched a playoff spot for the third time in five seasons and in back-to-back seasons for the first time.
Reno pond Hockey finished the season series against the Grrrowlers with a record of 2-0-0 scoring eleven goals and allowing seven.
For game eight Reno Pond Hockey wrapped up their season series with the Nevada Police Foundation. Reno Pond Hockey would absolutely dominate this game with a 9-2 win. Reno Pond Hockey took advantage of the Nevada Police Foundation barely having a goalie. This would be Reno Pond Hockeys seventh win in a row. This was the most goals scored in a single game by Reno Pond Hockey for the Winter 2022/23 season. This was also the largest win for Reno Pond Hockey during the Winter 2022/23 season, winning by seven goals. This was the first game where Reno Pond Hockey scored nine or more goals since their September 26th, 2021 10-4 win over Q&D Construction. This was the second largest win in Reno Pond Hockey history. The largest win was on Wednesday May 5th, 2021, where Reno Pond Hockey beat Q&D Construction 14-2.
Reno pond Hockey finished the season series against the Nevada Police Foundation with a record of 2-0-0 scoring fifteen goals and allowing five.
Reno Pond Hockey took on The Guardians for game nine. Going into this game it was the battle for first place in the league. It ended up being a scrappy game with plenty of chances on both sides and a lot of penalties. Both teams were doing whatever it took to win. Reno Pond Hockey ended up calming down. The Guardians ended up in some penalty trouble. Reno Pond Hockey took advantage of that to put the game out of The Guardians reach. Reno Pond Hockey won the game 5-1. This is also the game where #40 Justin Farmer had a big impact after saving a penalty shot that kind of deflated The Guardians and gave Reno Pond Hockey a lot of momentum. This was Reno Pond Hockeys eighth win in a row. This was the sixth game in a row where Reno Pond Hockey scored four or more goals. This was also the fourth game in a row where Reno Pond Hockey allowed two or fewer goals. This win also made Reno Pond Hockey the RIAL Winter 2022/23 D-League Regular Season Champions.
Reno pond Hockey finished the season series against The Guardians with a record of 2-0-0 scoring seven goals and allowing two.
Reno Pond Hockey played Mid-Ice Crisis to finish the regular season. Both teams played hard even though it did not affect the standings. It was another game with a lot of penalties and physical play. Neither team wanted to give up an inch of ice. This one came down to a shootout where Reno Pond hockey would win 2-1. This was their ninth win in a row. This was their second shootout win this season. This was the first season that multiple Reno Pond Hockey games were decided in the shootout. Reno Pond Hockey still has not lost a game in a shootout going 3-0-0 all time. This was the fifth game in a row where Reno Pond Hockey would allow two or fewer goals. The score was reported wrong on the league website at 5-3. Reno Pond Hockey finished the second half of the regular season with a record of 5-0-0. They finished the regular season with an overall record of 9-1-0.
Reno Pond Hockey played the Jurassic Pucks in the playoff semifinals. Reno Pond Hockey didn’t let their foot off the gas in this game. They won 8-3. This was Reno Pond Hockey’s tenth win in a row. This was the fourth game of the season where they scored seven or more goals. This was also the sixth game in a row where Reno Pond hockey has allowed three or fewer goals. It was the ninth overall game this season where they have allowed three or fewer goals. With this win Reno Pond Hockey advanced to the RIAL Winter 2022/23 D-League Championship game. That would be their second championship appearance in three playoff appearances. This would also be back-to-back appearances for them in the championship game.
Reno pond Hockey finished the season series against the Jurassic Pucks with a record of 2-1-0 scoring sixteen goals and allowing seven. The Jurassic Pucks were the only team to beat Reno Pond Hockey during the Winter 2022/23 season.
Reno Pond Hockey played Mid-Ice Crisis in the RIAL Winter 2022/23 D-League Championship. The game was close with Reno Pond Hockey not going up by three goals until there was four minutes left in the game. Like their last game against each other, this one was hard fought for. Reno Pond Hockey did win 4-1. They are the RIAL Winter 2022/23 D-League Champions. This was Reno Pond Hockeys first championship. Their all time playoff record is now 3-2-0 in three appearances. This was their eleventh win in a row. This was the seventh game in a row where Reno Pond hockey has allowed three or fewer goals. It was the tenth overall game this season where they have allowed three or fewer goals. This was the fourth game overall this season where Reno Pond Hockey only allowed a single goal.
Reno pond Hockey finished the season series against Mid-Ice Crisis with a record of 3-0-0 scoring twelve goals and allowing seven. The Jurassic Pucks were the only team to beat Reno Pond Hockey during the Winter 2022/23 season.
Here is how Reno Pond Hockey did this season:
Here is how Reno Pond Hockey did this season against each team:
Here are Reno Pond Hockey’s goals, points, and assist leaders:
Here are all the stats from the Winter 2022/23 season for all of the Reno Pond Hockey players:
The stats are not 100% accurate.
Zac Electrifly 