Recap

Yaqeen dominates second half to defeat Sabr Nov 22, 2018
by Fahad Mohammad  

With the regular season winding down, every match-up each week has strong playoff implications as some teams are looking to fight their way into the top 6, others looking to hold down their playoff spots and a couple of teams looking to be the top 2 in the league in order to avoid the single elimination wild-card game.


Yaqeen was looking to secure a top 2 spot after being in the 3rd position for most of the season and Sabr who was trying to lock down one of the playoff spots in their last game of the season, faced-off in the second game of the night. 
Sabr came out flying, as their top guys led the way for their team in generating a barrage of chances, catching Yaqeen flat-footed early in the game.  Sabr was unable to convert on their chances in the first half of the period but their persistence eventually paid off as Yaqeen's goalie left a juicy rebound in front of the net which Abdu Sharkawy was able to pounce on and back-hand past Fahad Mohammad to put his team up 1-0.  The game was slowly starting to even out, but Sabr had their dancing shoes on in the first half and Yaqeen was unable to match their speed.  After some good zone time in Yaqeen's end, Razi Ahmed was able to thread a pass from the right boards across to the other side to an open Shaukat Khan who one-timed a shot past a sliding Fahad to put his team up 2-0.

Yaqeen knew they needed to regroup and take the game to Sabr, and at the intermission, a pep talk from the leaders on the team proved to work as Yaqeen started off much better in the 2nd period.  They had their chances on Sabr goalie but Ali Khawja was able to make some big saves to preserve the lead. A defensive lapse for Sabr however led to a two-on-none break for Arif Bijabhai who passed it over to defenseman Arssal Shahabuddin as he one-timed it past the goalie to cut the lead in half.  

The game was played evenly for the next few minutes but a lucky bounce in favour of Yaqeen proved to change the fortunes for them in this game.  Shaukat Khan was able to get away from the defenseman and chase down a loose ball in Yaqeen's zone. As he ran down on the goalie, Fahad decided to come out and poke-check the ball away but Shaukat using his speed was able to get there first, make a move on the sliding goalie and shoot on the gaping net but fortunately for Yaqeen, he missed.
Just a few moments later  the rookie Suleman Bhatti, who was among the top 5 point leaders entering this game, was able to put the ball past Ali Khawaja at the side of the net to tie the game 2-2.

As the game looked to be headed towards a tie, a scramble near the Sabr net resulted in another goal for Yaqeen, just 2 minutes after they had tied the game.  Talib Contractor was able to find the rebound and put it past the goalie to give his team a 3-2 lead late in the 2nd period.

In the dying seconds of the game, as Sabr had pulled their goalie and was looking for the tying goal, Maaz Haq found himself on a 2-1 break.  Knowing that Maaz has been trying to lock down the brotherhood award by leaving the chance to score on empty nets all throughout the GTA, his team collectively held their breath as he once again had the chance to score but this time in a very close 3-2 game.  Maybe the greed of trying to win the scoring title over the brotherhood award was too much for him as he shot the ball into the open net and sealed the victory for his team. 

 
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