Spring Season - Week Three - March 10th

8:00 pm: Haya vs Yaqeen
Haya was  off  in  Week  Two; in Week One,  their  goaltender, Khalid  Mufti  stole  the  show earning him the First Star honours of that week.  A lot of members from the Haya team decided to join last week’s pickup session.  Atif Mian, Arssal Shahabuddin, Kashif Siddiqui, Azim Siddique and Naeem Akhtar took part in the optional game.  It was a smart move to get a run in as opposed to being inactive for two weeks.  Taking advantage of the extra playing time will undoubtedly be beneficial in establishing team camaraderie  and chemistry.  They now face Yaqeen, a team coming off an embarrassing performance in Week Two against Emaan.  For Yaqeen it is simple, forget what happened last week and just move on, lots of season left.  This is a prime example where the leadership skills of Junaid Mohammad are needed to help his team regain their confidence.

9:00 pm: Emaan vs Ihsan
In Week Two, Emaan  were  dishing  out  a  beat  down  whereas  Ihsan  were  on  a  receiving end of one.  The defending champions, were blitzed last week resulting  in their goaltender Zaid Majoo to  call  out  his  team  during  the  game.  How  does  Drake  and  company  respond  to  a situation so foreign to them?  Just like Yaqeen, they just need to forget about last week.  Ihsan is probably itching  to  get  back  on  the  floor  to  re-establish  that  they  are  still  the  kings of  I-Slam.  They can take solace in the fact that they tied Emaan in the first week of the season (score: 1-1) without two of  their  top  players in Farrukh  Khan and Osama  Soliman.   However,  Emaan  was without one of their superstars that game as well, Furqan Salam.  Salam adds another threat upfront  with Arif  Bijabhai and Waqar  Khan.   But  what  is  scary  about  this  team  is  the emergence  of  their  secondary  scoring  with Salman  Alvi potting two goals  in  his  last  game.  Nonetheless, the fact remains that in the last three games against Ihsan, Emaan has not been able to beat them.  Is it mental for Emaan or is Ihsan just the better team?  Another story that will develop  later  in  the  night  is  Emaan  will  be  right  back  in  action  an  hour  from  the  conclusion  of this game.

10:00 pm: Sabr vs Taqwa
I  don’t  think  anyone  could  have  predicted  Sabr's 6-0 drubbing  over  the defending  champs  last  week.  Last  season  Sabr  struggled  to  score  goals,  but  had  no  problem finding  twine  last  week  and  got  contributions  from Yasir  Malik  (hat  trick), Akib  Malik, Amir Hanif,  and Ali  Malik.  I  know  the  season  is  young  but  thus  far  Sabr  has  seemed  to  solved  their defensive/goaltending issues that were their Achilles heel last season, only surrendering one goal in  their  past  two  games.  If  Sabr  continues  to  make  improvements in  their  defensive  zone  and keeps generating offensive chances (as shown in  their first two games against Haya and Ihsan) then they will turn a lot of heads and put the rest of the league on notice. Their opponents this week  is  Taqwa,  who  are  making  their  season  debut.  Not  much is  known  about  this  group  as
they  are  the  new  kids  of  the  block.  With  that  said  they  are at  a  clear  disadvantage  as  all  the other teams' core group played together in the fall season. This newly formed group is not only going  to  have  to  figure  out  how  to  play  as  a  unit  but  also  need  to  figure  out  the  other competition  they  are  up  against.  However,  if  last  week's  scores  revealed  anything,  it  is  this season  might  not  go  as  people  predicted  so  before  passing  any  judgement  let's  give  Taqwa  a chance to prove to us what they got.

11:00 pm: Emaan vs Sabr
The first double header of the season features the hottest teams heading into week three.  The team's  stamina  will  be  put  to  the  test  as  for  both  Emaan  and  Sabr  this  will  be  their second game of the night. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how minutes are distributed  in  their  first  game.  It  is  easier  said  than  done  to  spread  minutes  out  as  much  as possible, but does that actual happen?  Have the 3rd line and last defensive pairing of each team earned  the  trust  of  their  GMs  so  early  on  in  the  season?  For Sabr  in  particular  this  game  has added  significance  as  Emaan  sent  them  packing  in  the  fall  playoffs.  A  huge  change  from  that game to now is that Sabr did draft Emaan's goalie from  last season, Ahmad Mobin. One could make the argument that this might be advantage for Emaan as they had a full season and know how to beat him. On the contrary, one might argue Sabr has the edge as Mobin has the inside scoop on the Emaan's forwards.