A pair of win-less teams that both sit at the bottom of their respective divisions square off against each other. Ikhlas (green), the basement dwellers of the Mecca division continue to find ways to lose valuable points. In last week’s edition of the previews the importance of the first 2 minutes and last 2 minutes of a period was stressed. We also pointed out that Ikhlas needed to have better hockey sense and greater awareness of the clock. Yet again they repeat the same old song and dance, this time losing out on a point as Sabr’s Mohamed Bilal tied the game on a power play with roughly a minute left. This week the task of holding onto the lead (or even getting the lead) will be more difficult as Arif Khan (their lone goal scorer last game) and Aazar Zafar are not expected to be in the lineup. On the other side, Emaan (orange), the basement dwellers of the Mecca division are coming off a 3-0 loss to Yaqeen. They are tied with Ihsan for conceding the most goals (11). This team does not make things easy for their netminder, Yasir Hussain as he has faced the most shots. Not only that, but his team has never had the lead not even for a second this season; this puts tremendous pressure on a goalie. As much as Emaan has relied on their goalie, this might be a game where they would like him to steal for them against an opponent that has underperformed and will be missing some key players.
Hamidi Prediction: Ikhlas win if first overall pick Emmad Khawaja scores
9:00 PM- Haya (0-0-2) vs Ridha (0-3-0):
The last time we saw Haya (grey) was back in Week 2 after stalemating with Yaqeen 1-1. I had to do a double look because it is hard to believe that Haya is winless so far. They are coming off a bye week and with any team coming of a break the main question is ‘how did they spend their time?’ The body does not lie and not being active will especially show in the first half as players struggle to find their running legs. This was in fact what happened with Taqwa (the first team to have a bye this season). Taqwa was absolutely under siege in the first half and looked really sluggish against Ridha. Ridha (blue), Haya’s opponents this week, sits dead last in the league with 3 straight loses, the latest coming against Taqwa 5-3. This is another team one wouldn’t think would be winless at this point in the season. In fact many spectators last Friday thought Ridha had last week’s game in the bag. As we seen so far all it takes is one mistake to do your team in and this is exactly what occurred to allow Taqwa’s Huzaifa Panchbhaya to fire a rocket in his friend’s net. Again for this Friday, Ridha faces off against a team returning from a bye week (Haya). They need to use their young legs in a similar fashion as they did versus Taqwa and try to blitz Haya before they are able to find their legs. For Haya, the focus should be on limiting Yusuf Ingar who has scored in each of this team’s game, including two goals last week.
Hamidi Prediction: Haya Win
10:00 PM- Taqwa (2-0-0) vs Yaqeen (2-0-1):
Taqwa (black) the top team from The Jerusalem division faces off with Yaqeen (white) the top team of Medina division. Taqwa is coming off of back to back wins against Ridha. Though they accomplish their task of sweeping the series with Ridha, last week they were definitely challenged. But give them credit because despite trailing on two separate occasions they were able to stay compose and emerge as 5-3 victors. Now after beating up on the league’s worse team how will they fair against one of the better teams? At the other end of the rink, Yaqeen is also coming off a series sweep against Emaan (orange). The final result was 3-0 but it was a lot tighter than the score implies. Maaz Haq powered the offense with assists to Ahsan Wasif and Amir Multani (twice). At some point in the season however others on this team will need to step up to create the offense. For now, Yaqeen goes as far as Maaz can take them.
Hamidi Prediction: Yaqeen Win
11:00 PM- Ihsan (0-0-2) vs Sabr (2-0-1):
Ihsan (teal) is win-less thus far into the season. Last week, they had to settle for a tie against Shukr who were missing their starting goaltender Zaid Majoo (score: 0-0). They looked like a frustrated group all game long, especially Huzaifa Manjra as he ended up taking two penalties last week. Not sure how to assess this team as it was constructed with a lot of players unfamiliar to the I-slam Hockey environment. With that said, we should get a better idea of what this team truly is when they go up against a top ranked team, Sabr (yellow). In their last game, Sabr stole a point away from Ikhlas to remain undefeated for the season. Their goaltender, Ali Khawja has been steady all season only surrendering 3 goal in 3 games. Their offense seems to be done by committee, point and case as Ahmad Ibrahim, Shaukat Khan, Shehryar Khan and Shuaib Shaikh have yet to score a goal. The main concern with this team is they tend to take penalties especially when fatigued. In the dying moments of their last game, Razi Ahmed took a needless penalty to give Ikhlas a chance to win the game.
Hamidi Prediction: Sabr Win
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