Memorable Matches (1992 - 1999)

 

 

 

Wowzers!

 

This game saw the highest quality final played in the 1990's; if not game.  The Lions were looking for a 2nd championship against the Brothers, trying for their 4th title in 5 tournaments played together.  This was the last time the majority of the team was together and they went out in style.  Faisal Shafique and Sami Ullah were forces for the Lions and staked their team to a 3-1 lead midway through the game.  The Brothers cut the lead to 3-2, but were unable to get the tying goal.  However, with less than 30 seconds left a high backhander by Faisal Shahabuddin found its way past Nisar Ahmed’s glove hand to tie the game.  The deflated Lions were unable to regroup as Faisal set up power forward Kashif Irshad for the championship winning goal in the first minute of overtime.

 

 

 

This was the seminal game of the first ever Vanier tournament, and was the third installment in the playoff trilogy of the Brothers vs. the Sharpshooters.  Two tournaments earlier, the Brothers scored a decisive 5-1 victory to capture their first championship; and the Sharpshooters denied them the chance at repeating by upsetting the Brothers in the quarterfinals of the previous tournament.  The rubber match was another match that rates highly in terms of pure quality of hockey played.  The Brothers held a late 2-1 lead with the Sharpshooters pressing and blasting with their cannon shots.  Alas they came short, when Ansar Hassan made a couple of spectacular saves and Asif Shaikh hit the post.  The Brothers then came down the floor and Faisal Shahabuddin and Kashif Irshad combined for the insurance goal.

 

 

 

The notable moment in this game was when Atif Qureshi, captain of the Muslim browns, scored the winning goal on a forehand to backhand deke past opposing goalie Akil Najeeb.  While Atif celebrated wildly, Akil decided to emulate Ron Hextall and gave Atif a shot to the head with his stick.  After cooler heads seemingly prevailed and there was a break between games, Akil’s teammate and good friend Shafa Mirza decided to address all the players at the tournament.  He didn’t appreciate people talking negatively about Akil in spite of what he did and let everyone know in a profanity laced tirade that lasted a couple of minutes and left everyone speechless.  “We’re Muslims and I don’t $&$@ want to hear all of you @%^ talking about him like that.  So %&#@ all of you.”

 

 

 

This game is notable for one main reason.  The team that was crowned champion is the only Non-Muslim champion team in Muslim history.  They held the championship from the fall on 1996 until the next tournament in the spring of the following year.

 

 

 

Once again Shafa Mirza was in the spotlight.  This time against the team that was generally accepted as the dirtiest team in the tournament, LaOnda.  Brothers Farooq and Omar Zahir were laying some questionable hits on the Lions players, including Shafa; who took exception and looked to the referee for a penalty call.  Unfortunately, the referee in this game was none other than Shafa’s nemesis, Kashif Irshad.  Kashif not only refused to call a penalty, he laughed in Shafa’s face.  This taunting drove Shafa crazy and he completely lost it and wanted to go at it with Kashif.  Kashif’s teammate and friend Ansar Hassan didn’t help matters by joining in the taunting of Shafa.  Luckily Omar Hussain, the Lions captain, held Shafa back and nothing serious came after that.  However, Shafa was ejected from the rest of the tournament and controversy rages to this day as to why he was the only who received any suspension.

 

 

Also known as the Hamid game.  Hamid/Hamed Ali was looking for his first championship after 14 failures, and he had his opportunity.  His team was in the final against the team captained by Suhail Niazi.  The game was tightly contested and a late, patented end to end rush by Faisal Shahabuddin tied the game up for Suhail’s team.  The game went to overtime and after the early minutes the players left on the floor were Saad Abbasi and Hamid against Faisal and Shoaib Ullah.  The crowd was incredulous when they realized that Hamid had decided that he would be that last man standing for his team against Faisal rather than Saad.  The result was predictable.  A deke by Faisal to get by Hamid and then a shot past Nisar to win the game.

 

 

This was one of a few times when La Onda’s tactics caused tournament havoc.  Iyaad of the 786ers responded to a hit by Farooq Zahir on star and friend Sami Serhan.  Hammad Afif who was on the 786ers, but was friends with Farooq, decided to stand up for his friend and jumped Iyaad, his teammate.  This was quite the melee and took tournament organizers quite some time to sort out.  When the dust settled, Hammad was kicked off his team (although it’s hard to imagine he wanted to stay and play for them).

 

 

 

The original classic confrontation. The game was settled on a 1 on 1 between Faisal Shahabuddin and Kashif Baig, with close friends Faisal Hanafi and Ansar Hassan manning the goals in this pressure filled semi final.  Faisal lashed the winner through the five-hole (Ansar’s one real weakness) to send the future Brothers dynasty to their first final.

 

 

 

The one time whipping boys of the tournaments, the Laval Defenders won the championship with 13 year old Shaan Yusuf in goal and stars Sami Serhan and Faisal Shahabuddin leading the way to the title.  Sami stayed with them for another tournament, Faisal did not.

 

 

 

Omar Hussain (with Ihab Noureldin on the team) captains the 786ers to deny the Sharpshooters once again.  The Sharpshooters lost their 3rd final in 4 tournaments.  They actually made an in-tournament goaltending change.  They switched to Habib Shaikh after starting with Hamid in nets.  This experiment cost them a higher seeding and perhaps made their road to the championship too tough to overcome.  Sami Serhan and Jan (The Turk) were the stars in this victory.  Akil Najeeb was the winning goalie and ran off with the championship trophy to Pakistan.