In sports, you always want to be playing at your best towards the end of the year. Goralnik's Guesses is no different than a finely tuned championship caliber team that has faced adversity earlier in the year which made them stronger. It wasn't pretty but, by default, I made the postseason of predictions. Yeah, yeah, I know we would be doing these game regardless but it is important to point out that playoff games are harder to pick than regular season games and my readers and I are riding a 4-game winning streak in the heart of "Championship Week". Sitting at 10-7, tonight presents me with a matchup I'm salivating over.
Tonight's game should be no different from any other game we've done this week. We are in store for a good battle. The major difference is this: I don't believe tonight's game will end as close as the first two games we covered this week. Lyman Hall beat Cheshire earlier in the year 5-1 but this is the playoffs and the Rams will be looking for revenge. Cheshire is also a very well rested team as their Quarterfinals opponent, Daniel Hand, was forced to withdraw due to Covid. That means Cheshire automatically advanced to meet Lyman Hall tonight so you know the boys in red will be eager to go. As I said, I expect a darn good battle. Now I know you are reading this and saying to yourself, "okay, where is he going with this and it feels like there is a but coming." If you thought that, then you are correct... there is a but.
Here's were I get to the bad news for the Cheshire fans. They were a top 5 seed which means they got a 1st Round bye so Cheshire hasn't played competitive hockey in over a week. More importantly, they have not yet experience the speed of what playoff hockey brings to the table. And we aren't talking about just any team that they are facing. This is a championship laden team who has been there and done that. The Trojans have a few Seniors who are strong leaders on and off the ice and supported by a cast of skilled Juniors and even some underclassmen. This is a strong Lyman Hall team, which is why they are the #1 seed. Because they had the chance to tune up their game against Branford (9-4 win in the Quarterfinals last Saturday), they will be firing on all cylinders from the opening puck drop. I am 2-0 with my Goralnik Guarantees but I fully expect to cruise to 3-0 when I drop the stamp tonight. In fact, tonight I'm SLAMING the stamp of Goralnik Guarantee on a Lyman Hall win.
Be sure to watch tonight's game with Coach DeMaio's play-by-play and see if I can stay perfect with my Guarantees! As always, all the action is right here on WELI.COM!