It turned into a rough start for Haya, already down three players before the start of the game, they found out that their goalie Yusuf Kapoor was held up at the border and going to be late for the start of the game. Haya tried to delay the game as much as possible with all of their veteran tricks being used. Unfortunately the game started on schedule and moved faster than they expected.

Then the miracle happened - Haya asked for the old man to come back from retirement. The man, the myth, the legend was back as Rayhan Taqiuddin was asked to play in net. If you have seen or heard about his masterful play in net, then you know it is true. With no goalie equipment required he played in net for the first five minutes of the game. His arch-nemesis Nadeem Qureshi was on the other side chopping his lips and taping his hockey stick to get better shots.

In order to survive, team Haya had to play aggressive for the first time this season. Shukr on the other hand was celebrating as they expected an easy mercy win.  But Shukr was not prepared for the old man in net who was cool, calm and collected.

Haya took control of the game off the face-off.  However, Waseem Bangash took a high sticking penalty just 57 seconds into the game to be a man down. During the power-play, Nadeem got his revenge by scoring a power play goal with a slapshot that eluded Rayhan. As he said after the game, if Rayhan had pads he would have easily made that save.

Haya took a time-out and were hoping for a miracle for Yusuf to get back. They continued on with Rayhan who made another big save before Yusuf finally entered the game around the ten minute mark.

From there Haya took control of the game. Two minutes after Yusuf’s arrival Wesam Issawi tied the game. Shots after shots were fired on Sadiq Rehman, however, he kept stoning them left, right and centre. Shukr looked like pylons out there as they mustered up just 6 shots on net through the game (including those on the empty net which Rayhan stopped). Haya showed their weakness in the game. The team hit the post a few times. As well, they play like Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway or Casey Stengal at bat. They strike out.  Rayhan also shut down Shukr's Ahmad "The Mountain" Ibrahim as he always does when the two play against one another.

Shukr almost got the game winner at the end as with 15 seconds left and faceoff in their own zone, ball came back to Hamza who lost it and gave Shukr a 4 on none breakaway. Unfortunately for Shukr they somehow dumped the ball behind the net and time ran out as three Haya players came back to fend off the final chance.

Both teams needed the victory but came off short of what they wanted. 

Hats off to Sadiq Rehman who played with confidence and looked better then Martin Brodeur in net.