Papaleo Is Hurting, So Is Dallas : MSL: A lifetime playoff winner against the Sockers, injured goalie Joe Papaleo is frustrated.

It’s early in the second quarter of Saturday’s MSL championship game and the Dallas Sidekicks are awarded a shootout. Tatu, whom many think is the league’s most dangerous scorer, lines up to take it.

The whistle blows, Tatu dribbles forward, and Sockers goalie Victor Nogueira darts off his line with the assertiveness that comes with nine years of indoor experience. Nogueira forces Tatu to shoot wide.

Less than a minute later, Nogueira sends forward Wes Wade on a breakaway with a strong outlet pass. Wade dribbles down the right boards, then angles in on goalie Hank Henry.

With all of seven games of playoff experience, Henry commits. Wade then sends the ball cross-carpet to Tim Wittman, who scores easily.

It was a short-handed goal.

Back in Dallas, the only goalie with a winning playoff record against the Sockers, Joe Papaleo, winces.

Papaleo, who has a 6-4 lifetime playoff record against the Sockers, is out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

“It’s easy to say when you’re not in there,” Papaleo said. “But you have to anticipate (those kinds of mistakes). Nothing against Wes Wade, I’ve flubbed a couple of his shots myself, but Wes Wade most likely is not going to score from the red line. If I’m in there, I pretty much know Wes is not going to shoot. So what you’ve got to do is be prepared to get across the box as quickly as possible and make Tim Wittman chip it over you. That’s a difficult shot, and you’ll probably end up making the save.

“Hank has to play with the confidence that he can make one key play that can change the whole game, like Victor forcing Tatu to shoot wide.”

As much as anything else, those two plays turned the tide as the Sockers began a comeback from a three-goal deficit and went on to a 9-7 victory in Game 2. They lead the seven-game series, 2-0, with the next three scheduled in Dallas.

The Sidekicks head home boasting the MSL’s best home record during the regular season (16-4) and a 3-0 mark against the Sockers at Reunion Arena. But Dallas also has a goalie who was 1-7 during the regular season.

“It’s a hard situation,” Papaleo said. “He hasn’t really played all year and now he’s in there when it all counts. But I think he has done fine.”

Said Sockers Coach Ron Newman: “The pressure is really on them now. If we can make things look even potentially dangerous (in Game 3), then every mistake they make will be so totally emphasized--and it’s hard to play like that. This last victory was better than the 7-3 win (in Game 1) because now they know they can’t knock us down. We came back from 4-1. And when players start questioning their ability, it goes right through the whole team like wildfire.”

Dallas Coach Gordon Jago refuses to talk about the possibility of benching his young goalie and starting veteran Scott Manning, signed when Papaleo was hurt.

His refusal to talk about it could be a clue that Manning has shown his age in practice. The MSL media guide lists Manning’s year of birth as 1967, which would have made him 12 years old when he began his MSL career in 1979. His goals-against average in six games with Wichita this season hints at his true age--it was 7.11.

“I think the time has come when it might be good to see what Scott Manning can do,” Newman said. “But then again, we don’t know what Gordon is looking at when he sees Scott Manning in training.”

Still, there’s one guy who’s aching to get the call.

“I love playing San Diego in the playoffs,” Papaleo said. “That’s the most disappointing thing (about the injury). I’ve never played a whole playoff series against them and I was really looking forward to it. When you play San Diego, you know you have to be on top of your game.”