Matchday Recap: S01D06
Matchday 06 delivered everything this league promises—overtime drama, a lopsided shellacking, a nine-goal war in Vladivostok, and one of the biggest upsets of the young season. Grab yourself a coffee, mes amis, because we have a lot of ground to cover.
NRB 1 — MTL 2
The Ochre Reserve was buzzing with anticipation, but it was the Montréal Maples who came to work from the opening whistle. Nairobi entered as the home favorite at 2.24, with Montréal priced at 1.66, and the Maples wasted no time justifying that faith—Dmitri Volkov put them ahead at 13:49 of the first, tipping home a setup from Marc-Antoine Dufresne to silence the home crowd.
The Narwhals were physical and direct, but Montréal answered every check with structure. Lucas Pelletier doubled the lead in the second, finishing off a smart feed from Sarah-Maude Fortin just past the nine-minute mark. Moments earlier, Catherine Lavoie and Dennis Wafula had squared off in a dust-up that cost both teams a major apiece—the kind of flash that disrupts rhythm, and Nairobi never quite recovered it.
The third period turned physical in a hurry. Chloé Moreau and Amara Osei kicked things off at center ice just 59 seconds in, both heading to The Sixth with matching majors. Despite the chaos, the Narwhals finally cracked Montréal's defense at 13:18—Zawadi Mutua converting with Amara Osei earning the helper—but it was too little, too late. The Maples held on for the two-point win. Quelle discipline de la part de Montréal.
DKR 0 — USH 1 (SO)
C'est incroyable. The Sandy Parlor hosted what can only be described as a masterclass in defensive attrition—four periods of scoreless hockey, genuine tension on every shift, and ultimately a shootout winner that sent Dakar home empty-handed despite being favored at 1.60 against an Ushuaia side priced at 2.35. That is your upset of the matchday, full stop.
The first period had its share of fire—Nicolás Sosa and Mariama Cissé threw punches at 4:04, drawing matching majors that offset cleanly—but neither team could solve the opposing netminder. The second and third periods were long, physical grinds. Aminata Sow picked up a minor in the third, and the Djinns killed it without incident. Overtime came and went without resolution, the ice opened up slightly but still no goal.
Then the shootout. Facundo Álvarez stepped to the dot at 4:31 of the shootout period and buried it—one decisive move that decided the whole night. Ushuaia's goaltending was exceptional all evening, and this result will sting in Dakar for a while. The Undertow, dismissed as a 2.35 underdog, walked out of The Sandy Parlor with two points.
PER 4 — BUS 3
The Red Furnace lived up to its name. Seven goals, five penalties, and barely a moment to breathe—this is what Hockay looks like when two offensive teams refuse to play it safe. The Perth Pyres were favored at 1.72, and they ultimately earned that status, but Busan gave them everything they had.
The Blizzards roared out of the gate—Hyun-woo Kwon batted one out of the air just 29 seconds in, assisted by Eun-bi Han, to stun the home crowd. Perth answered with goals from Zara Patel and Gemma Fletcher to close the period at 1-2, but Busan's Yuna Kang restored the lead at 12:48 on a beautiful So-hee Hwang setup. Three goals in the first period alone, and the crowd at The Red Furnace already knew they were in for something.
The Pyres dominated the second, outscoring Busan 2-0 through Gemma Fletcher and Callum Reeves to flip the lead to 3-2. Nate Hargrove iced it with a third-period beauty at 13:00, assisted by Sienna Kapoor—only for Dong-wook Yoon to answer at 14:59 and make Perth sweat right to the final horn. A four-point night from the Hargrove-Patel combination was the difference. So-hee Hwang's two assists in a losing effort deserve mention—she was a force even in defeat.
GDL 2 — HAV 1 (OT)
Havana entered El Rincón Perdido as the 1.81 favorite against a Guadalajara side sitting at 2.01. The Hammers had the better of early exchanges and played a controlled, confident road game through sixty minutes—but overtime has a way of rewriting the story entirely. This was an upset, and a hard-fought one.
Andrés Rojas gave the Gatos an early second-period lead—just 48 seconds in, with Santiago Torres drawing the assist. Guadalajara defended it with grit, but Havana's Yoandri Hernández tied things at 13:27 of the third, finishing off a Claudia Pérez setup with a top-shelf finish. The Hammers looked like they'd force the shootout at minimum.
Then overtime arrived, and so did the fireworks. Adonis Reyes and Andrés Rojas opened the extra period with a fight at 3:04—a contested moment that cost both men five minutes. It was Emilio Delgado who settled it, burying a Rodrigo Vargas feed at 10:19 to send Guadalajara home with the overtime win. Rojas had been a central figure all night—goal, fight, and penalty—and Delgado's composed finish was the ideal coda. Mon dieu, what a drama.
MCM 0 — SAO 5
This one has to be noted plainly: the São Paulo Serpents arrived at The Remote Range as a 2.62 underdog—barely given a shot by anyone—and walked out with a dominant 5-0 road demolition of a McMurdo Monoliths side priced at 1.50. That is one of the biggest results of the season so far. C'est catastrophique pour McMurdo.
The Monoliths kept it scoreless through the first, but the floodgates opened in the second. Larissa Souza batted in the opener at 1:24 with Bruno Nascimento assisting, and Amanda Barbosa doubled it at 12:07. The third period was a formality—Souza added her second at 4:17, Thiago Pereira made it four at 5:08, and Lucas Almeida put the exclamation point on it at 9:34. Five goals, zero answer. The Serpents outworked the Monoliths in every zone.
Larissa Souza's two goals and one assist was the headline performance—a genuine three-point night against a heavy favorite. McMurdo will have some serious questions to answer after this one. Their home ice offered no comfort tonight. The penguins natural tuxedo was for a funeral, not a celebration tonight.
MUM 4 — WPG 3 (SO)
If you wanted a shootout thriller, The Salt Pavilion delivered it in spades. Mumbai and Winnipeg entered essentially even on the odds—1.89 versus 1.92—and the game delivered on every promise that line implied. Seven goals across regulation and overtime, eight penalties, and a Vikram Joshi performance that will be talked about for some time.
Winnipeg's Anna Flett drew first blood at 2:53 of the first, but Mumbai answered with a pair in the second—Vikram Joshi converting on the power play at 2:25, then Divya Mehta adding a second at 5:33. The Wendigos rallied spectacularly in the third: Brody Flett, Joshi again, and Dylan Fife with a power play goal had the game level at 3-3 heading to overtime. The back-and-forth was relentless and the penalties kept piling up.
Overtime solved nothing—Kiran Bhatt's physical game neutralized Winnipeg's late momentum—so to the shootout they went. Joshi stepped forward and made no mistake: his third point of the night, and his second goal, sealed it for the Monsoons. Two goals and the shootout winner. On this night, the man was simply unstoppable.
ANC 5 — JBG 4
Quel match! The Watch Station hosted a nine-goal barnburner that defied all expectations—and that includes the betting market, which had Johannesburg at 1.65 and Anchorage at a hefty 2.26. The Auroras won it anyway, completing one of the better upset victories of Matchday 06 in the most chaotic fashion imaginable.
The Jaguars came out swinging—Thandiwe Radebe opened the scoring at 1:04, and by 8:37 Johannesburg led 3-1. A fight between Carlos Medina and Zanele Ndaba at 10:08 added further fire, with Isaiah Tobin and Thandiwe Radebe both picking up additional penalties before the period was through. The first period alone saw four penalties and a fight. C'est de la folie.
But the Auroras refused to fold. Mason Kluane got one back at 2:31 of the second, and then the Jaguars' Bongani Mthembu and Anchorage's Heather Braund and Paige Riordan traded goals until it was 4-4 heading to the third. Kagiso Molefe and Jake Hensley opened the final period with a scrap at 3:19, and just 29 seconds later, Carlos Medina—who'd already been involved in a first-period fight—scored the game-winner off Sierra Peters. The Auroras held on from there. Isaiah Tobin's two assists were quiet but critical all night.
RIM 1 — HEL 2 (OT)
The Coastal Pavilion witnessed a slow-burn classic. Rimini entered as an underdog at 2.44—with Helsinki favored at 1.56—and for the better part of three periods, the Rinklers looked like they'd pull off a genuine shock. In the end, it took an overtime power play goal to deny them. No upset here, but the Rimini faithful gave their side a proper sendoff.
Matteo Galli gave the Rinklers a 1-0 lead at the ten-minute mark of the first, a clean finish assisted by Valentina Colombo. Rimini guarded that lead through the second—though not without incident; Colombo and Anniina Tuominen threw down at 8:07, drawing matching majors, and Saku Järvinen picked up a late minor. The Rinklers' penalty kill was excellent all period.
Helsinki's Elina Heikkinen finally leveled it at 7:58 of the third on a Niko Mäkelä helper, forcing extra time. Then, with 5:16 gone in overtime, Luca Ferretti took an untimely penalty—and the Howlers made him pay. Juhani Rantanen buried the power play winner at 7:39, with Anniina Tuominen assisting. Fitting that she'd be involved after the fisticuffs in the second. A tough ending for a Rimini side that deserved at least a point for their effort.
STO 4 — TOK 3
The Still Strait was electric from the opening face-off. Stockholm entered favored at 1.68 and validated that billing, but the Tokyo Titans—priced at 2.19—made it genuinely uncomfortable by the time the third period arrived. Seven goals, a late penalty, and a game-winning goal from one of the evening's best individual performers.
Axel Lindqvist set the tone at 27 seconds—barely time to settle into your seat—and the Sirens went on to lead 3-1 after one period with Filip Nyström and Albin Nordlund both finding the net. Tokyo's Hina Takahashi had answered at 3:59, but Stockholm looked in control. Then the Titans responded with two quick second-period goals from Sakura Shimizu and Takahashi again to level at 3-3. Quel revirement!
The third was tense and physical. A Viktor Hallberg penalty at 5:06 gave Tokyo a chance to take the lead, but Stockholm killed it cleanly. Then at 8:28, Lindqvist struck again—his second of the night, assisted by Albin Nordlund—to restore the lead for good. Nordlund's point-per-period consistency (goal, assist, assist) was the quiet engine of Stockholm's win. But Hina Takahashi's two-goal effort in a losing cause deserves every bit of recognition it receives.
VLA 4 — PRA 5 (OT)
Save the best for last, as they say. The Last Terminal produced a nine-goal overtime epic that will take days to fully process. Three fights, nine penalties, five lead changes—Vladivostok were favored at 1.99 against Prague at 1.82, and in the end the Phantoms edged it in overtime, but calling this anything other than total war does it a disservice.
The Phantoms opened scoring in the first through Ondřej Marek, but Vladivostok erupted in the second—Nikita Sorokin and Maxim Petrov (twice) built a 3-2 lead, interrupted only by Adam Fiala's response to make it 3-2 Prague before Petrov's second restored order. Five goals in the second period alone. The ice at The Last Terminal may never fully recover.
The third was equally ferocious. Tereza Horáková converted a power play for Prague at 4:38, Fiala added his second at 5:29—before Anastasia Ivanova countered for Vladivostok at 5:41. Petrov's two goals were the headline for VLA, but the Phantoms had Horáková everywhere: a goal, an assist, and three hits across the night. In overtime, Eliška Veselá and Vera Orlova dropped the gloves immediately—coincidental majors—and just 85 seconds later, Lucie Šťastná buried the winner off a Horáková feed. Extraordinaire. Prague takes two points, but Vladivostok will feel they gave this one away.
Matchday 06 is in the books—upsets in Dakar, Nairobi, McMurdo, and Anchorage, overtime finishes from Stockholm to Rimini to The Last Terminal, and a shootout that went the distance twice. The league standings are shifting, the rivalries are forming, and Matchday 07 can't come soon enough. À la prochaine, mes amis!
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council notes that Matchday 06 produced nine scheduled contests, all of which concluded. The relevant scores have been recorded. Le Council has no further comment at this time.