Matchday Recap: S01D09
Matchday 09 delivered the full spectrum—from nine-goal brawlers in Montréal to a frozen overtime thriller in Helsinki, the league reminded us why we never look away. Quatre upset victoires on the card tonight, mes amis. This is why we play.
MTL 4 — GDL 5
Quel match! The Oldest Rink was expecting a comfortable night for the Montréal Maples, who opened as heavy favorites at 1.61, but the Guadalajara Gatos had a very different script in mind.
The first period was an absolute tempête. Jean-René Bergeron drew first blood at 1:49, setting up Sarah-Maude Fortin for an early Maples lead—only for the Gatos to respond almost immediately on the power play through Camila Flores. From there, both benches traded hits and bad intentions with equal enthusiasm. Daniela Salazar and Bergeron found each other's company so disagreeable at 8:31 that they settled it the old-fashioned way, and five minutes later Andrés Rojas made Montréal pay with a beauty of his own. Fortin answered with a spectacular bat-off-the-air goal at 14:59, and astonishingly, Dmitri Volkov scored for the Maples at that same frozen moment—nine goals in one period, people. Nine.
The second period is where Guadalajara seized control. Rojas went top shelf at 7:37 for his second of the night, Jimena Castillo added one, and Mateo Guzmán buried a third to put the visitors up 5-3. Montreal clawed one back through Lucas Pelletier in the third, but the Gatos held firm. Andrés Rojas finished with two goals and an assist in what was, frankly, a performance that warranted a larger arena. L'upset de la soirée.
SAO 0 — BUS 2
Under The Green Canopy, the São Paulo Serpents came in as modest favorites at 1.71 and proceeded to make absolutely nothing of it. The Busan Blizzards were economical, disciplined, and utterly ruthless with their opportunities.
Ji-eun Shin struck on the power play inside the first two minutes—Mariana Lima's penalty at 1:35 proving immediately costly—and that solitary goal proved sufficient to hold the Serpents scoreless through a grinding second period. São Paulo wasn't without effort; the hit totals climbed steadily and Gabriel Rodrigues was willing to trade punches with Tae-hyun Lim at 13:15 when frustration finally boiled over. But generating clean looks against this Blizzards structure was a different matter entirely.
The third period opened with another fight—Hye-jin Choi and Amanda Barbosa going at 1:05, both off for five—and the chaos created space for Busan rather than Serpents. Sang-hoon Bae scored at 3:46, assisted by So-hee Hwang, to effectively ice the game. With 19 hits recorded and two separate brawls, this was physically punishing hockay, but it was the Blizzards who controlled the tempo when it mattered. C'est incroyable what a single power play goal in the opening two minutes can do to a game's psychology.
DKR 3 — MUM 5
The Sandy Parlor hosted a proper chess match with fists included—fifteen penalties, three fights, eight goals, and a thriller that unfolded exactly as the nearly even odds (Dakar at 1.96, Mumbai at 1.85) suggested it would.
Mumbai drew first blood via Rohan Deshmukh on the power play late in the first, but the Djinns answered quickly and defiantly. Awa Diop tied it just eighteen seconds into the second, and when Aminata Sow converted another power play at 12:30, Dakar had pulled level at 2-2. The middle frame featured a magnificent fight between Sanjay Pawar and Ibrahima Sarr at 10:02—two warriors who'd been jawing all night—and the penalties flowed freely on both sides.
The third period belonged entirely to Divya Mehta. The Mumbai forward scored at 2:58 and again at 6:00, a brace that broke Dakar's back and handed the Monsoons a commanding 5-2 lead. Ibrahima Sarr scored a consolation at 10:35 to make it 3-5, but time had run out for the home side. Mehta's two-goal night alongside Priya Sharma's two assists were the decisive contributions. A merited Mumbai victory in a game that could have gone either way through forty minutes.
JBG 4 — NRB 1
Die Goue Myn was a warzone from the opening whistle, and the Johannesburg Jaguars were the last ones standing. This qualifies as an upset—Nairobi entered at 1.86 while the home side sat at 1.95—but anyone who watched the first period wouldn't have been surprised by the outcome.
Three separate fights broke out in period one alone: Wanjiku Mwangi versus Nomsa Mahlangu, Peter Kimani versus Thandiwe Radebe, and Dennis Wafula versus Kagiso Molefe. In the middle of all that mayhem, Lindiwe Sithole had the composure to bat one out of the air at 1:50 for the opening goal. The Narwhals struck back in the second through Zawadi Mutua, but Thabo Mokoena answered for Johannesburg at 8:07 to restore the lead.
The third period was decisive. Kagiso Molefe—who'd spent time in the box after his first-period scrap—responded beautifully with a goal at 4:23, and Pieter Botha added another just eighteen seconds later to make it 4-1. That back-to-back burst ended any Nairobi hope of a comeback. Molefe's combined night—a goal, two assists in terms of setup play, and the willingness to drop gloves—exemplifies the complete Jaguars performance. Johannesburg was simply the tougher team tonight.
USH 4 — RIM 1
Matías Fernández announced himself thirteen seconds into this game, and the Ushuaia Undertow never really relinquished control. At The South Passage, the home side entered as mild favorites at 1.84, and they justified that billing with authority.
That goal at 0:13—Florencia Ramos with the feed—was a statement, and a brawl between Tomás Peralta and Chiara Ricci at 1:36 established the physical tone that the Undertow used to their advantage all night. The middle periods saw Rimini briefly draw level through Marco Rossetti at 11:19, but Florencia Ramos—herself on the scoresheet now as a goal scorer—restored the lead just forty-seven seconds later. Santiago Figueroa with the assist, a beautiful two-way effort from the forward.
Fernández sealed it in the third with his second of the night at 3:54, and Facundo Álvarez made it 4-1 at 8:00 with a top-shelf finish assisted by Luciana Romero. The Rinklers, to their credit, continued to compete physically—Chiara Ricci finishing checks on Peralta in the final frame, no love lost there—but they had no answer for Fernández's precision. A clean, professional performance from Ushuaia. Très solide.
TOK 3 — PER 4
At The Neon Crossing, the Perth Pyres came in as favorites at 1.77 and survived a ferocious Tokyo comeback to take the two points. This was Hockay at its finest—momentum swings, a packed stat sheet of 23 hits, and a final score that could have gone either direction.
Sakura Shimizu gave Tokyo the lead in the first on a beautiful individual effort, but Nate Hargrove equalized at the buzzer with Eliza Cartwright assisting. Perth then seized the second period: a power play goal from Cooper Hale at 8:45 and a late Cartwright goal at 14:19 gave the Pyres a seemingly comfortable 3-1 lead. Sakura Shimizu added a fight with Jack Mitchell along the way—the kind of game Shimizu lives for.
Tokyo refused to quit. Yūma Hayashi scored in the third at 2:15, then Mei Fujita converted on the power play at 5:29 to make it 3-3. Hayashi and Fujita were magnificent in that burst. But Cooper Hale answered at 7:14 to restore Perth's lead, and this time the Pyres had enough in reserve to hold on. Hale's two goals were the difference. Hayashi's 1G-1A night showed Tokyo's spirit, but Perth's efficiency carried the day.
HAV 1 — VLA 3
Denis Baranov played like a force of nature at The Rhythm Bureau, and the Vladivostok Vodkas handed the favored Havana Hammers a loss the home side never anticipated. Havana opened at 1.81—real money on the home team—but Baranov had no interest in those numbers.
Two goals and an assist, three hits. That is a night for the record books. Maxim Petrov opened the scoring at 4:09 and Baranov himself made it 2-0 at 6:34, batting one out of the air in what was an otherwise tight opening period that featured plenty of body contact and intent from both sides. Havana threw bodies around—Yoandri Hernández and Dayana Rodríguez among the physical contributors—but couldn't find a way past the Vladivostok structure.
The second period saw Baranov bury a third at 9:46 before Havana's Orlando Machado finally answered through Lázaro Valdés's setup at 10:20. But 3-1 was too large a mountain for the Hammers, and the third period played out like a controlled exhibition—Vladivostok protecting their lead through relentless hitting rather than clever playmaking. Denis Baranov goes home tonight with the hardware. C'est lui, le joueur du match.
PRA 1 — MCM 5
The Stone Opera expected a Prague Phantoms victory—home odds of 1.75, a crowd ready to cheer. What they got instead was Yumi Takeda's master class. Three goals. Three. All assisted by the tireless Sven Lindberg, who had himself a three-assist evening to match. What a tandem.
It started promisingly for Prague. Adam Fiala beat the McMurdo goalie at 1:59 to open the scoring, and the home side's physical play in the first period—Tomáš Novák, Eliška Veselá stepping up repeatedly—suggested a competitive evening ahead. The Monoliths leveled through Elena Varga on a power play in the second, and then the third period arrived like an Antarctic blizzard.
Takeda at 0:43. Takeda again at 6:27. Kofi Mensah for good measure at 12:27. And when Pavel Krejčí chose to fight Ingrid Solheim at 4:01—both taking majors—it only created more open ice for McMurdo to exploit. Takeda completed the hat trick at 14:59 in the dying seconds, a final insult to a Phantoms side that had nothing left. The McMurdo Monoliths arrive as visitors and leave with five. Lindberg-to-Takeda may become a phrase we use all season long. Incroyable.
WPG 3 — STO 2
The Cold Lodge was raucous and brawling—four fights, twenty-one hits, eleven penalties—and somehow the Winnipeg Wendigos absorbed everything the Stockholm Sirens threw at them in the third period to hold on. A tense, physical, thoroughly entertaining hockay game.
Marissa Spence was magnificent. Two first-period goals—the first a beautiful even-strength strike at 3:40 assisted by Jake Fehr, the second a power play conversion at 7:54 with Leah Blacksmith setting up—put Winnipeg in command early. Fehr himself mixed his contributions generously: an assist, two fights, two hits. The kind of player every bench needs. Kaya Bearclaw added a power play goal in the second to make it 3-0, and Winnipeg had every reason to feel comfortable.
They were not comfortable for long. Stockholm's Maja Forsberg scored on the power play at 11:16 of the third, and Hugo Wikström—who'd been fighting and grinding all night—put a legitimate scare into The Cold Lodge at 12:37 to make it 3-2. Nicole Flett and Oscar Söderström had gone at it at 8:01, both off for five, and the penalty parade kept the game perpetually unstable in the final frame. But Winnipeg found enough structure to survive. Their 1.83 price was well earned tonight.
HEL 1 — ANC 2 (OT)
Save this one for the archives. The Dark Sauna, the heavy home favorites, the dramatic extra frame—c'est parfait.
Helsinki opened at a commanding 1.58 while the Anchorage Auroras were priced as clear underdogs at 2.40. For sixty minutes, the Howlers more or less justified that assessment without ever quite closing the door. The first period was scoreless and tense, with Elina Heikkinen throwing her body around with authority and both penalty kills holding firm. When Saku Järvinen finally broke the deadlock at 2:24 of the second—Aleksi Korhonen with the feed—Helsinki seemed on their way. But Saku Järvinen's own subsequent penalties gave Anchorage life, and Kira Naluktaq buried the power play equalizer at 10:31 with Paige Riordan assisting. One-all through two periods and through an exhausting, checking-heavy third that refused to yield a goal.
Overtime. Five minutes of sudden death in The Dark Sauna. Molly Kavairlook—who'd started the game in The Sixth on a penalty—finished it instead. She drove hard to the net at 5:07, and then at 5:55, with Heather Braund's setup, she buried it. The upset delivered in the most dramatic fashion possible. Anchorage wins at 2.40. Molly Kavairlook wins the night.
Matchday 09 gives us four upsets, a hat trick in Prague, overtime in Helsinki, and a nine-goal opener at The Oldest Rink. This league does not rest, and neither do I. À la prochaine, mes amis—we'll do it all again soon.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council notes that Matchday 09 has concluded. Ten games were played. Goals were scored. The standings have been updated. Le Council reminds all parties that Denis Baranov's three hits are not a matter of official concern.