Matchday Recap: S01D14
Matchday 14 came down on us like a freight train with no brakes—upsets in three different arenas, a trip to overtime in Anchorage, and enough leather dropped to stock a glove shop. Fourteen games into this season and the league is showing us exactly who it is: unpredictable, physical, and absolutely worth every minute. Allons-y.
TOK 5 — MTL 3
The Neon Crossing was lit early and stayed that way. The Tokyo Titans came out with their skates on fire, putting three past the Montréal Maples before the first period was done. Shūta Tanaka opened it on the power play after Élodie Gagnon's trip to The Sixth—a clean, confident conversion assisted by Haruto Nakamura. Sōta Watanabe made it 2-0 before the midpoint, then Kaito Itō buried it at 11:56 to make the damage feel real. Gagnon returning from her own penalty box to score 45 seconds into the second period was the kind of moxie you love to see, and Chloé Moreau added another to make it a genuine game at 3-2.
But the third period belonged to Tokyo. Alexandre Paquette knotted things briefly at 3-all just 66 seconds in—and then Catherine Lavoie and Yūma Hayashi decided to settle their differences with fists at 2:06, the kind of eruption that can either ignite a comeback or kill momentum. For Montréal, it killed it. Kaito Itō converted a second power play goal at 10:09 for his brace of the night, and Haruto Nakamura's insurance marker at 14:10 sealed the envelope. Itō finishes with two goals. Watanabe and Nakamura each posted a goal and an assist. Quel match for the Titans faithful. Eighteen hits and two fights made sure nobody in The Neon Crossing got bored.
VLA 2 — RIM 5
C'est incroyable. The Rimini Rinklers walked into The Last Terminal as 2.48-underdogs and walked out with a five-spot. The Vladivostok Vodkas were installed as heavy favorites at 1.54, and they had no answer for the Rinklers' efficiency.
Matteo Galli opened the scoring at 7:16 in the first, cashing in just nine seconds after Luca Ferretti was sent to The Sixth—Vladivostok's penalty kill simply wasn't there. Marco Rossetti and Nico De Luca extended it to 3-0 across the second period before the Vodkas finally responded with a Vera Orlova beauty at 1:07 of the third. They clawed it to 2-3 with Yelena Pavlova's stunning airborne effort at 9:48, but De Luca answered twelve minutes into the third to put the game away at 5-2. De Luca was spectacular—two goals and a tenacity that never quit. Anastasia Ivanova and Francesca Serra both contributed two assists, with Serra also doing the physical work at 12 hits on the board for the whole team. The Rinklers needed every goal; they didn't waste one.
JBG 1 — PRA 3
Die Goue Myn expected a battle, and the Prague Phantoms—favored at 1.62—delivered a professional road performance. Kateřina Dvořáková set the tone in startling fashion, burying one top shelf at the 21-second mark of the first. If the Johannesburg Jaguars weren't awake before, they were now.
The second period was the most chaotic of the night in this building. Tereza Horáková restored the lead at 5:28 after a Krejčí assist, then Sipho Nkosi answered with a power play conversion at 8:35 to make it 2-1. Markéta Polák earned herself two separate fighting majors in the same period—once against Pieter Botha at 4:49 and again against Jaco van der Merwe at 12:11—making her the most penalized player on the night in this game, though she escaped without a deciding negative impact. Adam Fiala's third-period marker, a brilliant airborne bat-down at 3:45, put Prague ahead by two and that was enough. Dvořáková and Horáková led the way with a goal apiece, while the Jaguars' Nkosi could hold his head high. Sixteen hits in a game that felt like a rugby fixture at times.
STO 3 — MUM 5
The Still Strait was buzzing, and the Mumbai Monsoons made sure it stayed that way—for all the wrong reasons for the home crowd. At 1.82 away odds, this wasn't exactly a shock, but the magnitude of the early avalanche was. The Monsoons scored three in the first period—Arjun Patil at 0:32, Priya Sharma top shelf at 4:37, and Pooja Verma with a beauty at 12:23—before Stockholm had found their footing. A fight between Sanjay Pawar and Viktor Hallberg at 2:11 did nothing to slow the Monsoons down.
Saga Ekström was the story of the second period for the Stockholm Sirens, scoring twice in eighteen seconds—at 4:22 and 4:40—to make it a 3-2 game and genuinely threaten a comeback. But Rahul Nair had already made it 4-0 at 0:46 before Ekström's brace, and Mumbai reestablished their margin. A third-period Meera Naik goal at 11:28 ensured Stockholm's Axel Lindqvist's 5:00 marker was merely cosmetic. Ekström's two-goal night was the bright light in a difficult outing for the Sirens. Sharma and Rohan Deshmukh led Mumbai's offense with a goal+assist and two assists respectively. A full, energetic game that deserved the crowd it got.
SAO 2 — HEL 3
This one stings for the São Paulo Serpents. At home in The Green Canopy, listed at 1.57 to win, they gave up the lead twice and couldn't find a third-period equalizer. That makes this an upset, and a bitter one.
It started brightly enough for the home side—Isabela Costa at 2:19 put them ahead early, but the Helsinki Howlers responded within 83 seconds through Erik Johansson and then Elina Heikkinen batted one out of the air at 6:51 to flip the lead. The Serpents came out for the second period swinging—nineteen hits on the night tell that story—but couldn't beat the Howlers' netminder again in the middle frame. Heikkinen's second goal at 14:45, a Liisa Nieminen-assisted effort, was clinical. In the third, Anniina Tuominen and Juliana Santos dropped the gloves at 2:51, and Camila Ferreira pulled one back at 9:06 to make it a tense 2-3 finish, but São Paulo's penalties in the final five minutes undermined any real hope of tying it. Heikkinen was magnificent—two goals, composed, decisive. The Serpents hit everything that moved and still went home empty.
ANC 2 — GDL 1
Mon dieu, what a night at The Watch Station. The Anchorage Auroras were 2.85 long shots against the Guadalajara Gatos—who came in at 1.43—and yet here we are. This is the upset of Matchday 14, full stop.
The first period was all physicality and no goals—eleven hits, three penalties, and a scoreless 15 minutes that felt like a pressure cooker about to blow. Guadalajara finally found the net late in the second when Carlos Morales made no mistake at 14:24, assisted by Emilio Delgado. Regulation seemed to be slipping away from Anchorage. But Kira Naluktaq lit the lamp at 8:42 in the third—Paige Riordan with the helper—and the Auroras had themselves a tie ball game. Then overtime.
Overtime at The Watch Station. Rodrigo Vargas was sent to The Sixth at 10:38, and Bryce Denison didn't waste the invitation—burying the power play winner at 11:18, with Sierra Peters picking up the crucial assist. Anchorage wins 2-1 in overtime over a team that should have had this locked up. Ten penalties, nineteen hits, and a result that nobody outside of Alaska saw coming. Magnifique.
BUS 2 — WPG 1
The Frozen Dock in Busan produced another upset—the Winnipeg Wendigos were slight favorites at 1.85 to the Blizzards' 1.96, and the home side made good on their ice. Nothing spectacular about the way Busan won this; it was workmanlike, gritty, and efficient.
Dylan Fife opened the scoring at 2:45 in the first—Anna Flett with the assist—before Sang-hoon Bae equalized on the power play at 5:17, Yuna Kang setting it up. It was one-all through the first period and into the second before Yuna Kang went the other direction and scored herself at 11:36, with Bae returning the assist favor. Kang and Bae were the engine of this Blizzards team—both posting a goal and an assist on the night. Tae-hyun Lim and Anna Flett had a memorable tilt at 8:18 that brought The Frozen Dock to its feet, but it didn't change the game's direction. Busan's defense shut Winnipeg down through a scoreless third period—Min-jun Lee was an absolute force with three credited hits—and the 2-1 final stands. Solide.
MCM 6 — DKR 2
Out at The Remote Range, the McMurdo Monoliths were not in the mood for company. Listed as clear favorites at 1.46, they delivered exactly what was expected—and then some. This was a statement performance.
The first period ended 2-2 after the Dakar Djinns grabbed the opening goal through Awa Diop at 5:30, and the Monoliths answered with power play goals from Elena Varga and then another from Ousmane Diallo before Sven Lindberg's top-shelf effort made it level. But McMurdo took over in the second—Kofi Mensah on the man advantage at 3:06, then Yumi Takeda and Natasha Borova in a five-minute stretch to put the game beyond doubt at 5-2. Lars Henriksen's power play insurance marker in the third made it a final of 6-2. Kofi Mensah and Elena Varga each contributed a goal and an assist. Ingrid Solheim was everywhere with two assists. The Djinns had their moments but were outgunned across all three periods.
NRB 2 — HAV 3
The Ochre Reserve saw a back-and-forth first period and then a battle of patience that the Havana Hammers ultimately won. Nairobi were favored at 2.22 with Havana coming in at 1.67, so this one fell the expected way—but not without drama.
Peter Kimani put the Nairobi Narwhals ahead at 1:01, a gorgeous top-shelf opener assisted by James Odhiambo. Havana replied with two goals of their own—Lisandra Álvarez on the power play at 9:29, then Lázaro Valdés at 11:31—before Wanjiku Mwangi converted her own power play effort at 12:17 to level it at two heading into the second. The middle period was chippy and scoreless—a fight between Dayana Rodríguez and Brian Kipchoge at 3:40 did plenty to raise the temperature without changing the board. And then a quiet third period was decided by one goal: Lisandra Álvarez again, clinical at 9:42 assisted by Yarelys González. Álvarez finishes with two goals. The Narwhals pushed and pressured but couldn't find a response. Odhiambo's two-assist night deserved a better outcome.
PER 3 — USH 1
Red Furnace, Perth, and the home crowd got exactly what they came to see. The Perth Pyres held the Ushuaia Undertow to one goal—and they needed 14 hits and two fights to keep them there. At 1.61 favorites, the Pyres were expected to win, and they delivered.
The first period was scoreless despite the barrage of hits that started before a minute was on the clock—Nate Hargrove arriving with two checks inside 48 seconds and Valentina Giménez and Tahlia Nguyen trading blows in a physical opening frame. Eliza Cartwright broke the deadlock nine seconds into the second period—one of the earliest goals you'll see—assisted by Zara Patel. Santiago Figueroa and Oscar Whitfield had had enough of each other by the midpoint of the second, throwing punches at 3:32. Gemma Fletcher added Perth's second just 48 seconds into the third, and then Ignacio Herrera and Sienna Kapoor went at it at 6:01—Herrera challenging, Sienna Kapoor obliging. Oscar Whitfield capitalized on the subsequent power play at 6:42, and Florencia Ramos added a fourth-quarter insurance marker on another man advantage at 13:24. Ushuaia's lone goal got lost in the noise. Whitfield with a goal, a hit, and a fight—the complete Matchday performance.
Matchday 14 gave us four upsets, one overtime classic, and a dozen performances worth remembering. The standings are shifting, friends—and we are only getting started. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council recognizes that Matchday 14 occurred. Four upsets have been noted. The Council does not speculate as to their cause. The record has been updated accordingly.