Matchday Recap: S01D24
Matchday 24 gave us everything this league can offer—a historic blowout in Alaska, a shootout thriller in Scandinavia, multiple upsets, and enough fighting majors to keep the disciplinary committee busy well into the night. Buckle up, mes amis.
VLA 2 — MTL 4
The Last Terminal in Vladivostok is never an easy building to visit, and early on it looked like the Montréal Maples were going to find that out the hard way. Nikita Sorokin struck just 69 seconds in, and then spent the rest of the period using Amélie Bouchard and Jean-René Bergeron as crash-test dummies along the boards—three thunderous hits in the opening frame alone.
The second period brought the equalizer, but not before more carnage at center ice. Dmitri Volkov fired home a beautiful finish at 2:45, with the assist coming from Maples forward Chloé Moreau—a clean forced error that became a genuine beauty. Credit where it's due. The Vodkas and Maples traded blows throughout, 16 hits on the night, but the scoring stayed locked at one apiece heading into the third.
And then Montréal turned the jets on. Artyom Volkov converted on the power play at 4:46 to put the visitors ahead, and thirty-six seconds later Bouchard answered her earlier bruising with a goal of her own. Dmitri Volkov pulled one back at 9:12—his second of the night, a fine individual performance—but Philippe Dubois iced it with a late goal at 14:59. The Maples take two points on the road, and Dmitri Volkov leaves with two goals and a loss. C'est la vie.
TOK 0 — PRA 2
Now here's a result the oddsmakers didn't see coming. The Prague Phantoms came into The Neon Crossing as 2.16 underdogs, and left having completely suffocated the Tokyo Titans from first puck drop to final horn. Quel match défensif.
Eliška Veselá set the tone early, potting the opening goal at 3:06 in the first off a feed from Ondřej Marek, and the Phantoms never looked back. Tokyo took three penalties in the opening period and never generated sustained pressure. The second brought some fireworks—Kateřina Dvořáková and Mio Kobayashi settled their differences with their fists at 5:17, both absorbing five-minute majors—before Martin Procházka doubled the lead at 13:24 on a Pavel Krejčí setup. Clean, clinical, professional.
The third period was Tokyo's last chance and they couldn't find the net. Instead, the period devolved into a penalty parade and three separate fights—Růžička and Inoue, then Sato and Dvořáková in a rematch of sorts. Six fighting majors across the game, ten total penalties, and the Titans couldn't buy a goal. The final score flatters Tokyo. Prague deserved every bit of this.
STO 2 — RIM 3
Mon dieu, this one had everything. The Still Strait hosted a game that had goals, four fights, twelve penalties, a comeback from two down, overtime, and ultimately a shootout winner from the most composed player on the ice. C'est incroyable.
Stockholm started like a freight train. Axel Lindqvist cashed a power play marker at 4:01 and Hugo Wikström—who had assists, goals, and hits on the night—made it 2-0 at 13:02. The Sirens looked utterly in control. But the Rimini Rinklers were not done. The second period didn't change the score, though it did produce two separate fighting majors—Maja Forsberg and Nico De Luca at 7:27, then Valentina Colombo and Astrid Engström at 14:11—as Rimini made clear they weren't going quietly.
The third belonged to the visitors. Giulia Bianchi broke through at 4:03, then Nico De Luca tied it at 13:52 to force overtime. In OT, Elin Sjöberg and Valentina Colombo immediately dropped gloves at 3:21—settling whatever personal business had been left over—and neither side could find a winner in fifteen minutes. So it went to the shootout, where Bianchi calmly picked the corner to win it for Rimini. Two goals, a fight survived, and the shootout winner. She was the best player in that barn tonight.
JBG 3 — HEL 1
Die Goue Myn delivered a tidy, well-structured Johannesburg Jaguars win over the Helsinki Howlers—a game that played out more or less as the 1.76 home odds suggested it might, but one that had genuine drama in the third period before the Jaguars pulled away.
Thabo Mokoena opened the scoring at 6:33 in the first on a Pieter Botha setup, and the Jaguars held that lead comfortably through a second period that was more physical than productive—four hits, a couple of penalties, and an Erik Johansson-Nomsa Mahlangu bout at 13:57 that added some flavor to an otherwise quiet middle frame.
The third got interesting. Bongani Mthembu extended the lead at 6:31, but Juhani Rantanen—Helsinki's best performer on the night—answered almost immediately at 9:28 to make it 2-1 and give the Howlers genuine hope. It didn't last. Lerato Dlamini buried it top shelf at 10:32 to restore the two-goal cushion, and that was the ball game. Mthembu finished with a goal and the primary assist on Dlamini's marker—a quietly excellent night for the Jaguars' big forward.
ANC 12 — MUM 2
I have called a lot of hockay games in my life. I have not often called a 12-2 final. Let's put this in perspective: Mumbai came in as 1.72 favorites. The Anchorage Auroras were the underdogs at home. What unfolded at The Watch Station over sixty minutes was one of the most complete team performances this league has seen—a masterclass in finishing, pace, and relentlessness. C'est incroyable, truly.
The first period set the tone immediately: Rohan Deshmukh scored at 26 seconds, and by the time the horn sounded, Anchorage led 5-2. Sierra Peters, Tara Alexie, Levi Simmonds—the goals came from everywhere. The second period produced four more, including a power play goal from Kira Naluktaq and two—two!—goals from Heather Braund. Isaiah Tobin quietly assembled four assists on the night without scoring once, an extraordinary playmaking performance.
By the third, it was 9-2 and the Monsoons were in survival mode. Peters, Braund, and Bryce Denison added three more to complete the rout. Sierra Peters finished with three goals, Heather Braund with two goals and two assists. The Auroras did not just win this game—they made a statement.
SAO 4 — WPG 2
The Green Canopy in São Paulo is a fortress right now, and the Winnipeg Wendigos found that out the hard way. The Serpents built a commanding first-period lead and never relinquished it—a professional, efficient performance that probably doesn't get enough credit for how well-organized it was.
Two power play goals in the opening twenty minutes set the template. Amanda Barbosa converted first at 7:09, then Camila Ferreira made it 2-0 at 9:39 on a man advantage, before Gabriel Rodrigues made it a three-goal cushion at 14:49. Three goals in the first, two on the power play—Winnipeg had already given themselves a mountain to climb. Gustavo Ribeiro added a fourth in the second at 9:59 before Dylan Fife finally got Winnipeg on the board with a neat goal late in the second.
The third produced some fireworks—Jake Fehr and Juliana Santos had a mid-period dust-up at 6:07—and Jonas Brevik pulled one back for Winnipeg at 12:05. But 4-2 is where it finished. All five of São Paulo's scorers chipped in with a goal apiece. This was collective excellence.
MCM 3 — GDL 1
Here's a subtle upset worth paying attention to. The Guadalajara Gatos came into The Remote Range as 1.83 favorites, and left with nothing. The McMurdo Monoliths are a difficult team to read out in Antarctica, and tonight they showed exactly why home ice there is no joke.
A scoreless first period set the stage for a second that produced equal measure of goals—Yumi Takeda opened for McMurdo at 3:21 before Sofía Navarro equalized at 9:08 on a Jimena Castillo feed. One-one heading to the third, a wide-open game. And then McMurdo simply took over. Chris Elliot put them ahead at 1:45, and when Alejandra Ríos took a penalty at 9:38, Elena Varga made the Gatos pay immediately—a power play conversion at 10:38 that sealed the win.
Yumi Takeda was excellent all night—a goal plus two physical hits on Rodrigo Vargas. The late fight between Mateo Guzmán and Amira Hassan added some spice but changed nothing. The Monoliths pick up a deserved two points over the favorites.
BUS 1 — HAV 0
A 1-0 game is sometimes the most honest reflection of what happened on the ice, and at The Frozen Dock tonight the Busan Blizzards simply ground the Havana Hammers into dust. Twenty-two hits. Two fights. One goal. And at odds of 2.00, another quiet upset for the home side.
The first period was brutal in the best possible way. Seung-ho Jung and Yordanis Sánchez exchanged fists at 2:08 right out of the gate, setting a tone that never really softened. Ji-eun Shin alone had five hits on the night—a one-woman wrecking crew who never needed to score to be the most impactful player on the ice. The second period was scoreless but no less physical: So-hee Hwang and Mailén Domínguez fought at 2:52, and Claudia Pérez seemed to find a new Blizzard on her back every time she touched the puck.
The decisive moment came in the third: Yordanis Sánchez went to The Sixth at 4:41, and Soo-yeon Park—who had been physical all game—buried the power play chance at 7:06 with an assist from Hwang. That was all it took. Havana couldn't respond. A magnificent defensive effort from Busan.
PER 1 — DKR 3
Five fights in sixty minutes at The Red Furnace—and somehow, the story is that the Dakar Djinns were the calmer side. Perth came in at 1.62 favorites. The Djinns left with a convincing 3-1 victory. Upset of the night, arguably.
Aminata Sow struck early at 0:41—the kind of opening goal that puts a team immediately on the back foot at home—and Perth spent the rest of the first period taking penalties and trading haymakers. Cheikh Fall and Liam O'Brien settled things properly at 12:21, both absorbing five minutes. The second offered Perth a path back: Zara Patel equalized at 8:40 after a good Oscar Whitfield setup, but Ousmane Diallo and Sienna Kapoor fought at 7:31 before that, and Fatou Mbaye and Tahlia Nguyen went at 13:52, so the scoresheet is only part of the story.
The third is where Dakar killed it definitively. Khady Bâ scored at 3:10, then Cheikh Fall—who'd already served a major in the first—scored the clincher at 8:04. Two more fights in the third sealed the atmosphere of a game that got away from Perth badly. The Pyres have some questions to answer.
NRB 3 — USH 1
The Nairobi Narwhals were expected to handle the Ushuaia Undertow at The Ochre Reserve—1.63 home favorites—and they delivered. But it wasn't without a scare, and it took a blazing third period to properly put the game away.
Two physical opening periods produced just one goal: a lovely Luciana Romero strike at 7:09 in the second, assisted by Facundo Álvarez, as Ushuaia silenced the home crowd with a go-ahead goal. A Valentina Giménez-Peter Kimani fight preceded it—the ice was never clean. Nairobi needed a response.
They got three. Moses Okello struck at literally seven seconds into the third—seven seconds!—then Kevin Otieno buried a power play goal at 1:52, and Amara Osei added a third at 2:50 for a stunning 3-0 run in the game's opening three minutes of the final frame. That was the game right there. Fifty-seven seconds of sustained carnage that transformed a 0-1 deficit into a 3-1 lead. Okello was magnificent—a goal and an assist and the engine of that third-period surge. Ushuaia never recovered.
Matchday 24 is in the books, and what a card it was. Four upsets in ten games, a 12-2 scoreline in Alaska, a shootout in Stockholm, and more fighting majors than a Saturday night in February should probably have. This league never disappoints. I'll see you on Matchday 25—je serai là, comme toujours.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council notes that Matchday 24 has concluded. Fourteen goals in Anchorage have been recorded. The Council neither endorses nor condemns the quantity. The record stands.