Matchday Recap: S01D26
Matchday 26 delivered the full spectrum—tight defensive battles in Scandinavia, a South American slugfest at The Green Canopy, a goal-fest in the southern hemisphere, and one of the more dramatic shootout finishes we've seen this season. Buckle up, friends. C'est parti.
STO 2 — MTL 1
The Still Strait lived up to its name for about eight minutes—and then the gloves came off. Twice. Before the first period was done, the Stockholm Sirens and Montréal Maples had exchanged four major penalties across two separate fights, with Elin Sjöberg and Amélie Bouchard sparking the first bout just seconds after Sjöberg put Bouchard into the boards, and Klara Åström and Chloé Moreau continuing hostilities at 12:37. Zero goals, maximum temperature.
The Sirens broke through early in the second when Maja Forsberg buried one assisted by Albin Nordlund at 0:58—barely time to settle. Stockholm rode that lead through a period of continued penalties and physical play, and Åström's assist on Sjöberg's power play goal at 8:24 of the third gave Stockholm the cushion they needed. Dmitri Volkov answered for the Maples at 12:02, assisted by Jean-François Tremblay, but that's as close as Montréal would get.
Here's where it matters: the Maples came in as favorites at 1.79, making this a genuine upset. The Sirens defended The Still Strait with tenacity, and Sjöberg—a goal, an assist, a fight, a hit—was the heart of it. Quel match pour Stockholm.
PRA 2 — HEL 1
The Stone Opera hosted a proper heavyweight bout in miniature tonight. Helsinki came out throwing—literally. Mikko Hämäläinen got things going the right way for the Howlers, finishing off an Aleksi Korhonen setup at 10:23 of the first, and the Phantoms found themselves chasing. That changed in the second when David Růžička leveled things at 5:54, with Lucie Šťastná earning the helper—her first of two assists on the night.
But the second period is remembered for its combat as much as its goals. Hämäläinen and Ondřej Marek dropped gloves at 9:37 after a heavy collision at center ice; moments later, Jakub Černý and Elina Heikkinen added another bout at 13:26. Three fights on the night total. The Stone Opera earned its name.
The decisive moment came in dying embers of the third: Růžička collecting his second goal at 14:59—again from Šťastná—to give Prague the win they needed. Růžička's two-goal night was clinical, Šťastná's two-assist performance was the engine behind it. Helsinki, favored at 1.99 odds, leave empty-handed. The Phantoms take it 2–1.
ANC 2 — VLA 5
The Watch Station expected a coin-flip game—Anchorage at 1.86, Vladivostok at 1.95—and the first period delivered that promise. Anastasia Ivanova opened the scoring for the Vodkas at 3:43, Molly Kavairlook equalized for the Auroras just seventy seconds later. Back to level. Close game, right?
Not for long. Darya Kuznetsova and Tatiana Novikova dismantled Anchorage over the final forty minutes. Kuznetsova buried her second of the night in the third for a 5–1 lead that made the result academic. Novikova's power play goal at 13:11 of the second—assisted by Ruslan Kozlov—was particularly cruel, coming right when the Auroras needed to stay close. Yelena Pavlova and Jake Hensley had a spirited dust-up at 8:08 of the second that gave The Watch Station a jolt, but by then the damage was being done at the other end.
Mason Kluane's late top-shelf finish, assisted by Carlos Medina, provided a cosmetic 2–5 final for the home side. This was Vladivostok's night emphatically. Kuznetsova and Novikova each with two goals—incroyable en déplacement.
TOK 2 — WPG 4
The Neon Crossing started in breathtaking fashion. Yuki Sato batted one out of the air just sixty seconds in, Tokyo up 1–0 before the crowd had finished their first sip. But the Winnipeg Wendigos refused to blink—Jonas Brevik equalized at 7:54, and then Yūma Hayashi restored the Tokyo lead with a Ren Inoue setup at 11:16. Jake Fehr and Shūta Tanaka meanwhile settled a disagreement the old-fashioned way at 9:49. Lively doesn't cover it.
It was Winnipeg who found another gear in the second. Tyler Chicken—what a name to score a beautiful goal—made it 2–2 at 13:19 with Kaya Bearclaw assisting, and moments later Shūta Tanaka took a penalty he couldn't afford. Brendan Fehr converted the power play at 14:33, assisted by Jake Fehr—a brothers-to-brothers connection that flipped the lead.
Winnipeg held their nerve in the third, with Kaya Bearclaw sealing it at 12:29, her second point of the night finishing off a Tyler Chicken assist. The Titans had 17 hits against them and never quite recovered from that second-period swing. Wendigos win 4–2 in a game that was closer than it looks.
MCM 3 — RIM 6
The Remote Range saw Rimini do something dangerous from the opening drop: score. Elena Moretti made it 1–0 at 1:47, Francesca Serra added the second at 7:39, and the McMurdo Monoliths were already in the hole before the first TV timeout. Amira Hassan and Elena Varga added a 3–0 lead in the second before McMurdo found any life—Kofi Mensah pulling one back at 3:49 of the second.
Then came the third period. Mensah scored again at 0:47—and converted a power play goal at 4:07 off Ingrid Solheim's setup to make it 3–4, genuine tension in the building. But Sofia Barbieri answered on a Rimini power play at 7:10 with her second of the night, and Davide Marchetti's night as a two-assist performer proved invaluable. Chiara Ricci and Amira Hassan had a late fight at 10:18 that said everything about the frustration on both benches. Valentina Colombo's goal at 14:49 closed it out at 6–3.
Amira Hassan finished with a goal, an assist, a hit, and a fight—and three penalty minutes besides. She gave McMurdo everything she had, but Rimini were just too deep tonight.
JBG 1 — HAV 3
The first period at Die Goue Myn was scoreless but not quiet. Lerato Dlamini and Mailén Domínguez established the tone with a fight at 7:17, and Thandiwe Radebe picked up two penalties on the night to keep the Johannesburg Jaguars perpetually shorthanded. The Havana Hammers made them pay. Handsomely.
Lázaro Valdés opened the floodgates at 2:31 of the second, and before the period was halfway done Dayana Rodríguez had batted one out of the air for a two-goal cushion. When Reinier Cruz made it 3–0 at 14:33—assisted by Domínguez, who'd already left her mark earlier in the fight—the Jaguars were in serious trouble. Johannesburg had been listed as the slight underdogs at 2.02, and truthfully the result wasn't a shock, but the emphatic manner of the second period stings.
Thandiwe Radebe scored a consolation goal at 2:44 of the third, assisted by Sipho Nkosi, to give the home faithful something to cheer. The Hammers were efficient, disciplined where it counted, and Havana leaves Die Goue Myn with a comfortable three-point win.
PER 7 — MUM 4
Mon dieu. The Red Furnace earned its name tonight. Perth and Mumbai combined for eleven goals and three fights in what can only be described as organized chaos. It started in the first minute: Ananya Kulkarni dropped the gloves with Riley Dawson at 2:23—while the five-on-five fighting majors were still being sorted, Rohan Deshmukh scored for Mumbai at 2:31. The Perth Pyres answered with a Mia Thornton goal, then an Eliza Cartwright goal, then another Cartwright goal on the power play, then Vikram Joshi—five goals in the first period alone.
Liam O'Brien and Pooja Verma added a second fight at 1:26 of the second, because apparently the first period hadn't scratched the itch. Gemma Fletcher and O'Brien both scored in the middle frame to stretch Perth to 5–2. The Monsoons rallied impressively in the third—Meera Naik, Oscar Whitfield, and Pooja Verma all scored to make it 5–4 at one point—but Mia Thornton's second goal of the night at 8:36 was the dagger, finishing with Callum Reeves' second of two assists on the evening.
Perth, favorites at 1.76, delivered. Cartwright's two-goal night, O'Brien's goal-and-fight, Thornton's brace—this was a Pyres team firing on every cylinder.
SAO 5 — USH 3
The Green Canopy produced a thrilling first period: five goals before the halfway mark of the game, three fights, and a pace that left the crowd breathless. Camila Ferreira opened for São Paulo, Santiago Figueroa answered for Ushuaia twenty seconds later, and then it was goals back-and-forth until the Serpents went to the dressing room up 3–2. Ferreira's goal at 11:34—her second of the night—proved the difference-maker in that first twenty.
The second period is where São Paulo buried it. Juliana Santos at 5:17, then Larissa Souza at 11:10—Amanda Barbosa earning the assist on the latter after a ferocious two-way effort all night—pushed the lead to 5–3 with the Ushuaia Undertow unable to find another gear. Tomás Peralta scored a beautiful Valentina Giménez setup at 9:01 to give Ushuaia some hope, but that was all they'd get.
The third period was a war of attrition—nineteen hits total on the night, no goals—and the Serpents held on to win 5–3. Ferreira finishes with two goals and two hits. This was a performance that says the São Paulo Serpents mean business.
NRB 5 — GDL 4
Now this is the one we'll be talking about. The Ochre Reserve was ready to send the Nairobi Narwhals home with a commanding win—and then the Guadalajara Gatos did something extraordinary. Let me tell you how we got here.
The first period was scoreless but hostile: Diego Hernández and Nyambura Kamau trading blows at 1:34, Faith Wanjiru and Valentina Ramírez following them at 6:04 of the second. But in between all that intensity, Nairobi went on an absolute tear. Brian Kipchoge, Dennis Wafula, Wanjiku Mwangi, and Peter Kimani all scored in the second period—a 4–1 lead after forty minutes with Amara Osei assisting on two of them and Kevin Otieno chipping in two helpers as well.
Then Guadalajara did the unthinkable. Santiago Torres, Valentina Ramírez on a power play, and Alejandra Ríos all scored in the third—three goals in eleven minutes to force overtime. Ramírez, who'd spent time in The Sixth earlier, scored the goal that kept their season alive. In overtime: nothing. Both teams pushed but neither could convert in five minutes of three-on-three.
Shootout. And it was James Odhiambo—Nairobi's player, calmly picking the corner at 4:31—who ended it. Narwhals win 5–4 in the shootout, avoiding what would have been a stunning collapse. C'est incroyable. What a hockay game.
BUS 5 — DKR 3
The Frozen Dock gave us nine penalties on the night and a game that had two different identities. The Dakar Djinns came into this one as underdogs at 2.20 and played like they hadn't read the odds—by the end of the first period, they led 2–1 after Ibrahima Sarr and Moussa Ndiaye both scored, the latter on a power play. The Busan Blizzards had controlled the puck but not the scoreboard.
The second period belongs to the home side. Khady Bâ tied it at 3:33 and then Hye-jin Choi—one goal, one assist on the night—scored a batted goal at 9:01, Sang-hoon Bae earning his second assist. At 3–3 and two periods played, this was wide open. The decisive moments came early in the third: Yuna Kang, who'd stepped up hard on Fatou Mbaye just moments before, scored a beauty at 2:51 with Bae assisting again. Soo-yeon Park added her second goal of the night at 5:54 to make it 5–3, and that was that.
The Djinns weren't without spirit—late penalties told the story of a team that kept pressing—but Busan's discipline in the back half of the game was superior. Soo-yeon Park with two goals, Sang-hoon Bae with two assists. The Blizzards win at home, as they were supposed to.
Matchday 26 in the books—two upsets, one shootout, eleven goals in Perth, and James Odhiambo calmly picking a corner at The Ochre Reserve to save the Narwhals' night. This league never lets you breathe. We'll see you at Matchday 27. Bonne nuit, tout le monde.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council notes that Matchday 26 has concluded. Ten games were played. Goals were scored. The Council has updated the record. No further comment is forthcoming.