Matchday Recap: S01D27
Matchday 27 gave us the full spectrum, friends—shutouts and slaughters, overtime drama and defensive wars, and The Sixth making its presence known in every single building across the league. Today, the Ice Taketh. Buckle up. Voici le récapitulatif de cette journée.
MTL 0 — HEL 1
The Oldest Rink was primed for a Montréal victory—the Maples were favored at 1.72—but the Helsinki Howlers had other ideas, and Niko Mäkelä was the instrument of their will. The upset was quiet, clinical, and utterly complete.
The first period set the tone with a burst of physicality before anything resembling a goal materialized. Mäkelä absorbed an early Aleksi Korhonen penalty, then used the shifting momentum to his advantage. At 12:12, off a feed from Anniina Tuominen, he fired the only goal this game would ever produce—a lead the Howlers never relinquished.
The second period was the most chaotic twenty minutes of the night. Just twenty-three seconds in, bodies were flying. At 1:40, Dmitri Volkov stepped up on Tuominen—and seconds later, gloves were off. Both took five minutes. The period escalated from there, and then at 6:40, the game experienced its sixth-dimensional disruption. The Puck paused everything. Le Council observed. The Sixth remained unresponsive. When play resumed, the score was still 0-1, and the Maples were no closer to an answer.
Jean-François Tremblay and Saara Virtanen traded punches at 5:08 of the third—a fight born from Tremblay's hit two seconds prior—but the fireworks produced nothing on the scoreboard. Helsinki defended with discipline. Mäkelä's lone goal stood as the winner. Quel match défensif.
STO 2 — ANC 3
C'est incroyable—eight fights, fifteen penalties, a sixth visit, and overtime. The Still Strait hosted an absolute war on Matchday 27, and the Anchorage Auroras escaped with the upset at 1.97, completing a comeback from a 2-1 third-period deficit.
The Stockholm Sirens drew first blood on a Maja Forsberg goal at 11:21 of the first, but not before Carlos Medina and Freja Sandström had already dropped the gloves, and Astrid Engström and Jake Hensley joined them shortly after. The second period opened with a 31-second bomb—Kira Naluktaq equalized before most fans had found their seats—before Oscar Söderström restored the Stockholm lead just forty seconds later. Then Molly Kavairlook and Viktor Hallberg threw hands. Then Hugo Wikström and Sierra Peters threw hands. At 6:11, the Sixth took everyone. When they came back, Mason Kluane scored at 13:32 to tie it 2-2. The third period saw three more fights—Bryce Denison and Albin Nordlund, Forsberg and Cody Tulik, Lucas Bredberg and Carlos Medina—and absolutely zero goals. The ice was angry but not productive.
Overtime settled it. Isaiah Tobin, who'd been quietly excellent all night with a goal and an assist, buried the winner at 7:33 off a Kluane feed. The Auroras had been the upset side from the drop of the puck. They earned every point of it.
WPG 6 — PRA 1
The Winnipeg Wendigos were not in a merciful mood at The Cold Lodge, and the Prague Phantoms had no answer for the freight train rolling through their defensive zone from the opening minute. This one was over early and only got more convincing.
Three goals in the first period staked Winnipeg to a lead they never remotely threatened to surrender. Brody Flett opened the scoring at 2:03, Jake Fehr added one at 4:07, and Anna Flett put the period away at 14:41. Tomáš Novák's goal at 8:44 was the Phantoms' only real moment of hope—answered almost immediately by the Wendigos' continued dominance in puck movement. Fehr was everywhere, finishing checks on Markéta Polák and Martin Procházka while also scoring twice on the night.
The second period was more of the same: Fehr added his second at 4:38, Curtis Favel scored at 13:35—the Sixth came through at 5:31, the ice went quiet, and when the world returned it was still very much a Winnipeg game. Favel capped his night with a gorgeous bat-down goal at 4:43 of the third. Anna Flett was the engine throughout, finishing with a goal and two assists, while Brendan Fehr quietly distributed two helpers from the background. The Phantoms were outmuscled, outshot, and outclassed. Pas grand-chose à faire pour Prague ce soir.
VLA 2 — MCM 1
The upset flag flies at The Last Terminal. The Vladivostok Vodkas entered as the marginally lesser-favored side at 1.91 against McMurdo's 1.90—nearly even odds—but this game felt like Vladivostok's night from the moment Igor Zaytsev put the puck past the McMurdo netminder at 10:51 of the first.
The opening period featured a fight between Olga Smirnova and Ji-hoon Baek just six minutes in—the kind of early confrontation that sets the temperature for everything that follows. The Vodkas led 1-0 after twenty, but the Monoliths answered with a tidy Tobias Frey goal at 2:29 of the second. That's when Vladivostok head coach instincts paid off: Yelena Pavlova converted a power play at 6:30 to restore the lead, the Sixth descended at 8:42, players vanished, and when the world was restored the Vodkas held a 2-1 edge they were not going to let go.
Ingrid Solheim and Zaytsev fought late in the second—a physical statement from McMurdo that came too late to shift momentum. Pavlova took a penalty early in the third, giving the Monoliths a window, but Vladivostok's defense held firm through the final minutes. A gritty, professional victory from a team that proved it belongs in close games.
HAV 1 — TOK 2
The Rhythm Bureau has witnessed livelier nights, but Matchday 27 offered something quietly compelling here: a tactical chess match that dissolved into a hitting contest—twenty-five total hits across sixty minutes—with each side scraping out a single goal and no one finding a way to break the deadlock. The Havana Hammers were favored at 1.61; they'll feel the draw stings a little.
The first period was scoreless but full of intent. Orlando Machado was particularly physical in the Havana zone, landing two notable hits in a span of twenty-eight seconds, while the Tokyo Titans answered through Mio Kobayashi and Hina Takahashi on the back end. The second period ignited at 3:36 when Lisandra Álvarez and Mei Fujita dropped the gloves, and Shūta Tanaka and Osmany Leyva followed them off the ice at 5:06. Lázaro Valdés gave Havana the lead at 8:06—assisted by Yanelis Peña, who was remarkable all night with three hits and a fight alongside the primary setup. The Sixth arrived seconds later and swallowed everyone.
Tokyo tied it in the third at 11:52: Mio Kobayashi, top shelf, assisted by Yūma Hayashi. Ils ont tout donné and it showed in the last second.
RIM 1 — PER 0
The Coastal Pavilion doesn't always produce fireworks, but this matchup between the Rimini Rinklers and the Perth Pyres gave us something better: a game where defensive identity won out, and a single moment of quality—Nico De Luca at 11:36 of the third—decided everything. Rimini entered as underdogs at 2.00; Perth was the 1.82 side. The upset belongs to De Luca and Chiara Ricci, who provided the assist.
The first period was a hitting parade with no scoring. Jack Mitchell took two penalties across the first two periods, giving the Rinklers repeated opportunities to punch through, but the Pyres' structure held. Perth was generating chances and momentum but couldn't convert. The second period offered more of the same—the Sixth arrived at 8:55 and took everyone for a visit, and both teams came back still locked at zero.
It wasn't until well into the third that the ice cracked. De Luca, who'd already announced himself with a crunching hit on Callum Reeves in the first, picked up the puck off Ricci's feed and fired it home with under four minutes left. That was all the Rinklers needed. A 1-0 final. Fifteen hits, zero fights, one goal. Sometimes the most efficient team wins. Ce soir, c'était Rimini.
USH 2 — JBG 1
A 1-1 draw at The South Passage—both teams went home with a point, neither entirely satisfied, both probably feeling the draw was fair. The Ushuaia Undertow were slight underdogs at 2.04, which means the point lands marginally in their favor on paper.
The first period featured the evening's most intriguing matchup: Nicolás Sosa and Naledi Khumalo dropped the gloves at 12:29 after Sosa caught her with a hit. Two fighters well-matched, and five minutes apiece didn't resolve anything—they'd finish their business on the ice itself. The second period produced both goals in a six-minute window. Matías Fernández converted a Ushuaia power play at 4:13, assisted by Julieta Ríos, who'd drawn the original penalty by getting tangled up along the boards moments earlier. Nomsa Mahlangu answered for Johannesburg at 10:01, assisted by Lindiwe Sithole in a beautiful even-strength response. The Sixth had visited at 7:53—right between the two goals, as if taking a breath mid-sentence.
The third period went without a goal despite Mandla Zulu and Tomás Peralta fighting at 4:36. Ushuaia pressed but couldn't break through. Johannesburg defended and couldn't extend. Both clubs look to Matchday 28 with something to prove.
MUM 0 — NRB 1
The Salt Pavilion sent its fans home in silence—or at least, the home fans did. The Mumbai Monsoons were favored at 2.06, the Nairobi Narwhals slight picks at 1.77, and Brian Kipchoge made sure those odds were validated in the most emphatic personal performance of the night: one goal, two hits, one fight, and a commanding presence from the opening puck drop.
Mumbai and Nairobi traded physicality early and often. Kipchoge fought Rahul Nair at 7:37 of the first—both taking five—and Dennis Wafula and Pooja Verma matched that intensity less than seven minutes later. The first period ended goalless but with the Narwhals clearly dictating terms. In the second, Kipchoge made it count: his goal at 8:11, off a Akinyi Ochieng setup, gave Nairobi the only lead this game would see. Seconds later, the Sixth claimed the building. Players vanished. The ice was quiet. When they returned, Nairobi still led, and the Monsoons hadn't found a way to respond.
A third fight broke out in the second—Kevin Otieno and Priya Sharma—but it didn't shift the momentum. Mumbai pressed through the final period and came up empty. Kipchoge was the difference in every dimension. C'était sa soirée.
DKR 2 — SAO 0
The Sandy Parlor saw a shutout and an upset—the Dakar Djinns entered at 1.97 against the São Paulo Serpents' 1.85, and the Djinns delivered a composed, physical victory that was far more controlled than the penalty sheet might suggest. Eight penalties, three fights, and yet Dakar never looked rattled.
Three fights landed in the first period—Rokhaya Faye and Amanda Barbosa twice, with Mariana Lima and Aminata Sow in between—and it easily could have derailed Dakar's focus. But the Djinns absorbed the chaos, killed their penalties, and came out of the first period at 0-0 with their structure intact. Ousmane Diallo broke through just 84 seconds into the second, finishing off Aminata Sow's work—the same Sow who'd spent five minutes in The Sixth earlier—to make it 1-0. The sixth-dimensional visit at 5:41 interrupted the period but didn't interrupt the Djinns' concentration.
Fatou Mbaye sealed it at 14:58 of the third, assisted by Faye—who finished the night with three hits, two fights, and the decisive primary helper. That's a complete game from a single player. The Serpents couldn't find their footing through sixty minutes and left The Sandy Parlor with nothing. Chapeau to Dakar.
GDL 11 — BUS 2
Dieu merci, I was calling something else first and arrived at El Rincón Perdido at the start of the second. By then it was already 2-1. By the end of the second it was 8-1. And by the final buzzer? Eleven goals for the Guadalajara Gatos. Eleven. The Busan Blizzards were victims of a complete offensive detonation, and there is simply no other way to describe it.
The first period opened with So-hee Hwang and Diego Hernández fighting less than six minutes in—Hernández, to his credit, would go on to score twice despite the early altercation. Carlos Morales opened the scoring at 10:27, Dong-wook Yoon answered for Busan at 11:36, and Rodrigo Vargas put Guadalajara ahead again before the period closed. Three goals, a fight, and ominous signs for the visitors.
The second period was the avalanche. Sofía Navarro, Camila Flores, Andrés Rojas, Diego Hernández twice, Emilio Delgado twice—six goals in the second period alone, two of them power play conversions off Busan penalties. Valentina Ramírez was the invisible hand behind everything, finishing with three assists on the night. The Sixth came through at 5:33—the Busan players probably wished it had taken them somewhere else entirely. When the ice returned to normal, Guadalajara kept scoring.
Emilio Delgado added another power play goal in the third, Santiago Torres scored at 3:04, and Sofía Navarro capped the rout with a man-advantage goal at 12:55. Navarro finished with two goals, one assist, and had been physically dominant from the first puck drop. A performance, and a result, that will echo across the standings. Incroyable.
Matchday 27 is in the books—upsets across multiple buildings, an overtime classic in Stockholm, a historic scoring night in Guadalajara, and The Sixth claiming its toll in every arena, as it always does. Je vous retrouve pour le Matchday 28. Until then, take care of each other out there.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 27 occurred. All goals have been counted. The Sixth's involvement has been noted in the appropriate ledger. Le Council has no further comment at this time.