Matchday Recap: S01D30
Thirty matchdays in, and Hockay has spent the evening dismantling anyone who thought they had it figured out. Six upsets across ten arenas tonight—favorites dropped, underdogs cashed, and The Ice offered no explanation. Bienvenue.
MTL 4 — MCM 0
The McMurdo Monoliths walked into The Oldest Rink as the betting public's preferred team—1.67 on the road against a Montréal Maples side sitting at 2.21—and left without a single goal to show for it. Quel résultat.
Montréal came out with authority. Amélie Bouchard opened the scoring at 2:32 off a Philippe Dubois feed, and Marc-Antoine Dufresne doubled the lead two minutes later with Jean-François Tremblay getting the helper. The Monoliths pushed physically but couldn't capitalize—Amira Hassan visited The Sixth at 9:54, and then Bouchard herself followed at 13:05, giving McMurdo a man advantage they couldn't convert.
The second period got ugly in the best possible way. Catherine Lavoie and Ingrid Solheim dropped the gloves, then barely two minutes later Dmitri Volkov and Amira Hassan squared off—coincidental majors on both pairs. Out of that chaos, Sarah-Maude Fortin took over. A power play goal at 10:07 assisted by Lucas Pelletier, then another at 13:28 set up by Dubois, and the Maples were up four. Ji-hoon Baek and Élodie Gagnon added a third fight to the ledger before the buzzer.
The third was a formality. Montréal defended the lead efficiently, Philippe Dubois finished with two assists and two hits, and Fortin's two-goal performance was the night's cleanest story. The upset is official.
WPG 4 — HAV 6
The Havana Hammers came to The Cold Lodge as a 2.20 underdog and torched the Winnipeg Wendigos in the opening minutes, then held on through everything the Wendigos threw at them. A thorough upset of a 1.68 favorite.
Three goals before the second minute of play told the story: Marissa Spence at 1:35, then Adonis Reyes converting a power play after Curtis Favel's opening penalty, then Orlando Machado burying a Claudia Pérez feed at 2:51. Lisandra Álvarez added a fourth in the tenth minute—1-4 after one, and the Wendigos facing a mountain.
Winnipeg answered in the second with Brody Flett's goal off Tyler Chicken, trimming it to 2-3. The third period turned into an alternating nightmare for the home side. Brendan Fehr struck at 1:26 to level it, but Lázaro Valdés answered within a minute. Nicole Flett equalized again at 10:36, then Yordanis Sánchez put Havana back ahead at 11:54 with Reinier Cruz assisting, and Yanelis Peña iced it at 12:44, assisted by Orlando Machado. A Yarelys González and Kaya Bearclaw fight in the midst of it all changed nothing.
Claudia Pérez: two assists, one hit. Every time Winnipeg found a foothold, Havana had the answer.
PER 4 — ANC 1
Liam O'Brien scored a hat trick, and The Red Furnace was exactly as hostile as the Anchorage Auroras probably expected it to be. Perth Pyres at 1.71—no upset here, just a clinic.
The first period was surprisingly even. The Auroras actually took the lead: Jake Hensley converted a power play at 4:40 assisted by Cody Tulik. But Perth's response came quickly through O'Brien at 7:54 off a Nate Hargrove feed, and the physical tone was set—Mia Thornton was finishing checks on everyone in sight.
The second period belonged to Perth and its power play. O'Brien struck again at 9:18, set up by Sienna Kapoor, and Cooper Hale followed at 10:39 with Thornton getting the assist. Kira Naluktaq and Sienna Kapoor decided to escalate at 13:37—matching majors—but the 3-1 lead stood.
Twelve seconds into the third, Liam O'Brien completed the hat trick. A Zara Patel pass, a clinical finish, game over before anyone had settled back into their seats. Thornton ended the night with four hits and an assist. O'Brien was something else entirely—three goals, zero wasted effort. The Pyres handled their business.
HEL 7 — USH 5
Twelve goals. A coin-flip matchup on paper—1.91 Helsinki Howlers against a 1.90 Ushuaia Undertow—and it played like one for three full periods before the Howlers pulled clear. Quel spectacle.
Ushuaia struck first. Matías Fernández at 0:28, assisted by Luciana Romero, catching Helsinki cold. The Howlers responded with three unanswered: Aleksi Korhonen, then a power play goal from Elina Heikkinen with Anniina Tuominen setting it up after Agustín Medina's penalty, then Mikko Hämäläinen off a Saara Virtanen feed. Three-one after one period.
The second moved fast. Korhonen added a fourth, Florencia Ramos got one back for Ushuaia, Tuominen restored the two-goal cushion—Virtanen assisting again—then Julieta Ríos pulled another one back. Virtanen's playmaking was relentless; she'd finish with four helpers.
The third was where it was decided. Ríos and Petteri Salonen traded punches at 5:31 and both went to The Sixth. Liisa Nieminen scored at 6:26—Virtanen with the feed—and Korhonen completed his hat trick at 8:36 with Hämäläinen assisting. Ushuaia answered twice more through Romero and Ramos, but Helsinki wouldn't be caught. Seven-five, and a Korhonen performance nobody who watched will forget quickly.
NRB 5 — STO 3
Three goals in the opening two minutes at The Ochre Reserve. The Nairobi Narwhals came out of the gate like they'd been waiting for this all matchday, and the Stockholm Sirens spent the rest of the night chasing.
Wanjiku Mwangi at 0:16—Kevin Otieno with the helper. Brian Kipchoge at 1:04—Moses Okello. Amara Osei at 2:20—Peter Kimani setting it up. Three-nothing, and the building already knew. Stockholm then took a penalty, couldn't convert, but responded anyway: Lucas Bredberg's power play goal and Klara Åström's finish off Elin Sjöberg made it 3-2 after twenty. Freja Sandström and Peter Kimani fought at 8:22—coincidental majors—and the Sirens still had life.
The second tightened. Akinyi Ochieng restored the two-goal cushion at 2:37 with Brian Kipchoge assisting, but Viktor Hallberg's goal at 7:25—Astrid Engström helping—pulled Stockholm back within one again. Two late penalties didn't cost Nairobi anything.
Mwangi's second of the night came at 11:44 in the third, Faith Wanjiru with the assist. Five-three, and the Narwhals secured it without drama. Favored at 1.74, they delivered.
PRA 1 — DKR 5
The Dakar Djinns walked into The Stone Opera as mild underdogs at 1.95 and made the Prague Phantoms—listed at 1.86—look like they'd never played at home before. Rokhaya Faye was the conductor. Everything ran through her.
The first period was scoreless and physical. Lucie Šťastná and Khady Bâ dropped the gloves at 10:07—matching majors—and penalties stacked up for both sides without any goals to show for it. Prague set an aggressive tone. Dakar absorbed it.
The Djinns unlocked the game in the second. Ousmane Diallo finished at 9:11 off a Bâ setup, and Modou Diouf doubled it at 13:55 with Faye threading the pass. Two-nothing, and Prague hadn't figured out an answer. Mariama Cissé and Jakub Černý added a fight for good measure.
The Phantoms got one back in the third through Kateřina Dvořáková—Martin Procházka with the helper at 9:15—but a Veselá penalty immediately followed. Khady Bâ converted on the power play at 12:59 with Mamadou Guèye assisting. Then Moussa Ndiaye twice in the final 90 seconds, both times set up by Faye, turned a deficit into a rout. Rokhaya Faye: three assists, zero goals, total control. C'est incroyable.
BUS 5 — VLA 8
Thirteen goals at The Frozen Dock. The Vladivostok Vodkas came to Busan as 1.98 underdogs, fell behind twice, and then blew the game open in the third with four unanswered goals. Igor Zaytsev with the hat trick. The Busan Blizzards, favored at 1.83, had no second half to offer.
The first period featured an exchange of power play goals—Min-jun Lee and So-hee Hwang converting for the home side off back-to-back Vladivostok penalties—before Ruslan Kozlov's goal at 14:44 with Maxim Petrov assisting sent the visitors into the first intermission trailing only 2-1.
The second was breathless. Vera Orlova leveled it, Sang-hoon Bae put Busan ahead again, then Zaytsev and Eun-bi Han traded power play conversions around a pair of penalties, then Zaytsev again—and somehow the Blizzards still led 5-4 after two.
Then Vladivostok turned the tap off. Zaytsev completed his hat trick at 2:16 of the third, Nikita Sorokin added one 16 seconds later, and Busan had nothing left. Sorokin struck again at 11:16 and Maxim Petrov closed it at 13:11—Kozlov with three assists on the night. Road teams collecting upsets on Matchday 30, one after another.
TOK 6 — GDL 0
Mon Dieu. Where to begin.
The Guadalajara Gatos came into The Neon Crossing as 1.84 favorites. The Tokyo Titans—sitting at 1.97—shutout them out, scored six, and survived what may have been the most penalized single game of the season: six fights, thirteen penalties, and Andrés Rojas earning two separate minor penalties in the third period alone.
The Titans struck early and often. Ren Inoue on a power play barely a minute in, Shūta Tanaka in the fourth minute off a Haruto Nakamura pass, then Nakamura himself at 6:09—three-nothing before the midpoint of the first. The Rodrigo Vargas and Riku Mori fight at 2:27, coincidental majors, barely slowed anyone down.
The second produced two more Tokyo goals from Tanaka and Inoue again, and three separate fights—Andrés Rojas and Yuki Sato, Sakura Shimizu and Valentina Ramírez, Mei Fujita and Mateo Guzmán—all coincidental majors, all offset, none of it mattering to the scoreboard.
Aoi Yamamoto closed it out at 10:40 in the third on a Ren Inoue assist. The Gatos never found the net. A complete and total shutout from a Tokyo side that was very much underestimated tonight.
SAO 0 — RIM 3
A quiet afternoon at The Green Canopy—at least for the first period. The São Paulo Serpents managed a single hit in twenty minutes and nothing resembling a threat on goal. The Rimini Rinklers, favored at 1.82, had a plan and executed it without fuss.
Marco Rossetti opened the scoring less than a minute into the second period, finishing off a Nico De Luca feed at 0:54. What followed was a strange accumulation of penalties on both sides—four minors handed out in roughly two minutes at one point—without the scoreboard moving. Both teams took their turns in The Sixth. Neither capitalized on the other's absence.
Rimini locked it away in the third. Francesca Serra and Felipe Carvalho dropped the gloves at 5:47—coincidental majors—and with the game still 0-1, Luca Ferretti and Elena Moretti scored in the final 28 seconds. Fourteen-thirty-three and fourteen-forty-six. The Serpents ran out of time faster than they ran out of chances.
The Rinklers' depth delivered. The Serpents will need to find answers before the next matchday.
JBG 2 — MUM 0
Clean. Controlled. Two first-period goals and then defend the lead with relentless physicality for forty minutes. That's how the Johannesburg Jaguars do it at Die Goue Myn, and the Mumbai Monsoons had no answer for it.
Ananya Kulkarni took a penalty in the second minute. Johannesburg didn't convert, but it established who was running things. Then the Jaguars struck twice in 36 seconds: Nomsa Mahlangu at 7:22—Mandla Zulu with the helper—followed immediately by Kagiso Molefe at 7:58, Sipho Nkosi assisting. Two-nothing at the first intermission, and it would stay that way.
The second period was all physicality, no scoreboard movement. Bongani Mthembu imposing himself, the Monsoons pushing back through Meera Naik and Rahul Nair, neither side finding a seam. The third followed the same pattern: checking everywhere, Zanele Ndaba picking up a minor at 3:05, and a late fight between Molefe and Kavya Iyer—coincidental majors at 11:03—that changed nothing.
Favored at 1.66, the Jaguars delivered exactly what that number suggested. Professional. Unhurried. The Monsoons go home empty.
Ten games. Six upsets. Nine fights spread from The Neon Crossing to The Cold Lodge, and a matchday that reminded everyone—again—that the odds are a guess and The Ice makes no promises. I'll be back for Matchday 31. Stay warm out there.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 30 occurred. Forty-three goals were scored across ten games. Six of ten results deviated from pre-game expectations. Le Council notes this without surprise, as Le Council notes most things—without surprise, and without the ability to do anything about it. The record has been updated accordingly.