Matchday Recap: S01D33
Seven upsets for the second consecutive matchday. Montréal have now won three straight, Anchorage three straight upsets, and the Tokyo Titans keep collecting road points nobody expected them to have. Meanwhile, Rimini and Prague put on a seventeen-goal spectacle that will be talked about for a while. On commence.
USH 0 — MTL 2
The Ushuaia Undertow were 1.61 favorites at The South Passage. Three matchdays ago that line would have made sense. Right now, the Montréal Maples are not a team you want to have listed at 2.33. They shutout the home side and made it look routine.
The first period set the template. Dmitri Volkov took a penalty at 0:59 but it cost Montréal nothing, and at 9:11 Alexandre Paquette put it top shelf—Jean-François Tremblay with the setup. One-nothing, and Ushuaia, despite some physical presence from Valentina Giménez and Luciana Romero, had no answer.
The second period brought Luciana Romero and Marc-Antoine Dufresne dropping the gloves at 1:48—coincidental majors—and two further Montréal penalties before Chloé Moreau, who'd just served two minutes in The Sixth herself, came out and scored at 9:32 off a Dmitri Volkov pass. Irrepressible.
The third was all Montréal's to manage. Sarah-Maude Fortin and Martina Vega fought at 6:11—coincidental majors—and Jean-René Bergeron took a minor. Ushuaia pressed but couldn't manufacture anything with substance. Three wins. Three clean performances. The Maples are in form.
PER 0 — NRB 2
The Red Furnace has rarely been this quiet on the scoreboard. The Nairobi Narwhals came to Perth as 1.96 underdogs against a 1.85 home side and kept them scoreless for sixty minutes. Wanjiku Mwangi scored both goals. The Pyres had no answer for either.
The first period was physical and goalless. Three penalties—Moses Okello, Peter Kimani, and Amara Osei—and a stretch of hitting that suggested both teams were feeling each other out. The Pyres controlled large portions but couldn't finish.
Faith Wanjiru and Callum Reeves dropped the gloves at 2:11 of the second—coincidental majors—and with Zara Patel also off for a minor at 2:19, the game was suddenly thin on numbers. Into that space, Wanjiku Mwangi found the net at 4:27, Kevin Otieno with the assist. One-nothing.
Brian Kipchoge took a penalty in the third at 6:56, giving Perth a chance they couldn't convert. Then Mwangi struck again at 11:22—James Odhiambo with the helper—and that was your game. Two goals, two assists between different players, a clean sheet. The Narwhals grind out an upset in a building that owed them nothing.
DKR 1 — HAV 5
The Dakar Djinns were 1.81 favorites at The Sandy Parlor. The Havana Hammers, at 2.01, took a first-period deficit and turned it into a rout. The third period lasted two minutes and forty-two seconds before Havana had scored three times. Incroyable.
The first period looked like a home win in the making. Abdoulaye Touré opened the scoring at 9:27—Cheikh Fall picking up the helper—and Dakar led 1-0. The Hammers were physical but couldn't find the net through Lisandra Álvarez and Yoandri Hernández pressing on the forecheck.
Orlando Machado leveled it eight seconds into the second—Yarelys González assisting—and just like that, everything changed. Claudia Pérez added the go-ahead goal at 12:45, Reinier Cruz with the feed. Two-one Havana at the second horn, and Dakar couldn't find a response through a Lázaro Valdés penalty and sustained hitting.
Then the third opened. Yoandri Hernández at 0:24—Lisandra Álvarez assisting. Adonis Reyes at 0:42—Mailén Domínguez setting it up. Reinier Cruz at 2:26—Domínguez with her second helper. Three goals before three minutes had elapsed. Dakar were done. Havana come alive with a statement win against a favored home side.
MCM 2 — BUS 0
Seventeen hits. A fight in the opening minute of the third period. And the Busan Blizzards ended the evening scoreless at The Remote Range. The McMurdo Monoliths, near-even favorites at 1.88, didn't need to do much more than stay organized.
Ingrid Solheim opened things at 2:40 of the first, Diego Fuentes with the assist. A Yumi Takeda penalty had created the opening and Solheim made good. She'd add two hits before the night was out, physical and decisive in equal measure.
The second period was all hitting—Sven Lindberg imposing himself repeatedly, Amira Hassan putting bodies on the glass—until Diego Fuentes returned the favour at 12:28, Lars Henriksen with the helper. Two-nothing, and Busan had nothing coming.
The third opened with Tobias Frey challenging Hyun-woo Kwon within a minute—coincidental majors—and then both sides traded penalties in the final three minutes without consequence. McMurdo shut the door. Sven Lindberg finished with three hits. Solheim and Fuentes each had a goal and an assist between them. Efficient and unbeautiful, which is sometimes exactly what winning looks like.
GDL 5 — WPG 3
Curtis Favel scored at 0:07—seven seconds into the game—and El Rincón Perdido probably thought it knew where this was going. Winnipeg had just scored ten goals three matchdays ago. The Guadalajara Gatos, at 2.03, were not interested in that narrative. They won five-three.
The Wendigos struck at 0:07 through Favel—Brody Flett assisting—and were quickly answered. Jimena Castillo equalized at 2:01, Emilio Delgado with the setup. Valentina Ramírez put the Gatos ahead at 3:13, Rodrigo Vargas threading the pass. Sixteen hits in the first period and a 2-1 lead for the home side.
Dylan Fife and Mateo Guzmán fought at 1:16 of the second—coincidental majors—before Leah Blacksmith tied it at 6:36 off a Brody Flett feed. Andrés Rojas restored Guadalajara's lead at 14:47—Camila Flores assisting—and the Gatos went into the third up 3-2.
Anna Flett equalized at 3:10, Jake Fehr with the helper—3-3, Winnipeg level. But Guadalajara wouldn't be caught again. Diego Hernández scored on a power play at 11:25 after an Anna Flett minor, Santiago Torres assisting, and Rodrigo Vargas closed it at 14:59 off Daniela Salazar's feed. Valentina Ramírez finished with a goal and four hits. The Gatos absorb Winnipeg's best and answer every time.
ANC 5 — SAO 1
Three consecutive matchdays. Three upsets. The Anchorage Auroras are becoming the league's most dangerous team at bad odds. The São Paulo Serpents came in at 1.75—Anchorage sat at 2.09—and were handled so thoroughly that the final score barely does the performance justice.
Cody Tulik, who took a penalty before the game was thirty seconds old, scored at 3:52 off an Isaiah Tobin setup and added his second at 12:54 assisted by Molly Kavairlook. Kira Naluktaq was relentless on the forecheck—three separate hits on Felipe Carvalho and Isabela Costa. The Auroras led 2-0 after one with total control.
Camila Ferreira pulled one back for São Paulo within 25 seconds of the second period—Felipe Carvalho assisting—and briefly the game had a margin. Then Tara Alexie scored at 7:49 off a Sierra Peters pass, and a Thiago Pereira–Isaiah Tobin fight at 14:51 added fuel to an already one-sided evening.
The third was decisive. Alexie completed her brace at 1:11—Peters assisting again—and Sierra Peters herself scored at 3:50, Carlos Medina with the helper. Five-one, and São Paulo were left to run out the clock. Peters: one goal, two assists. Cody Tulik: two goals. Anchorage keep winning the games nobody sees coming.
MUM 3 — HEL 4
The Salt Pavilion demanded a shootout before it would give anyone an answer, and in the end Mikko Hämäläinen stepped forward and provided one. The Helsinki Howlers were 1.60 favorites. The Mumbai Monsoons, at 2.35, pushed them to five periods and were still in it until the very last moment. Quel match.
Both teams traded the lead in the first period. Niko Mäkelä opened at 1:47, Elina Heikkinen assisting, but Ananya Kulkarni leveled it at 2:29 off a Meera Naik feed. Divya Mehta put Mumbai ahead at 4:39, Rahul Nair with the helper. Two fights before the period was done—Kiran Bhatt and Saku Järvinen, then Erik Johansson and Vikram Joshi—and the Salt Pavilion was crackling.
Mäkelä tied it again in the second at 6:36, Liisa Nieminen setting him up, before Kulkarni's second of the night at 9:00 off Vikram Joshi's pass restored Mumbai's lead. Three-two heading to the third.
Elina Heikkinen equalized at 8:17, Mäkelä picking up the assist, and Saku Järvinen and Rohan Deshmukh fought at 13:07—matching majors—before overtime settled nothing. Hämäläinen, who'd taken a penalty in the third, stepped up at 3:31 in the shootout and buried it. Helsinki get the two points. Mumbai get nothing—but played well enough to deserve more.
STO 1 — JBG 3
This was a quiet game that turned decisive in the final fifteen minutes of the third period. The Stockholm Sirens were 1.89 at home, the Johannesburg Jaguars at 1.92—essentially a pick—and the Jaguars flipped the lead and pulled away through two power play goals. Three road wins in three matchdays for Johannesburg.
The first period offered almost nothing: two events, a Filip Nyström hit and an Axel Lindqvist minor. The second was similarly spare until Maja Forsberg put Stockholm ahead at 9:53—Nyström with the assist.
Then the third. Lerato Dlamini tied it at 2:46—Thandiwe Radebe with the feed—and the game was level. Klara Åström took a minor at 7:33 and Pieter Botha converted on the power play at 9:46, Bongani Mthembu assisting. Two-one Johannesburg. Then Maja Forsberg took her own penalty at 12:25, and Lindiwe Sithole made Stockholm pay immediately at 14:02—Jaco van der Merwe with the setup. Three-one, game over. Two Jaguars power play goals off Stockholm penalties in the space of seven minutes. The Sirens handed them the win. Johannesburg had the sense to take it.
RIM 10 — PRA 7
Seventeen goals. Three fights. Two hat tricks threatened, one completed. The Coastal Pavilion hosted the most explosive game of the season and Luca Ferretti was at the centre of all of it. Rimini Rinklers win 10-7 over the Prague Phantoms, who were 2.13 underdogs and gave the home side everything they had.
Prague actually drew first blood. Eliška Veselá scored at 1:49—Tomáš Novák assisting—and the Phantoms briefly looked organized. Rimini answered three times: Elena Moretti, Luca Ferretti, and Marco Rossetti, all in the space of seven minutes. Three-one after one, but Prague were very much still in it.
The second period was breathless. Dvořáková and Horáková pulled it to 3-3. Valentina Colombo restored Rimini's lead, then a Lorenzo Fabbri–David Růžička fight led immediately to a Francesca Serra power play goal at 11:55. Giulia Bianchi closed the period at 14:05. Six-three at the second horn—but Prague's character was about to be tested.
The third produced nine more goals in less than eleven minutes of action. Ferretti scored his second at 2:32, then two more fights. Prague then scored four times, cutting it to 7-7... wait: Ferretti's third at 6:48 made it 9-5 before two more Prague goals. Alessandro Conti and Nico De Luca added Rimini markers. Rimini ultimately outscored Prague 4-4 in the third. Ferretti's hat trick—goals at 9:07, 2:32, and 6:48—was the backbone. Giulia Bianchi: one goal, three assists, the engine of everything.
VLA 1 — TOK 3
Four fights. Eleven penalties. And the Tokyo Titans walked out of The Last Terminal with a road win for the third matchday running. The Vladivostok Vodkas were 1.79 favorites. Tokyo, at 2.04, have now beaten four consecutive opponents who were supposed to beat them. Someone is going to have to take this seriously.
Nikita Sorokin opened at 1:25 for Vladivostok—Vera Orlova with the assist—and the home side led early. Then Kirill Morozov and Mei Fujita matched up at 9:01—matching majors—and Yuki Sato took a penalty shortly after. Tokyo responded through Sakura Shimizu at 12:09, Ren Inoue assisting, and Kaito Itō gave them the lead at 12:45 with Sōta Watanabe helping. Vladivostok led after two minutes; Tokyo led after fifteen.
The second period added three more fights—Darya Kuznetsova and Yūma Hayashi, Hina Takahashi and Tatiana Novikova, then Novikova and Mei Fujita for the second time—and through all of that Shimizu scored again at 14:16, Shūta Tanaka with the assist. Three-one, and Tokyo could afford to be disciplined in the third.
The Vodkas pressed in the third but couldn't convert. Igor Zaytsev took a penalty at 7:06 that didn't cost them a goal, but the scoreline didn't move. Tokyo's third consecutive matchday victory. C'est une série.
Seven upsets, seventeen goals in one game, three teams quietly building winning streaks. Montréal. Anchorage. Tokyo. Write those down. I'll see you for Matchday 34—by which point I fully expect to be wrong about at least six of tonight's conclusions.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 33 occurred. Seventeen goals were scored in a single game between the Rimini Rinklers and the Prague Phantoms. Le Council notes that this is a lot of goals. Seven results were inconsistent with pre-game expectations, consistent with recent patterns Le Council has chosen not to formally acknowledge. The record has been updated accordingly.