Matchday Recap: S01D35
Five upsets, two overtime games, and two win streaks simultaneously reaching five consecutive matchdays. Montréal keep finding a way on the road. Tokyo came back from two down in the third and extended their run. And The Still Strait produced four first-period goals before most people had settled in. On y va.
DKR 1 — MTL 3
The Montréal Maples arrived at The Sandy Parlor as 2.20 underdogs. The Dakar Djinns were at 1.68. Montréal won their fifth consecutive matchday. I am running out of ways to express surprise.
The first period was quiet and devastating in equal measure. Élodie Gagnon opened at 1:15—Marc-Antoine Dufresne with the assist. Dufresne helped himself at 6:15—Dmitri Volkov feeding him through a Dakar defense that had no answer. Two-nothing after one, and Mamadou Guèye's late penalty added insult.
The second period had twelve penalties across both teams and two fights: Modou Diouf and Volkov at 1:29—matching majors—and Awa Diop and Catherine Lavoie at 5:02, also matching majors. Out of the chaos, Cheikh Fall pulled one back for Dakar at 7:39—Rokhaya Faye with the assist. But Alexandre Paquette put the game away at 14:50—Philippe Dubois threading the feed—and Montréal walked out of The Sandy Parlor with three points nobody outside of The Oldest Rink had given them.
The third was about defense. Paquette took a penalty at 10:45. Moussa Ndiaye did the same at 13:46. Nobody scored. Dufresne: one goal, one assist. Five straight wins—the Maples are playing a different game than the books believe.
NRB 4 — BUS 1
The Ochre Reserve hosted the closest odds on the board—Nairobi Narwhals at 1.90, Busan Blizzards at 1.91. For forty minutes the game reflected that equivalence. Then the third period broke decisively for the home side.
Peter Kimani put Nairobi ahead forty-one seconds into the game—Amara Osei with the setup—and the building arrived early. Both teams committed to their physicality without adding goals. Seventeen hits between them across the evening. Akinyi Ochieng and Sang-hoon Bae fought at 9:32 of the second—coincidental majors—and the scoreline stayed 1-0 through two full periods.
The third changed everything. Ochieng scored at 2:18—Kimani assisting, returning the favour from the opening goal. Zawadi Mutua added a third at 3:48, Moses Okello with the helper. Jae-won Kim answered for Busan at 4:05—Min-jun Lee assisting—to cut it to 3-1, but Dennis Wafula closed it at 12:06, Mutua picking up her second point. Kimani: one goal, one assist. Ochieng: one goal, one fight. Nairobi delivered the expected result the hard way.
GDL 4 — USH 6
El Rincón Perdido hosted ten goals and Julieta Ríos orchestrating from the shadows. The Ushuaia Undertow were the 1.85 favorites against a 1.96 Guadalajara Gatos side, and they delivered—despite Guadalajara making it interesting late.
Martina Vega opened the scoring at 5:40—Ríos with the first of three assists on the night. Camila Flores equalized for Guadalajara at 9:26—Andrés Rojas setting it up. Then Camila Aguirre restored the Undertow lead at 13:05—Ríos threading her second assist. One-two, Ushuaia in front after one.
The second period belonged to the visitors. Tomás Peralta at 3:05, Valentina Giménez assisting. Facundo Álvarez at 5:04, Santiago Figueroa with the feed. Ignacio Herrera made it 1-5 at 7:55—Ríos with her third assist of the game. Rodrigo Vargas pulled one back for GDL at 9:11, Jimena Castillo assisting. Two-five.
The third had Guadalajara making things uncomfortable. Florencia Ramos batted one home at 7:49—Figueroa assisting. Vargas scored his second at 9:11, Diego Hernández with the setup. Then a Julieta Ríos penalty at 12:33 created a chance, and Valentina Ramírez converted on the power play at 13:30—Daniela Salazar threading it. Four-six at the final horn, the Gatos with two in the third but never close enough. Ríos: three assists, one penalty, total authority.
PER 4 — SAO 2
Three fights in the opening two periods. Tahlia Nguyen with two goals. Perth Pyres win at The Red Furnace 4-2 as the 1.88 favorites, and the São Paulo Serpents head home empty.
The first period was a fight and a goal and a fight. Cooper Hale opened at 5:56—Nate Hargrove with the assist. Lucas Almeida and Sienna Kapoor dropped the gloves at 11:19—coincidental majors—and Perth led into the intermission with control of the building.
The second was decisive. Oscar Whitfield and Gustavo Ribeiro fought within fifty seconds of the period—coincidental majors—and then Nguyen scored at 2:03 off a Gemma Fletcher feed. Mia Thornton and Thiago Pereira added a third fight at 3:55, also offset majors. A Hargrove penalty at 5:38 gave São Paulo a man advantage, and Lucas Almeida converted at 6:20—Isabela Costa assisting. But Nguyen restored the lead at 10:42, Kapoor with the helper, and Kapoor scored herself at 13:20—Liam O'Brien with the feed. Four-one, game effectively over.
Amanda Barbosa pulled one back for the Serpents in the third at 3:28—Santos assisting—but Perth killed subsequent penalties and held the lead. Nguyen: two goals, one assist. The Pyres dealt with the chaos and executed.
MUM 1 — HAV 3
The Havana Hammers are back-to-back winners. The Mumbai Monsoons were 2.15 at home—Havana at 1.71—and the Hammers took The Salt Pavilion quietly, eighteen hits into their pockets and a three-one result to show for it.
Period 1 was contested. Rahul Nair went to The Sixth within twenty-seven seconds, then Yordanis Sánchez gave Havana the lead at 7:42—Claudia Pérez with the assist. Vikram Joshi and Orlando Machado dropped the gloves at 8:38—coincidental majors—and Nair responded at 10:22, Rohan Deshmukh setting him up. One-all after a period that had as many fights as goals.
Yanelis Peña restored Havana's lead at 1:15 of the second—Sánchez picking up his second point of the game. Deshmukh and Yarelys González fought at 1:55—both off for five—and the period finished without further scoring.
The third was Mumbai's to push and Havana's to deny. Nine hits in twenty minutes, Mumbai probing, Havana absorbing. Lisandra Álvarez closed it at 12:56—Dayana Rodríguez with the assist. Three-one. Sánchez: one goal, one assist, the thread connecting everything. Havana have won two consecutive matchdays and are becoming harder to dismiss.
MCM 2 — JBG 3 (OT)
The Remote Range expected a McMurdo Monoliths win. The Monoliths were 1.74 on home ice, the Johannesburg Jaguars at 2.11. Through sixty minutes, neither team could settle it. Two minutes and forty-one seconds into overtime, Naledi Khumalo did.
Period 1 was empty—three hits, one penalty, a scoreless twenty minutes that suggested the game had made a plan and wasn't sharing it.
The second produced goals at last. Lerato Dlamini put Johannesburg ahead at 3:53—Lindiwe Sithole with the assist. Natasha Borova leveled it for McMurdo at 12:29—Elena Varga with the feed. One-all going to the third.
Two more goals traded precisely. Thandiwe Radebe batted one home at 6:10—Khumalo assisting—to put the Jaguars back in front. Kofi Mensah answered for McMurdo at 10:05—Ingrid Solheim with the helper. Two-two, overtime. Fifteen total hits, no fights, a game stretched to its limit by two sides with nothing to separate them.
Khumalo ended it at 2:41—Sipho Nkosi with the assist. Johannesburg take the two points. The Jaguars continue to make a habit of winning games they shouldn't be winning.
RIM 2 — WPG 0
Twenty hits. Three fights. Eleven penalties. And the Rimini Rinklers shutout the Winnipeg Wendigos at The Coastal Pavilion while most of the game felt like it was happening in The Sixth. Quel soir.
The first period had six penalties and a De Luca–Nicole Flett fight at 5:35—coincidental majors—and absolutely no goals. Luca Ferretti off, Sofia Barbieri off, Tyler Chicken off twice. The game consumed everyone and produced nothing on the scoreboard.
The second made up for it. Marco Rossetti opened at 1:58—Lorenzo Fabbri with the assist. Elena Moretti and Curtis Favel dropped the gloves at 8:34—coincidental majors—and with one second left on the clock, Francesca Serra scored off a Chiara Ricci pass. Two-nothing. Rossetti had also found time to fight Jake Fehr at 14:30—coincidental majors handed out immediately before the period horn.
The third brought a Kaya Bearclaw penalty and a Rimini kill, then twelve minutes of checking from both sides and nothing else. The Wendigos, who put up ten goals at The Cold Lodge barely three matchdays ago, were held scoreless for sixty minutes. The Coastal Pavilion can do that to a team.
ANC 2 — TOK 4
The Anchorage Auroras led 2-0 after two periods at The Watch Station. The Tokyo Titans scored four times in the third. Anchorage's run of consecutive upsets is over. Tokyo's win streak is now five matchdays. C'est incroyable.
Cody Tulik put the Auroras ahead at 1:34 of the first—Molly Kavairlook with the assist. Anchorage defended from position and kept The Watch Station quiet. Heather Braund doubled it at 8:41 of the second—Tara Alexie with the setup. Two-nothing heading to the third, and it looked like another ANC upset was unfolding against a 1.91 Tokyo side in near-even odds.
Then Alexie took a penalty at 0:19 of the third. Aoi Yamamoto converted on the power play at 0:41—Ren Inoue assisting—and forty-one seconds in, Tokyo believed. Yuki Sato tied it at 4:07—Haruto Nakamura with the feed. Two-two, and the building went silent. Nakamura scored himself at 9:16—Shūta Tanaka assisting—then added his second at 13:40 off a Sakura Shimizu pass. Four goals in the third, four-two final.
ANC had the lead and the script. Nakamura: two goals, one assist, and a third period nobody in Anchorage will forget quickly. Five straight matchday wins for Tokyo. The Titans are something.
VLA 3 — HEL 2 (OT)
The Last Terminal needed four periods before Kirill Morozov could close it. The Vladivostok Vodkas were 1.93 underdogs against a 1.88 Helsinki Howlers side, came back from a third-period deficit, and won in overtime. Magnifique.
The first period gave everyone a fight and two goals in rapid succession. Liisa Nieminen put Helsinki ahead at 4:11—Elina Heikkinen with the assist. Tatiana Novikova and Niko Mäkelä dropped the gloves at 12:58—coincidental majors—and two seconds after the penalties were assessed, Maxim Petrov scored for Vladivostok off an Olga Smirnova feed. One-all, and a fight had unlocked something.
Anniina Tuominen and Denis Baranov fought at 3:18 of the second—coincidental majors. Heikkinen scored at 13:33—Nieminen assisting, returning the favor from the opening period. Two-one Helsinki into the third.
Novikova equalized at 10:28—Anastasia Ivanova with the feed. The same Novikova who'd been fighting in the first period. Two-all, regulation ends.
Morozov won it in overtime at 6:13—Yelena Pavlova assisting. Vladivostok take two points nobody predicted. Novikova: one goal, one assist, one fight, one of the evenings of the matchday.
STO 5 — PRA 2
Four goals in five minutes. The Still Strait opened like a broken dam, and the Prague Phantoms—favored at 1.81 against a 2.01 Stockholm Sirens side—never recovered from what the first period produced.
Saga Ekström opened at 2:06—Klara Åström with the assist. Albin Nordlund added a second nine seconds later—Viktor Hallberg with the feed. Jakub Černý took a penalty at 4:59 and Astrid Engström converted the power play at 6:14—Hugo Wikström assisting. Nordlund scored again at 6:23—Axel Lindqvist this time. Four-nothing before six and a half minutes had elapsed. Dvořáková pulled one back on a Prague power play at 12:51—David Růžička with the setup. But four-one after one period, and this game had already been decided by events that felt accidental in their velocity.
Barbora Králová made it 4-2 in the second—Eliška Veselá assisting—before Åström restored the three-goal margin at 10:39, Wikström with his second assist of the night. Five-two.
The third had a Lucas Bredberg–Pavel Krejčí fight at 1:57 and nothing on the scoreboard. Stockholm hold on. Nordlund: two goals. Wikström: two assists. C'est tout ce qu'il faut.
Five upsets, two overtime games, two win streaks at five, and a matchday that broke open in The Still Strait before anyone had warmed up. Montréal and Tokyo are both on runs that deserve serious attention. I'll see you for Matchday 36—where I suspect at least three of tonight's conclusions will look foolish in hindsight.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 35 occurred. Five results were inconsistent with pre-game expectations. Two games required overtime. Le Council notes that both the Montréal Maples and the Tokyo Titans have now won five consecutive matchdays, a coincidence Le Council is currently investigating as either remarkable or unremarkable, pending further review. The record has been updated accordingly.