Matchday Recap: S02D18
Five upsets on Matchday 18, and not a single one of them was predictable. Prague won a shootout against heavily-favored Johannesburg. Vladivostok put up a five-goal shutout complete with four fights. And the Helsinki Howlers played two scoreless periods and then scored three times in six minutes. Every building told a different story today, and I was in all of them. Allons-y.
ANC 2 — GDL 4
The Watch Station saw something approach a neutral contest—Anchorage at 1.92, Guadalajara at 1.89, odds so close that picking a winner felt like guessing a coin toss. The Gatos flipped it correctly, and did so emphatically in a first period that defined the entire game.
Santiago Torres opened at 1:05, Sofía Navarro assisting. Daniela Salazar followed at 2:03 assisted by Carlos Morales, and Diego Hernández made it 3-0 at the 7:42 mark with Rodrigo Vargas setting it up. Three goals in eight minutes, and The Watch Station crowd went very quiet, very fast. Carlos Medina and Salazar had already found each other's gloves by the 9:37 mark—coincidental majors—and Levi Simmonds pulled one back for Anchorage at 13:37.
Andrés Rojas and Isaiah Tobin fought at the start of the second period, adding to the game's edge, but neither side found the net in the middle frame. The third period saw Kira Naluktaq convert a power play at 4:04 to make it 2-3, before Rojas settled it with Valentina Ramírez assisting at 11:17. Guadalajara holds on, 4-2 in a game that turned in those furious eight opening minutes. Simmonds with a goal and an assist for Anchorage; Hernández, Torres, Salazar, and Rojas each finding the net for the Gatos.
CAI 2 — USH 4
The Pyramid Basin runs hot. Fifteen hits across sixty minutes, a fight between Habiba Sherif and Agustín Medina in the second period, and Ushuaia—the 1.71 favorites on the road—coming away with a 4-2 win over Cairo.
The first period was frantic. Cairo opened via a Karim Fahmy power play at 1:27 with Mostafa Rashad assisting, then Santiago Figueroa answered for Ushuaia at 4:14 before Agustín Medina put the visitors ahead at 10:54 with Julieta Ríos assisting. Cairo's Rashad pulled it level at 2-2 with Habiba Sherif setting it up in the second—right before the Sherif/Medina fight at 10:10 that produced matching majors and reinforced The Pyramid Basin's physical identity.
The third period turned decisively Ushuaia's way. Facundo Álvarez struck at 0:30 with Luciana Romero assisting, immediately shifting momentum. More Ushuaia hits followed—nine of the game's fifteen came in the final frame—before Álvarez added his second at 13:30, Ríos again assisting, to complete a 4-2 final. Álvarez's brace was the story. Ríos finished with two assists. The visitors did exactly what 1.71 odds suggested they would.
MCM 1 — HAV 3
The Remote Range produced what might be the most patient Havana performance you'll see this season. The Hammers—1.67 favorites—absorbed McMurdo's physicality across sixty minutes and never wavered. Thirteen hits from the home side didn't change the scoreline's direction.
The first period belonged to Havana's Yordanis Sánchez, who buried one at 11:21 with Yanelis Peña assisting. McMurdo answered through Ingrid Solheim in the second—Ji-hoon Baek setting it up at 1:32—before Lars Henriksen and Yanelis Peña found each other's fists at 9:32, matching majors flying. Baek continued to make his presence felt with two hits across the game despite the penalty.
Then the third period ended the question. Yoandri Hernández put Havana back in front at 5:48 with Dayana Rodríguez assisting, and Yarelys González sealed it at 11:15 with Osmany Leyva providing the helper. Three different Havana scorers, one McMurdo response, and a clean road win for a team operating exactly to their odds. Ji-hoon Baek's two hits and an assist represent the Monoliths' bright spot in a losing effort.
VLA 5 — RIM 0
This was the most complete performance of Matchday 18. Vladivostok came into a near-even matchup—1.93 at home to Rimini's 1.88 as slight road favorites—and responded with a five-goal shutout and four fights. At The Last Terminal, the Vodkas were something ferocious.
Igor Zaytsev opened at 4:12 in the first—Tatiana Novikova assisting—before Giulia Bianchi and Denis Baranov decided to have a conversation with their gloves at 7:11, both picking up five minutes. Artyom Volkov added a second for VLA at 8:52, Darya Kuznetsova assisting, making it 2-0. Anastasia Ivanova and Elena Moretti fought at 14:36 before the first intermission even ended.
The second period brought Matteo Galli and Baranov together again—another fight, another five apiece—before Nikita Sorokin scored at 5:15 with Zaytsev assisting, and Baranov himself found the net at 11:29 with Sorokin setting it up. Ivanova and Nico De Luca added a fourth fight in the third, and Zaytsev completed his brace at 12:26 with Kuznetsova's second assist. Zaytsev finishes with two goals and an assist. Kuznetsova with two assists. Baranov with a goal, two hits, and two fights. At 1.93 odds, this upset was delivered without mercy.
JBG 2 — PRA 3
Deux virgule quarante-huit. That was Prague's odds at Die Goue Myn. Johannesburg were 1.55 favorites on home ice. And Kateřina Dvořáková won the shootout to send the Phantoms home with two points. This is the upset of the matchday, full stop.
The first period was as chaotic as a first period can be. Eliška Veselá and Pieter Botha fought within thirteen seconds of puck drop. Pavel Krejčí and Naledi Khumalo followed at 7:44. Martin Procházka scored for Prague at 11:01—David Růžička assisting—before Lindiwe Sithole answered for JBG at 13:38 with Jaco van der Merwe's help. The fights cost both teams five minutes each, but Prague came out of it level.
Nothing in the second period changed the scoreboard. The third period delivered two more goals in sequence: Jakub Černý at 0:26 for Prague, then Bongani Mthembu at 10:06 for JBG, tying it again. Overtime passed without resolution—three hits, no goals, 14 minutes of tension. And then the shootout. Dvořáková converted at 4:31. Prague wins 3-2 in a shootout over a team that was expected to handle them easily. Dvořáková's nerve in the decisive moment is the story of this game.
PER 2 — MDE 5
Perth had home ice and 1.64 odds. Medellín had Valentina Ospina. The Mapaches won 5-2, and most of the damage happened in a second period that the Red Furnace crowd will want to forget.
A 1-1 first period set up false expectations. Sebastián Cardona scored on the man advantage at 4:43 for MDE—Isabella Gómez assisting—before Liam O'Brien pulled level for Perth at 8:29. Ospina and Mia Thornton dropped the gloves at 11:08, matching majors, Ospina earning her penalty before adding her first goal of the evening.
Then came the second period. Ospina struck at 6:28 with Santiago Restrepo assisting. Nate Hargrove got Perth back to within two at 11:17. Then Medellín detonated: Mariana Zapata at 13:03, Juan Esteban Ramírez at 13:47, Ospina again at 14:14. Three goals in eighty-one seconds of the second period, Ospina completing her brace to make it 2-5. Jack Mitchell and Sofía Estrada fought in the third but the game was done. Ospina finishes with two goals. Restrepo with two assists. An 11-hit, two-fight performance that defined the Mapaches' road capability. At 2.28 odds, this is an upset worth remembering.
BUS 3 — WPG 1
Winnipeg came to The Frozen Dock as 1.77 favorites. The Busan Blizzards—at 2.06 on home ice—produced a disciplined 3-1 performance without a single fight to blur the narrative. Just clean hockay, well executed, against a favored opponent.
The first period produced nothing on the scoreboard despite early physical testing—Kim stepping up on Tyler Chicken at 0:22, multiple hits establishing territorial stakes. The second period opened the game. Ji-eun Shin scored at 6:48 with Dong-wook Yoon assisting, then Eun-bi Han made it 2-0 at 7:26 with Jae-won Kim setting it up. Winnipeg's power play during this stretch was ineffective despite the opportunities.
The third period brought Leah Blacksmith's goal for Winnipeg at 8:47—Brevik assisting—cutting the deficit to 2-1, but Hye-jin Choi answered for Busan at 14:55 with So-hee Hwang's help to restore the two-goal margin. Three separate scorers for the Blizzards, no individual requiring the spotlight, the job done collectively. At 2.06 odds, Busan earned this upset through team effort from first drop to final horn.
GND 2 — DKR 0
The Waypoint produced a clean Gander performance—2-0 over Dakar, favored at 1.73, seventeen hits across the sixty minutes, two fights. The Geese needed a response after recent home difficulty, and they found one.
The first period was pure physicality and zero goals—nine hits across fifteen minutes of Moussa Ndiaye putting Trina Pickett into the boards, Mamadou Guèye finishing everyone in sight, and Gander matching the Djinns blow for blow. Then the second period gave the home crowd what they needed: Bridget Walsh and Rokhaya Faye fighting at 1:18, Walsh picking up the major but setting the tone, before Vera Tobin scored the power play goal at 3:47 with Brian Mercer assisting. Ibrahima Sarr had gone to The Sixth at 2:00, and The Waypoint made him pay.
The third period saw Janice Hapgood and Mamadou Guèye exchange blows at 8:23, and Tobin scored again at 12:21 with Liam Coish assisting to put the result beyond doubt. Tobin: two goals, two hits, the performance of the game. Gander's shutout at home is exactly the kind of result they needed.
NRB 4 — WEL 1
The Ochre Reserve produced something approaching organized chaos. Seventeen penalties called, three fights, and Nairobi—1.47 favorites—winning 4-1 over Wellington despite a first period that felt genuinely uncertain.
Manaia Walker and Peter Kimani dropped the gloves eleven seconds into the game. Moses Okello scored at 1:04 with Brian Kipchoge assisting—then Kipchoge and Olivia Rangi fought at 5:06. Wellington's Kauri Thompson converted a power play at 6:13 with Nikau Edwards assisting to level it, before Kimani scored for Nairobi at 10:00 with Amara Osei's help. Okello drove Nikau Edwards into the glass repeatedly throughout. By the first intermission it was 2-1 NRB, already physical and already contested.
The second period added more penalties and no goals. The third period closed the case: Akinyi Ochieng at 10:55 with Osei assisting, then Okello again at 11:57 with Zawadi Mutua setting it up—before an Okello/Rangi fight that produced more coincidental majors. Okello finished with two goals, three hits, and a fight. Osei contributed two assists. Wellington's lone goal from Thompson was buried under Nairobi's depth. The Narwhals' 1.47 odds were justified.
STO 1 — MUM 3
Mumbai—1.80 favorites on the road at The Still Strait—delivered. Three different scorers, twelve hits between the sides, a second-period fight between Axel Lindqvist and Arjun Patil, and the Monsoons took two points from a building that doesn't give them up easily.
The first period was decisive: Meera Naik opened at 2:13 with Rahul Nair assisting, then Priya Sharma scored at 8:45 with Arjun Patil's help before Albin Nordlund pulled one back for Stockholm at 12:13 with Elin Sjöberg assisting. A 1-2 first period told the story of a game Mumbai was controlling.
The second period brought Lindqvist and Patil together at 7:55, coincidental majors, the fight doing nothing to change the scoreline. And in the third, Divya Mehta scored on the power play at 6:53—Nair delivering his second assist of the night—to put the game away at 1-3. Stockholm's Nyström penalty at 6:06 gave Mumbai the man advantage they needed, and Mehta converted it cleanly. Nair's two-assist night, Naik and Sharma each finding the net, Mehta adding the closer. The Monsoons were professional and precise.
TOK 5 — MTL 2
The Neon Crossing versus The Oldest Rink—two of the league's most storied franchises, twenty-four hits across sixty minutes, and the Tokyo Titans winning 5-2 in a game that started tense, got physical, and ended with the home team firmly in control.
The first period was electric. Sarah-Maude Fortin scored for Montréal at 2:19 with Amélie Bouchard's help before Haruto Nakamura answered for Tokyo at 7:33—Yūma Hayashi assisting—then Sakura Shimizu made it 2-1 at 8:35 with Aoi Yamamoto setting it up. Multiple hits and penalties in between. Montréal tied it through Jean-François Tremblay in the second at 2:45 with Marc-Antoine Dufresne assisting, before Shimizu struck again at 8:17 with Sōta Watanabe's help—3-2 Tokyo. Élodie Gagnon and Yamamoto fought at 11:14; Chloé Moreau and Shimizu fought at 14:46. Two fights in four minutes at The Neon Crossing.
The third period was Tokyo's. Mio Kobayashi converted on the power play at 6:00—Yamamoto assisting—then Hayashi scored at 12:44 with Kaito Itō helping, to seal it 5-2. Shimizu: two goals, one fight—one of the league's best performances of the week. Hayashi: a goal and two hits and an assist. Yamamoto: two assists and two fights. Montréal competed but couldn't match the Titans' depth over sixty minutes.
SAO 1 — HEL 3
Save the strangest for last. The Green Canopy—at 1.88, a very slight home favorite over Helsinki's 1.93—went scoreless for two full periods. Then Helsinki scored three times in under ten minutes and São Paulo found one reply. And somehow that is an upset.
Two periods. Nothing. The first period produced eleven hits, a Saku Järvinen fight with Gabriel Rodrigues, and a scoreless board. The second added five more hits and two more penalties and still nothing. The building held its breath through forty minutes of tension that never resolved.
Then the third period. Erik Johansson scored at 2:23 for Helsinki with Aleksi Korhonen assisting. Liisa Nieminen—who had been physically engaged all night—added one at 3:31 with Niko Mäkelä's help, then immediately got into a fight with Thiago Pereira at 6:10. Amanda Barbosa pulled one back for São Paulo at 7:17 with Felipe Carvalho assisting, showing the home side's response. But Saku Järvinen settled it at 11:44—Nieminen with the assist despite her recent fight—to complete a 3-1 win. Nieminen: a goal, an assist, a hit, and a fight. Järvinen: a goal, a hit, and a fight. In a near-even matchup at the Canopy, Helsinki found three goals in nine minutes after forty minutes of silence. C'est incroyable.
Five upsets on Matchday 18, and every single one of them carried its own story. Prague's shootout win in Johannesburg was the headliner. Vladivostok's five-goal shutout with four fights running close. The Jambono continues to resurface. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 18 occurred. Prague's 2.48-odds upset has been documented. The Council notes that the Phantoms did not ask for permission. The record has been updated accordingly.