Matchday Recap: S02D22
Four upsets on Matchday 22, and the range of how they happened tells you everything about this league. Johannesburg needed four goals in under three minutes to flip a game on its head. Ushuaia shut out a Busan side that was 1.72 favorites at home. And at The Pyramid Basin, Rimini and Cairo combined for ten goals with Nico De Luca and Layla Mostafa each scoring hat tricks—one on the winning side, one in defeat. Meanwhile The Dark Sauna, still recovering from last week's fifteen-goal affair, hosted the quietest game of the day. Allons-y.
ANC 0 — STO 2
Stockholm arrived at The Watch Station as the slightly better price—1.81 to Anchorage's 2.01—and made it stand up with a first-period flurry that decided the whole night. Astrid Engström opened it at 10:30, batting one out of the air off Lucas Bredberg's feed, and Maja Forsberg doubled the lead at 12:11 with Axel Lindqvist assisting. Two goals in ninety seconds, and Anchorage never found an answer.
The rest of the game belonged to the boards. The second period brought a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy at 3:02—The Puck pausing play as players vanished and the Council waited—along with three penalties, including calls on Kira Naluktaq, Isaiah Tobin, Carlos Medina, and Axel Lindqvist. Heather Braund and Saga Ekström traded early hits before either team scored, setting the physical tone that carried through all sixty minutes.
The third period was scoreless and hit-heavy—Molly Kavairlook, Klara Åström, Tara Alexie, Freja Sandström, and Maja Forsberg all recorded contact—but Anchorage couldn't dent Stockholm's lead. Engström and Forsberg both finished with a goal apiece, and Stockholm banked the two points efficiently, closing the door after the first twelve minutes and never opening it again.
NRB 2 — DKR 0
A tight, hit-first affair at The Ochre Reserve, where Nairobi were the modest 1.81 favorites and delivered a clean shutout despite a scoreless, hard-checking first period. Modou Diouf, Mamadou Guèye, Aminata Sow, and Moses Okello all threw early hits, setting a physical tone that carried through the whole game.
The second period brought the fireworks. Akinyi Ochieng and Modou Diouf dropped the gloves at 3:01, coincidental majors sending both to The Sixth, and a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy paused the game at 10:59, Le Council observing in silence as players went missing. The period ended scoreless, but the tension was building.
It broke open in the third. Ochieng herself scored at 1:38, Brian Kipchoge assisting, fresh off her own penalty minutes. Peter Kimani and Awa Diop fought at 4:07, matching majors sending both to The Sixth, before Dennis Wafula buried a power play chance at 8:23, Zawadi Mutua assisting, to make it 2-0. Nairobi held from there, closing out a shutout that featured two fights, four Sixth visits, and a defense that gave Dakar almost nothing to work with. Ochieng's goal-and-fight night was the standout, but this was a full-team defensive performance at The Ochre Reserve.
SAO 4 — HAV 2
Havana were 1.72 favorites at The Green Canopy, but São Paulo owned the first period start to finish. Juliana Santos opened it at 1:38, finishing a Rafael Oliveira feed from the circle, and doubled the lead at 5:39 with Amanda Barbosa picking up the second assist. Thiago Pereira served a penalty at 9:34 and São Paulo killed it off clean, carrying a 2-0 lead into the second.
Havana came out swinging—literally. Bruno Nascimento and Adonis Reyes dropped the gloves 91 seconds in, coincidental majors sending both to The Sixth, and Adonis Reyes made a second trip minutes later on a penalty of his own. São Paulo's Felipe Carvalho joined him there at 13:23, and Havana made the ensuing power play count: Lázaro Valdés beat Letícia Monteiro at 13:47, Claudia Pérez assisting, to cut the lead to 2-1 after two.
The third belonged to São Paulo. Felipe Carvalho buried his own power play chance at 11:08, Juliana Santos picking up her third point of the night, before Lázaro Valdés answered for Havana at 13:03, Orlando Machado assisting. Rafael Oliveira had the last word at 14:55, Amanda Barbosa picking up her second assist of the game, to make it 4-2 final. Juliana Santos finished with two goals, an assist, and a game-high four hits; Lázaro Valdés matched her goal total in a losing effort. São Paulo Serpents left The Green Canopy with the two points—Havana's 1.72 price tag doing them no favors on the night.
JBG 5 — MDE 3
Johannesburg were 2.17 underdogs at Die Goue Myn against a Medellín side priced at 1.7, and what happened in the second period is the story of the matchday. Down 0-1 after Sofía Estrada's early goal, the Jaguars traded four goals with the Mapaches in barely two and a half minutes: Naledi Khumalo tied it at 0:28, Camilo Henao restored Medellín's lead at 2:05, Mandla Zulu leveled again at 2:39, and Pieter Botha put Johannesburg in front at 2:55. Four goals, four different scorers, one wild sequence.
Medellín tied it back at 3-3 on Mateo Arango's power play conversion at 13:36, Henao assisting his second of the night, but Johannesburg had the last word. Thabo Mokoena opened the third with a goal at 0:56, and Zulu completed his brace on the power play at 11:06, Botha assisting, for the 5-3 final.
The fights matched the scoreline's intensity—Camilo Henao and Nomsa Mahlangu early, Lerato Dlamini and Valentina Ospina late—and Henao finished with a goal, an assist, a hit, and a fight for Medellín in defeat. But Zulu's two goals and Botha's goal-and-assist night powered the upset. Quel deuxième période.
PER 1 — GDL 2
A tightly-priced game at The Red Furnace—Perth 1.92, Guadalajara 1.89—settled by Andrés Rojas, who scored both Gatos goals. The first period was scoreless but chippy, four penalties called including Riley Dawson, Cooper Hale, Zara Patel, and Andrés Rojas himself, with Nate Hargrove and Daniela Salazar trading early hits.
Rojas broke through in the second at 11:02, Mateo Guzmán assisting, after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy had paused the game at 5:40. Gemma Fletcher and Nate Hargrove tangled with hits through the period, and Guadalajara carried the 0-1 lead into the third.
Daniela Salazar and Nate Hargrove fought at 5:03 early in the third, both taking five, before Rojas struck again at 9:00, Sofía Navarro assisting, to make it 0-2. Liam O'Brien pulled one back for Perth at 14:17, Eliza Cartwright assisting, but it was too little too late. Cartwright's night—an assist and three hits—kept Perth competitive, but Rojas's two goals were the difference in a game where neither team could pull away in the odds and neither could in the score until the final ten minutes.
TOK 1 — WEL 2
Tokyo were the clear favorites at 1.63 against Wellington's 2.28, and The Neon Crossing delivered an upset wrapped in four fights and thirteen penalties. Awhina Clarke opened the scoring for Wellington at 10:51 in the first, Kauri Thompson assisting, after Hemi Sullivan and Sakura Shimizu had already dropped the gloves at 5:03.
The second period was the most eventful of the night. Mereana Brooke and Yūma Hayashi fought at 3:02, then Nikau Edwards doubled Wellington's lead on the power play at 9:18, Aroha Ngata assisting, moments after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy paused play at 9:13—H.O.R.N. had nothing further to add. Hemi Sullivan and Sōta Watanabe fought again at 10:33, matching majors sending both to The Sixth.
Aroha Ngata added her own fight in the third, dropping gloves with Hina Takahashi at 1:34, before finishing the night with an assist and four hits—the clear engine of Wellington's win. Haruto Nakamura pulled one back for Tokyo at 10:29, Riku Mori assisting, but it wasn't enough. Four fights, thirteen penalties, and a 2.28 underdog leaving The Neon Crossing with the two points. C'est le hockay qu'on aime.
PRA 3 — WPG 5
Winnipeg were the modest 1.74 favorites at The Stone Opera, and Brendan Fehr made sure the odds held with a hat trick. Two fights opened the first period—Adam Fiala and Kaya Bearclaw, then Leah Blacksmith and Pavel Krejčí—before Fehr's first goal at 9:04, Tara Ridsdale assisting, gave Winnipeg the lead. Jakub Černý tied it for Prague at 14:22, Lucie Šťastná assisting, and the teams were level after one.
The second period is where Winnipeg pulled away. Fehr scored again at 8:03, Anna Flett assisting, before Eliška Veselá answered for Prague at 8:20. But Nicole Flett restored the lead at 9:31—Anna Flett's second assist—and Fehr completed his hat trick at 11:56, Jonas Brevik setting it up, right after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy had paused the game at 10:45. Winnipeg led 4-2 after forty.
Tara Ridsdale scored her own goal in the third at 1:18, Jake Fehr assisting, before Eliška Veselá and Jake Fehr fought at 4:22 and Tereza Horáková pulled one back for Prague at 8:48. Final: 5-3 Winnipeg. Fehr's three goals and Anna Flett's two assists did the heavy lifting, but Prague's Veselá, Horáková, and Černý all found the net in a losing effort that was never quite as close as three goals suggests.
CAI 3 — RIM 7
Rimini were 1.71 favorites at The Pyramid Basin, and they delivered—but not before Layla Mostafa made them work for every inch. Nico De Luca and Mostafa traded hat tricks across sixty minutes in a ten-goal game that swung on special teams. Mostafa opened it at 4:47, Khaled Naguib assisting, before De Luca tied it with a power play goal at 6:23, Francesca Serra assisting. 1-1 after one.
The second period was Rimini's power play at its most ruthless. Giulia Bianchi converted at 0:41, Lorenzo Fabbri added another at 1:46, and De Luca struck again at 7:16—three goals inside eight minutes, two of them with the man advantage. Luca Ferretti made it 1-5 at 11:04 before Mostafa answered late at 14:05, her second of the night, after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy had paused play at 8:59.
Mostafa completed her hat trick early in the third at 2:03, and Marco Rossetti and Tarek Soliman fought at 3:22, but Chiara Ricci and De Luca's third goal in the final minutes put it away at 3-7. De Luca finished with three goals and an assist; Mostafa's three goals came in a losing cause. The Pyramid Basin hasn't seen offense like this in weeks.
MCM 5 — MUM 2
McMurdo were 2.25 underdogs at The Remote Range against a Mumbai side priced at 1.65, and the Monoliths delivered the upset with a three-goal third period. Tobias Frey opened on the power play at 10:59 in the first, Chris Elliot assisting, before Rahul Nair tied it at 12:57, Aditya Rao assisting. Level after twenty.
Nair struck again at 3:46 in the second, Priya Sharma assisting, to put Mumbai ahead, but Yumi Takeda answered at 7:43, Sven Lindberg assisting, right after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy paused the game at 4:50—Le Permanent Council issuing no statement, as it so often doesn't. 2-2 after forty.
The third belonged entirely to McMurdo. Amira Hassan converted a power play at 4:28, Kofi Mensah assisting, and Sven Lindberg added his own goal at 13:43, Chris Elliot assisting again, before Natasha Borova sealed it at 14:01, Elena Varga assisting. Three unanswered goals to close it out, 5-2. Rahul Nair's two goals for Mumbai were the best individual showing of the night, but Chris Elliot's two assists and Sven Lindberg's goal-and-assist night powered the home upset at The Remote Range—a building that doesn't often get to celebrate favorites falling.
GND 2 — VLA 3
Vladivostok were 1.67 favorites at The Waypoint and needed a third-period goal to make it stand, in a game that ran hot with penalties and fights from the opening minutes. Darya Kuznetsova opened the scoring for the Vodkas at 0:59, Nikita Sorokin assisting, before Gus Maloney tied it for Gander at 11:17, Brian Mercer assisting. 1-1 after one.
Janice Hapgood put Gander ahead in the second at 2:35, Calvin Roebothan assisting, before Denis Baranov answered for Vladivostok at 7:16, Vera Orlova assisting, to level it again at 2-2 ahead of a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy that paused play at 10:01. The Council waited. Status: unchanged.
The third period turned physical fast. Ruslan Kozlov and Liam Coish fought at 5:13, coincidental majors, before Nikita Sorokin scored the eventual winner at 12:50, Vera Orlova picking up her second assist of the night. Trina Pickett and Denis Baranov closed the game with a fight at 14:33. Orlova's two assists were the quiet story behind Vladivostok's road win—a tight, feisty game that The Waypoint will remember more for its fists than its goals.
BUS 0 — USH 3
Busan were 1.72 favorites at The Frozen Dock, and Ushuaia delivered the shutout upset behind a trio of individual scorers. Valentina Giménez opened it at 11:10 in the first, Camila Aguirre assisting, on a night where Agustín Medina's physical game—three hits and counting—set the tone early alongside Yuna Kang's whistles.
Julieta Ríos doubled the lead at 14:27 in the second, Martina Vega assisting, moments after a measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy had paused play at 5:55, the ice going quiet as the Council watched and waited. Busan couldn't find an answer at either end.
Nicolás Sosa put it away in the third at 11:27, Medina himself picking up the assist to cap a complete two-way night—a goal's worth of contribution split across a goal, an assist, and three hits. Facundo Álvarez and Sang-hoon Bae fought at 12:36, the only fight of an otherwise clean, disciplined defensive performance from the Undertow. Three different goal scorers, zero goals allowed, and a 2.13 underdog leaving The Frozen Dock with a statement road win.
HEL 1 — MTL 0
The Dark Sauna hosted fifteen goals last matchday. This one produced a single goal across sixty minutes, and somehow it was just as gripping. Helsinki were the 1.81 favorites over Montréal's 2.01, and this time the arena's reputation for chaos gave way to a defensive clinic.
The first two periods were entirely about the hitting—twenty combined checks by the final horn, with Saara Virtanen, Niko Mäkelä, and Catherine Lavoie all making repeated contact. Dmitri Volkov and Erik Johansson dropped the gloves at 8:55 in the first, the game's only fight. A measured flare of sixth-dimensional energy paused play at 11:29 in the second—H.O.R.N. had nothing further, Le Permanent Council issued no statement—but neither side could find the net through forty minutes.
Niko Mäkelä finally broke through at 5:27 of the third, Elina Heikkinen assisting, and that was all Helsinki needed. Saara Virtanen finished with three hits, Mäkelä added two of his own to go with the winner, and Montréal pressed without reward. A quiet, physical, disciplined 1-0—the exact inverse of what The Dark Sauna gave us seven days ago.
Four upsets, dueling hat tricks at The Pyramid Basin, and a building that traded fifteen goals for one inside a week. That's the range of this league on any given Sunday—chaos in one arena, silence in another, and somewhere in between, Johannesburg scoring four goals faster than you can finish a coffee. C'est Hockay. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 22 occurred. Nico De Luca and Layla Mostafa each recorded three goals in the same game at The Pyramid Basin; this has been logged as a coincidence pending further review. The Dark Sauna has returned to expected operating parameters. The record has been updated accordingly.