Matchday Recap: S02D23
Seven upsets on Matchday 23, and The Net Remembered four times before it was through—twice in the same period at The Last Terminal, where Vladivostok and Cairo traded echoes like they were arguing with the building itself. Stockholm put ten past Gander at The Still Strait. Nairobi stole two points in overtime at El Rincón Perdido, and Tahlia Nguyen finished it from the shootout circle in Mumbai. Quel programme. Allons-y.
HAV 1 — JBG 5
Havana were 1.80 favorites at The Rhythm Bureau, and Johannesburg made that number irrelevant by the second intermission. The Jaguars led 0-4 before Havana got on the board, and the final gap—5-1—was never really in doubt after the first ten minutes.
Pieter Botha opened it at 3:34—Thandiwe Radebe assisting—and Bongani Mthembu doubled it at 5:52, Lerato Dlamini feeding him. Havana entered the second down two goals they hadn't seen coming. The second period was worse: Mthembu scored again at 5:07, Radebe with her second assist, then Botha completed his own brace at 8:55 off Thabo Mokoena's feed. 0-4 after forty minutes, and Reinier Cruz and Kagiso Molefe dropped the gloves in the game's only fight, at 13:48.
Havana finally answered in the third. Orlando Machado buried a power play goal at 7:37—Lázaro Valdés assisting—cutting into the lead, but Sipho Nkosi restored Johannesburg's four-goal cushion at 8:52, Mokoena picking up his second assist of the night. Botha and Mthembu each finished with two goals, Radebe and Mokoena with two assists apiece—the same four names doing all the damage at 2.02 odds. The Rhythm Bureau expected a coronation. It got an away statement instead.
RIM 1 — MCM 4
Rimini were 1.70 favorites at The Coastal Pavilion, and McMurdo did to the Rinklers what Rimini usually does to everyone else. A scoreless first period gave no hint of it—just a fight between Nico De Luca and Elena Varga at 10:03 and a handful of penalties—before the Monoliths took over.
The second period produced four goals and swung the game. Priya Anand opened it on the power play at 5:07, Tobias Frey assisting, then Chris Elliot made it two at 6:16—Ingrid Solheim setting him up—and Natasha Borova added a third for McMurdo at 7:50, Amira Hassan feeding her. Rimini's lone reply came from Chiara Ricci at 13:36, Lorenzo Fabbri assisting, but the damage was done: 1-3 after forty minutes.
The third period brought one more fight—Ingrid Solheim and Sofia Barbieri at 4:39—before Lars Henriksen sealed it for McMurdo at 11:16, Ji-hoon Baek assisting, for the 4-1 final. Five different scorers, five different goals, and a McMurdo side that arrived at 2.16 odds and left with the two points anyway. Rimini's home record takes a real dent tonight.
MTL 2 — ANC 4
Anchorage were 2.18 underdogs at The Oldest Rink, and Cody Tulik made sure that number aged badly. Montréal were the 1.69 favorites and still finished on the wrong side of a game that swung three separate times.
Tara Alexie opened the scoring for Anchorage at 7:51, Bryce Denison assisting, before Isaiah Tobin and Catherine Lavoie fought at 8:57 to close out the first. The second period turned into a track meet: Tulik cashed a power play at 3:59, Jake Hensley assisting, before Philippe Dubois answered for Montréal at 4:31 off Catherine Lavoie's feed, and Simon Côté tied it at 11:09, Chloé Moreau setting him up. Three fights in the period—Heather Braund and Marc-Antoine Dufresne, Catherine Lavoie and Kira Naluktaq, and Chloé Moreau and Bryce Denison in its final second—left the score level at 2-2 after forty minutes.
The third belonged to Anchorage. Tulik's second power play goal came at 12:27, Molly Kavairlook assisting, and Sierra Peters put it away at 14:41 with Alexie's second assist of the night. Tulik finished with a brace, Peters added a goal, two hits, and a fight of her own. The Oldest Rink expected a home win. It watched Anchorage take both points instead.
WEL 2 — PRA 1
Wellington were 1.76 favorites over Prague at The Howling Harbour, and it took overtime to confirm it. A scoreless, feisty first period saw Kauri Thompson and Pavel Krejčí fight at 7:03, and the game's needle barely moved for forty more minutes of penalties and hits.
The second period finally broke through, and only just: Aroha Ngata buried a power play goal with nineteen seconds left, at 14:48, Awhina Clarke assisting, after Krejčí and Olivia Rangi had already fought at 9:27. Wellington took a 1-0 lead into the third on the strength of that single power play conversion.
Prague answered almost immediately. Tomáš Novák scored on the power play at 1:43, Martin Procházka assisting, and the game leveled at 1-1—before Krejčí and Rāwiri Patel dropped the gloves again at 11:48, his second fight of the night. Regulation ended tied, and it took just sixty-five seconds of overtime for Wellington to finish it: Ngata again, her second of the game, Hemi Sullivan with the assist. The Howling Harbour got its two points the hard way, in an entirely appropriate final margin for two teams that traded almost nothing but stalemate for fifty-nine minutes. Quel suspense.
DKR 5 — BUS 6
Eleven goals at The Sandy Parlor, seven of them crammed into a single second period, and Busan—1.73 favorites—needed every one of them. Dakar came out fast: Awa Diop opened it at 4:16, Fatou Mbaye assisting, before Min-jun Lee tied it for Busan at 6:16, and Khady Bâ restored the Djinns' lead at 13:30, Aminata Sow feeding her, for a 2-1 first-period edge.
Then the second period detonated. Sang-hoon Bae tied it 1:03 in, Seung-ho Jung and Jae-won Kim made it 2-4 by 2:10, Ibrahima Sarr pulled one back for Dakar at 4:18, Yuna Kang answered right back at 4:42, Cheikh Fall tied it again at 12:27, and Ousmane Diallo leveled it once more at 14:11 for a stunning 5-5 after forty minutes. Two fights punctuated the chaos—Rokhaya Faye and Tae-hyun Lim, So-hee Hwang and Khady Bâ.
Jae-won Kim settled it in the third, scoring at 6:34 off Soo-yeon Park's feed for the eventual 6-5 final, and a further extra frame passed without another goal. Kim finished with two goals; Awa Diop, Yuna Kang, and Sang-hoon Bae each notched a goal and an assist. The Sandy Parlor saw a game that changed hands seven times and still ended exactly as the odds predicted.
WPG 6 — HEL 3
Helsinki were the 1.84 favorites at The Cold Lodge, marginally ahead of Winnipeg's 1.97, and Curtis Favel spent the night making sure that gap meant nothing. Anniina Tuominen opened the scoring for Helsinki at 13:12 of the first, Erik Johansson assisting, and the visitors took a 1-0 lead into the second period.
Then Winnipeg took over completely. Marissa Spence tied it at 3:32, Anna Flett assisting, before Leah Blacksmith made it 2-1 at 12:57 off Kaya Bearclaw's feed, and Favel scored twice in the final two minutes of the period—at 13:08 with Spence assisting, and 14:49 with Blacksmith returning the favor—to send Winnipeg into the third up 4-1.
The third period was Favel's alone, mostly. Jake Fehr added a fifth at 0:42, Anna Flett picking up her second assist, before Favel completed his hat trick at 3:37, Tyler Chicken assisting, for a 6-1 cushion. Erik Johansson and Niko Mäkelä each got one back for Helsinki late, the final goal a power play conversion at 11:55, but the game was long decided. Favel's three goals, Spence and Blacksmith each with a goal and an assist—Winnipeg's night, wire to wire after the first ten minutes.
STO 10 — GND 1
Stockholm were 1.67 favorites over Gander at The Still Strait, and by the final horn the only remaining question was how far past the odds this one would go. Ten goals answered that. Filip Nyström opened the scoring at 4:38, Axel Lindqvist assisting, the arena's Black Hole Net swallowing the shot on its way in—the first of several goals tonight where the mechanic made the difference. Lucas Bredberg and Astrid Engström added two more before the first intermission, and Stockholm led 3-0 after twenty minutes.
The second period was worse for Gander. Lindqvist scored twice more—at 3:49 and 7:33, both assisted by Nyström—before Bridget Walsh briefly interrupted the rout at 8:20, Janice Hapgood assisting, for Gander's only goal of the night. Viktor Hallberg and Freja Sandström restored order, and Stockholm carried a 7-1 lead into the third.
Maja Forsberg and Gus Maloney fought at 0:39 to open the final period, and then Stockholm finished the job: Saga Ekström scored twice, at 1:33 and 14:06, sandwiching Lindqvist's third goal of the night at 12:33. Ten goals, one for Gander. Lindqvist finished with three goals and two assists, Freja Sandström and Filip Nyström each collecting a goal and two assists of their own. The Still Strait has seen blowouts before. Not many at 1.67 odds.
GDL 2 — NRB 3
Guadalajara were the 1.84 favorites at El Rincón Perdido, and Zawadi Mutua ended the night with a road overtime winner that made Nairobi's 1.97 look generous. Andrés Rojas opened the scoring for the Gatos on the power play at 5:54, Sofía Navarro assisting, and Guadalajara led 1-0 after a first period built mostly around penalties and hits.
Nairobi answered twice in the second. Kevin Otieno tied it at 1:14, Wanjiku Mwangi assisting, and Akinyi Ochieng put the Narwhals ahead at 9:14, Nyambura Kamau feeding her, for a 1-2 Nairobi lead after forty minutes—a genuine upset in the making at El Rincón Perdido, where Guadalajara rarely trails.
Valentina Ramírez tied it for the Gatos early in the third, at 1:02, Diego Hernández assisting, and the game stayed level, 2-2, into overtime. It didn't last long. Zawadi Mutua won it at 13:07, Samuel Njoroge assisting, sending Nairobi home with two points nobody expected them to take. Mutua finished with a goal and two hits, Akinyi Ochieng matched her physicality with a goal of her own, and Kevin Otieno's opening equalizer set the whole comeback in motion. Guadalajara's building held; the result didn't.
USH 2 — SAO 3
Ushuaia were heavy 1.63 favorites at The South Passage, and São Paulo needed a genuine assist from the building itself to leave with the two points. Luciana Romero opened the scoring for Ushuaia at 0:50, Santiago Figueroa assisting, and Valentina Giménez doubled it at 5:00, Camila Aguirre feeding her, for a 2-0 home lead that looked comfortable.
Then Gustavo Ribeiro got the Serpents on the board at 11:17, Mariana Lima assisting, cutting the deficit to one. Amanda Barbosa took a penalty for Ushuaia moments later, and before the box door had even shut, the net answered back on its own: at 12:15, an echo goal—the net remembers, and São Paulo score it again, Gustavo Ribeiro credited a second time for a goal that had, by every reasonable account, already happened. Ushuaia's 2-0 lead was gone in ninety-eight seconds, one goal and one echo, and the first period ended locked at 2-2.
Isabela Costa put São Paulo ahead for good at 14:55 of the second, Lucas Almeida assisting, and the third period passed with hits and a fight—Larissa Souza and Agustín Medina—but no further scoring. Ribeiro's name went into the book twice for a single sequence of play, and The South Passage will remember the moment the ice repeated itself long after it forgets the final score. Serpents win it, 3-2, at 2.29 odds. Le filet se souvient.
MUM 1 — PER 2
Perth were 1.74 favorites over Mumbai at The Salt Pavilion, and it took a shootout to settle it. Vikram Joshi opened the scoring for Mumbai on the power play at 14:55 of the first, Meera Naik assisting, and the Monsoons carried that single goal into the second intermission—only for Jack Mitchell to answer on Perth's own power play at 2:36, Oscar Whitfield assisting, leveling it at 1-1.
Neither side found the net again in regulation. The third period was quiet by comparison—penalties on both sides, nothing more—and overtime passed the same way: a hit, a penalty, no goal. It went to the shootout, where Tahlia Nguyen stepped up for Perth at 3:31 and decided it. What a moment, as the call went, and it was exactly that: Perth's two points, earned in the circle rather than in open play.
Vikram Joshi and Jack Mitchell each finished with a goal and a hit; Divya Mehta led all skaters with three hits in a game that was much more about physicality than scoring. Fourteen total penalties at The Salt Pavilion, and in the end, one shootout goal decided the two points—the smallest possible margin, at odds that had Perth as only mild favorites to begin with.
MDE 2 — TOK 3
Medellín and Tokyo went off at odds of 1.89 and 1.92—about as close to a coin flip as La Ladera sees—and it took overtime, a natural brace, and a visit from the building's stranger mechanics to separate them. Santiago Restrepo opened the scoring for Medellín at 12:10, Camilo Henao assisting, and the Mapaches led 1-0 after twenty minutes.
The second period belonged to Tokyo, and then some. Mei Fujita scored twice—at 1:31 and 4:28, both assisted by Riku Mori—to tie it and then put the Titans ahead. Eighty seconds after her second goal, at 5:48, the net answered on its own: The Net Remembers, and the puck crosses the line a second time for Tokyo, no individual scorer credited this time, just the building itself adding to the column. What should have been a 1-2 Medellín deficit became 1-3, an entire extra goal materializing out of Fujita's own strike.
Nicolás Betancur pulled one back for Medellín in the third, at 6:55, Sofía Estrada assisting, and Estrada later fought Sakura Shimizu at 14:48 as Medellín pushed for the equalizer that never came. Regulation ended 2-3, and the extra period settled nothing further—Tokyo held. Fujita's two goals plus the phantom third are the story, but so is a game decided by odds so tight they were barely worth quoting, and by a rink that occasionally keeps score twice for the same goal.
VLA 5 — CAI 3
Vladivostok were prohibitive 1.45 favorites over Cairo at The Last Terminal, and for one stretch of this game, The Net Remembers went to work for both sides in the same sixty minutes—something JM does not recall calling before. Maxim Petrov opened the scoring on the power play at 8:52, Igor Zaytsev assisting, and fifty-seven seconds later, at 9:49, the net echoed it: Petrov credited again for the goal that already scored, and Vladivostok led 2-0 before the first intermission without a second true shift of offense.
Cairo answered in kind. Omar Hassan converted a power play chance at 2:41 of the second, Nour El-Sayed assisting, and fifty-one seconds after that, at 3:32, it happened again for Cairo too—Hassan's goal echoing back for a second tally, tying the game at 2-2. Two echo goals, one for each side, within the same period. Denis Baranov put Vladivostok back ahead at 6:42, Vera Orlova assisting, before he and Salma Ibrahim fought at 12:01, and the second ended 3-2.
Olga Smirnova extended the lead to 4-2 in the third, Petrov picking up the assist this time, before Karim Fahmy pulled Cairo within one at 11:49, Layla Mostafa assisting. Artyom Volkov's goal at 14:42, Orlova's second assist of the night, sealed the 5-3 final. Petrov and Orlova each finished with multiple points, but the real headline is the building: two echoes, two teams, one night at The Last Terminal that the record will show as a comfortable Vladivostok win—though for ninety seconds across the first two periods, the ice was doing something stranger than winning or losing.
Seven upsets, a 10-1 rout at The Still Strait, two overtime steals, a shootout dagger from Tahlia Nguyen, and four times tonight the net simply refused to let a goal stay singular. Vladivostok and Cairo each got their own echo in the same period, São Paulo got theirs at The South Passage, and Tokyo got a bonus goal it never had to work for. C'est Hockay. La glace se souvient de tout. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 23 occurred. The Net Remembers activated four times across three games, twice within the same period at The Last Terminal. No further explanation has been offered, nor will one be. The record has been updated accordingly.