Matchday Recap: S02D35
Seven upsets on Matchday 35—more than half the card—and Le Council will have plenty of favorites to quietly not comment on. Mumbai's home underdogs, priced at 2.29 against Nairobi's 1.63, delivered the day's biggest surprise, punctuated by a goal that scored itself twice when The Net Remembers found Sanjay Pawar in the third period. Rimini and Perth needed a full overtime and a shootout at The Coastal Pavilion before Luca Ferretti settled it, and Winnipeg outlasted Montréal 7-5 in a track meet at The Cold Lodge where Black Hole Net turned six different goals into coin flips. Allons-y, there is a great deal to cover.
ANC 1 — GND 3
Anchorage were the modest favorites at The Watch Station at 1.77, and for most of the first period it looked like the form would hold. Paige Riordan opened the scoring at 5:40, Heather Braund assisting, before Braund herself went to The Sixth for a penalty and came back carrying Luminous—a strange gift for a team that would need every edge it could find. Mary Quinlan answered right back for Gander at 7:59, Vera Tobin assisting, and the sides went to the first intermission tied at one.
Quinlan struck again at 9:25 of the second, Trina Pickett assisting, and Hazel Strickland made it 1-3 in the third at 13:08, Janice Hapgood picking up the helper. Anchorage never found an answer to Riordan's opener, and Gander's road upset—at 2.06 odds—was built entirely on Quinlan's two goals. A quiet night at The Watch Station by Hockay standards, fourteen hits and three penalties, but the two points left with the visitors regardless.
USH 2 — JBG 0
The South Passage opened with fists rather than pucks—Kagiso Molefe and Valentina Giménez dropped the gloves at 2:46, just after Molefe's hit on Giménez, both heading to The Sixth on matching majors. Ushuaia wasted no time turning the temperature into offense: Florencia Ramos scored at 4:28, Ignacio Herrera assisting, and Facundo Álvarez made it 2-0 at 6:28, Julieta Ríos feeding him. Both skaters returned from The Sixth minutes later lighter—Giménez shed Tidal, Molefe lost Translated—and the two-goal cushion held into the second.
It held, full stop. Johannesburg pushed physically rather than offensively—Pieter Botha and Agustín Medina fought at 13:47 of the second, Martina Vega and Lindiwe Sithole traded punches early in the third—but neither side found the net again across the final forty minutes. Ushuaia's goaltender closed the door on a Jaguars side priced as the tiniest of favorites at 1.90, and this one goes in the books as an upset by the thinnest possible margin. Thirteen hits, three fights, zero goals after the first period—The South Passage earned its quiet.
VLA 4 — MCM 0
Vladivostok were the home favorites at The Last Terminal and needed patience before the goals arrived—Darya Kuznetsova opened it on the power play at 13:11 of the first, Tatiana Novikova assisting, and that lone tally survived a scoreless second period thick with hits and temper. Yelena Pavlova and Ingrid Solheim fought early, Vera Orlova and Solheim fought again before the first intermission, and McMurdo matched Vladivostok hit for hit without finding the scoresheet.
The third period buried McMurdo for good. Vera Orlova scored herself at 2:37, Denis Baranov assisting, and Kirill Morozov made it 3-0 at 6:04, Igor Zaytsev picking up the first of two helpers—Zaytsev set up Novikova's own goal at 10:04 to make it 4-0 final. Amira Hassan and Denis Baranov fought, and Yumi Takeda and Artyom Volkov followed suit, but McMurdo's physicality—nineteen hits, four fights on the night—never translated into offense. Vladivostok's shutout was clean, professional, and exactly what 1.84 odds promised.
HAV 2 — TOK 5
Tokyo were the modest road favorites at The Rhythm Bureau and put the game away early. Hina Takahashi opened the scoring at 4:39, Yūma Hayashi assisting, and Yuki Sato doubled it at 13:51, Haruto Nakamura feeding him, for a 0-2 lead after twenty minutes. The second period turned into a rout: Sato struck again at 3:23, Sakura Shimizu assisting, before Shimizu returned the favor at 6:21, Takahashi finishing it off. Adonis Reyes pulled one back for Havana at 7:01, Mailén Domínguez assisting, but Takahashi closed the period at 14:41, Hayashi picking up his second assist, to make it 1-5.
Havana's response arrived too late to matter—Orlando Machado scored in the third at 7:28, Yanelis Peña assisting, but the final margin never seriously wavered after Tokyo's five-goal outburst. Takahashi finished with two goals and an assist, Sato matched her with two goals of his own, and Yūma Hayashi quietly picked up a pair of helpers before emerging from a Sixth trip carrying Ancient late in regulation. A comfortable, clinical night for Tokyo's depth at The Rhythm Bureau, and Havana's two consolation goals did little to change the story.
WEL 2 — HEL 4
Saku Järvinen was back at it at The Howling Harbour, and Helsinki made their status as modest favorites stand up. Aleksi Korhonen opened the scoring on the power play at 5:06, Mikko Hämäläinen assisting, and Järvinen doubled the lead himself at 13:20, Liisa Nieminen returning the favor, sending Helsinki into the second up 0-2. Saara Virtanen and Tane Wiremu dropped the gloves early in the middle frame before Mereana Brooke got Wellington on the board at 8:29, Awhina Clarke assisting, cutting the deficit to one heading into the third.
Wellington's push nearly worked. Jenni Laine restored Helsinki's two-goal cushion at 1:31, Niko Mäkelä assisting, but Awhina Clarke answered right back on the power play at 9:14, Nikau Edwards assisting, making it 2-3. Liisa Nieminen sealed it at 11:12, Järvinen picking up the return assist, for the 2-4 final. Nine total penalties made this a stop-and-start affair at The Howling Harbour, but Järvinen's goal-and-assist night—and Helsinki's four different scorers—were enough to hold off a Wellington side that never stopped pushing.
GDL 2 — BUS 0
Guadalajara did what the 1.67 odds expected at El Rincón Perdido, though it took some patience. Hyun-woo Kwon and Camila Flores fought early, and Emilio Delgado broke through at 3:26, Jimena Castillo assisting, for a 1-0 lead that held through a tense first period. So-hee Hwang and Guadalajara traded hits through the middle frame without much room to breathe.
Carlos Morales made it 2-0 at 12:06 of the second, Delgado returning the assist, and that was all Guadalajara needed. Busan pressed physically—So-hee Hwang finished with three hits on the night—but never solved the Gatos' goaltender across a scoreless third period. Twelve total hits and a single fight kept this one relatively clean by Hockay standards, and Guadalajara's home form held exactly as the books predicted.
DKR 3 — SAO 4
The Sandy Parlor turned into a track meet, and Dakar's slim home-favorite status—1.88 to São Paulo's 1.93—didn't survive it. Camila Ferreira and Ibrahima Sarr fought early, and Gabriel Rodrigues put São Paulo ahead at 5:14, Felipe Carvalho assisting. Fatou Mbaye tied it for Dakar ten seconds into the second, unassisted, before Ferreira restored São Paulo's lead at 1:36, Amanda Barbosa assisting, and Carvalho made it 1-3 at 7:57, Thiago Pereira feeding him. Mamadou Guèye pulled Dakar within one on the power play at 13:52, Fatou Mbaye assisting, and the teams went to the third at 2-3.
Modou Diouf tied it at 11:21, Awa Diop assisting, and for two minutes The Sandy Parlor believed in the upset of the upset. Then Lucas Almeida beat the goaltender at 13:23, Camila Ferreira picking up an assist, and São Paulo held on for the 4-3 final. Twenty-two hits made this the most physical building on the card, and Ferreira's goal, an assist, and a fight made her the story—Dakar's home odds meant nothing once the third period turned into a shootout of its own.
STO 5 — CAI 3
Stockholm's four-goal first period at The Still Strait made the rest of the night a formality, even if Cairo got the party started. Khaled Naguib opened the scoring at 0:32, Nour El-Sayed assisting, before Oscar Söderström tied it for Stockholm at 1:14, Hugo Wikström assisting. Maja Forsberg and El-Sayed fought at 4:09, majors offsetting, and then the Sirens took over: Klara Åström at 7:31, Wikström himself at 8:52, and Albin Nordlund at 10:39 turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 laugher by the first intermission.
Cairo clawed at the margins the rest of the way—Salma Ibrahim scored in the second, Söderström and Ahmed Zaki fought, and Farida Abdel-Rahman added a power-play goal in the third—but Stockholm's cushion never seriously wobbled. Saga Ekström's third-period goal, Wikström assisting for his second helper of the night, made it 5-2 before Cairo's late strike closed the 5-3 final. Wikström finished with a goal and two assists, the clear engine of a Stockholm win that was decided in the opening twenty minutes and coasted from there.
WPG 7 — MTL 5
Quel match at The Cold Lodge, where twelve goals and a modifier called Black Hole Net turned a game between two closely matched sides into pure chaos. Tyler Chicken opened it for Winnipeg at 6:11, Anna Flett assisting, before Montréal answered twice in ninety seconds—Marc-Antoine Dufresne on the power play at 7:45, Jean-François Tremblay assisting, and Amélie Bouchard at 8:17, Catherine Lavoie assisting, Black Hole Net making the difference on the go-ahead goal. The Maples, priced as the modest favorites at 1.86, carried a 1-2 lead into the second.
It kept going. Brendan Fehr tied it for Winnipeg 1:04 into the second, Anna Flett assisting, another Black Hole Net goal, and Brody Flett made it 3-2 at 1:17 before Philippe Dubois pulled Montréal even again at 4:27. The third period alone produced six goals—Nicole Flett, Jean-François Tremblay, Simon Côté, and Marissa Spence all scored with Black Hole Net cited on the play, trading the lead twice in under five minutes—before Winnipeg pulled away for good on Dylan Fife's goal at 12:41 and Curtis Favel's at 14:30. Favel finished with a goal and an assist, Anna Flett with two assists and a fight, and Winnipeg escaped 7-5 as the underdogs on paper who simply refused to stop scoring.
MDE 1 — PRA 3
Medellín were the clear favorites at La Ladera, 1.73 to Prague's 2.12, and it went wrong early. Martin Procházka opened the scoring at 1:23, David Růžička assisting, and the first period turned physical rather than offensive from there—Andrés Quintero and Jakub Černý fought at 7:32, Sofía Estrada and Adam Fiala followed at 8:36, and Mariana Zapata took a penalty of her own without ever finding the scoresheet this time. Eliška Veselá doubled Prague's lead at 12:37 of the second, Lucie Šťastná assisting, and Medellín entered the third down two.
Daniela Mejía got the home crowd back into it at 9:51, Nicolás Betancur assisting, but Šťastná answered for Prague at 12:28, Veselá returning the favor, to make it 1-3 final. Eleven hits and six penalties kept La Ladera on edge throughout, but Prague's balanced scoring—Veselá and Šťastná combining for two goals and two assists between them—was enough to spoil Medellín's home odds once more. Zapata, so often the story here, was held off the scoresheet entirely.
RIM 3 — PER 2
The Coastal Pavilion needed extra time to settle this one, and it delivered plenty of hockey to get there. Matteo Galli opened the scoring at 4:56, Davide Marchetti assisting, and Valentina Colombo doubled it at 7:20, Lorenzo Fabbri assisting, for a 2-0 Rimini lead after one. Perth clawed back in the second—Mia Thornton at 2:34, Oscar Whitfield assisting, and Sienna Kapoor tying it at 9:52, Riley Dawson assisting—and the sides went to the third level at 2-2.
Neither team blinked from there. Oscar Whitfield and Nico De Luca fought early in the third, sixteen total hits piled up across a scoreless final period and a scoreless overtime, and this one went all the way to the shootout. Luca Ferretti settled it at 7:31, ending the game for Rimini in the extra frame. At essentially even odds—1.91 to 1.90—this was as close to a coin flip as Hockay produces, and it took a shootout to call it. C'est Hockay.
MUM 4 — NRB 1
The biggest upset of Matchday 35 belonged to Mumbai, priced as 2.29 home underdogs against a Nairobi side favored at 1.63. Meera Naik opened the scoring at 2:47, Ananya Kulkarni assisting, and it held up through a first period marked by Moses Okello and Rahul Nair dropping the gloves. Nair scored himself at 13:37 of the second, Sanjay Pawar assisting, and Priya Sharma and James Odhiambo fought twice across the middle and third periods in a rematch neither seemed willing to let go.
Then The Sixth got involved. Sanjay Pawar scored at 11:07, Kiran Bhatt assisting, and thirty-two seconds later The Net Remembers activated—Mumbai were credited with the same goal a second time, Pawar's name going up twice on a single sequence. Amara Osei got Nairobi's lone goal back at 13:00, Peter Kimani assisting, but it was academic by then. The 4-1 final was Mumbai's biggest result of the season against the odds, and The Salt Pavilion has rarely been louder for a modifier.
Seven upsets, a shootout in Rimini, a seven-goal outburst at The Cold Lodge, and a net in Mumbai that decided to score twice—Matchday 35 gave the chalk very little to hold onto. C'est Hockay. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 35 occurred. The Net Remembers activated once, in Mumbai, and Le Permanent Council notes that it has requested clarification from The Ice on precisely how memory works. No response has been received. The record has been updated accordingly.