Matchday Recap: S02D38
Five upsets on Matchday 38, and Le Council's ledger is going to be busy tonight. Gander stole one in overtime at The Remote Range despite the odds hating them for it, and Busan needed extra time and a goal lost in the Whiteout to shock Vladivostok. Prague outlasted Dakar in an eleven-goal track meet at The Stone Opera, and Winnipeg buried Havana despite being the underdogs on paper. Jenni Laine hat-tricked Helsinki past Ushuaia, Andrés Rojas piled up two goals and four hits for Guadalajara, and São Paulo needed a shootout to get past Rimini. Allons-y, there is a great deal to cover.
MCM 2 — GND 3
Gander were 2.21 underdogs at The Remote Range and needed overtime to cash the ticket, but they got value from the opening minutes. Wade Bursey opened the scoring at 4:02, Brian Mercer assisting, and Ingrid Solheim answered right back for McMurdo at 5:08, Diego Fuentes feeding her. Mercer struck himself at 14:24, Trina Pickett assisting, and moments later the net remembered—the puck crossed the line a second time for Gander, making it 1-3 after twenty minutes before McMurdo had even settled into the game.
Kofi Mensah pulled McMurdo within one on the power play early in the second, Elena Varga assisting, but that's as close as the comeback got. Mercer finished with a goal, an assist, and three hits, the engine of a Gander win that neither team's third period nor the extra frame could change—both sides traded hits and penalties across the final twenty minutes and overtime without another goal. At 1.68 odds, McMurdo were supposed to win this one comfortably. Instead it's Gander leaving The Remote Range with the two points.
MTL 7 — CAI 4
Montréal were the modest favorites at The Oldest Rink and made it stand up in an eleven-goal track meet. Omar Hassan opened it for Cairo at 4:59, Khaled Naguib assisting, but Élodie Gagnon answered at 7:09, Jean-François Tremblay feeding her—Black Hole Net making the difference—before Marc-Antoine Dufresne made it 2-1 at 13:54, Tremblay picking up his second assist. The floodgates opened in the second: Layla Mostafa and Habiba Sherif traded goals for Cairo, but Tremblay, Amélie Bouchard, and Lucas Pelletier answered for Montréal, and the Maples took a 5-3 lead into the third.
Cairo never stopped pushing—Naguib scored again at 6:56 to cut it to 5-4—but Gagnon's second of the night at 11:45, Dmitri Volkov assisting, and Alexandre Paquette's finish at 11:59, Philippe Dubois assisting, with Black Hole Net striking twice in the same game, sealed the 7-4 final. Two fights broke out along the way—Mariam Khalil and Alexandre Paquette, then Habiba Sherif and Élodie Gagnon—matching the physicality to the scoreline. Gagnon's two goals led a Montréal side with five different scorers, and at 1.67 odds, this was chalk holding up in spectacular fashion.
JBG 8 — MUM 0
Johannesburg were the modest favorites at Die Goue Myn and turned this into a laugher. Thandiwe Radebe opened the scoring at 12:12, Sipho Nkosi assisting, and the Jaguars blew it open in the second: Thabo Mokoena scored twice, Naledi Khumalo added one of her own, Lerato Dlamini cashed in off Pieter Botha's feed, and Radebe and Zanele Ndaba each struck again before the period ended—six goals in twenty minutes and a 7-0 lead heading to the third.
Pieter Botha and Arjun Patil dropped the gloves early in that avalanche, and Mumbai never found any answer at either end. Lindiwe Sithole closed the scoring in the third, assisted by Mandla Zulu, to make it 8-0. Sipho Nkosi finished with three assists, and Thandiwe Radebe and Thabo Mokoena each scored twice—a complete demolition that left Mumbai without a single reply across sixty minutes. At 1.75 odds, Johannesburg were favored to win. Nobody had this final score written down.
WEL 2 — MDE 5
The Howling Harbour opened chippy—Sebastián Cardona and Charlotte Hemi fought inside the first ninety seconds, and Olivia Rangi and Mateo Arango followed suit minutes later—before Medellín asserted itself on the scoreboard. Andrés Quintero opened the scoring at 6:17, Camilo Henao assisting, and Henao doubled the lead himself at 12:30, Cardona returning the favor. Sofía Estrada and Manaia Walker fought late in the period as Wellington searched for a foothold that never arrived, and Medellín led 0-2 after one.
Henao struck a third time early in the second, Mariana Zapata assisting, and the rout continued in the third: Santiago Restrepo made it 0-4 on Mateo Arango's feed, and Cardona buried a power-play chance at 3:47, Henao picking up his second assist. Liam Tomoana and Tane Wiremu finally got Wellington on the board late, Wiremu's goal assisted by Hemi Sullivan, but it was academic by then. Henao finished with two goals and two assists, the best player on the ice by a wide margin. At near-even odds, this one wasn't nearly as close as the number suggested—Medellín controlled it from puck drop.
PER 2 — ANC 0
A tight, mostly defensive night at The Red Furnace, decided by special teams. Sienna Kapoor and Gemma Fletcher both took early trips to The Sixth, and Gemma Fletcher and Sierra Peters dropped the gloves in between, but neither side found the net through a scoreless first period thick with penalties. Oscar Whitfield finally broke through on the power play at 12:32 of the second, Zara Patel assisting, giving Perth a lead they would not relinquish.
Liam O'Brien added insurance in the third at 10:10, Eliza Cartwright assisting, and Perth's penalty kill did the rest, holding Anchorage off the board for all sixty minutes. Molly Kavairlook and Nate Hargrove led a hit-heavy final period that never turned into a real threat. At 1.82 odds, Perth were the deserved favorites and delivered a clean, professional shutout—the kind of result that doesn't make headlines but wins divisions.
HEL 5 — USH 2
Jenni Laine had the night of the matchday at The Dark Sauna, and Helsinki—favored at 1.75—never trailed. Anniina Tuominen opened the scoring at 5:04, Juhani Rantanen assisting, before Laine struck twice of her own in the period, at 6:42 (Erik Johansson assisting, Black Hole Net making the difference) and again at 10:56 (Elina Heikkinen assisting), and Helsinki led 3-0 after one.
Valentina Giménez pulled Ushuaia within two on the power play early in the second, but Heikkinen answered right back, and the Undertow's night turned physical—Mikko Hämäläinen fought Nicolás Sosa, then Erik Johansson fought Julieta Ríos in the second. Santiago Figueroa and Laine traded final goals late, Laine's third completing the hat-trick with Liisa Nieminen assisting, Black Hole Net striking a fourth time in the game. Laine's three goals were the entire story—Helsinki's favorite status held up comfortably, 5-2 final.
SAO 2 — RIM 1
The Green Canopy needed extra hockey and then some to settle this one. Giulia Bianchi opened the scoring for Rimini at 11:50, Francesca Serra assisting, and that lead held deep into the second before Felipe Carvalho tied it for São Paulo at 13:09, Rafael Oliveira feeding him. The third period turned combative—Valentina Colombo and Gustavo Ribeiro fought, then Francesca Serra and Isabela Costa followed suit—but the score stayed knotted at 1-1 through sixty minutes and a scoreless overtime.
It came down to the shootout, and Camila Ferreira delivered the winner to settle it, 2-1 São Paulo. Two fights, a handful of Sixth trips, and a game that never let either side pull away defined the night at The Green Canopy. At 1.85 odds, São Paulo were the modest favorites, and needed every extra minute of hockey to prove it. Quel match.
TOK 2 — GDL 4
A wild, hit-heavy night at The Neon Crossing—twenty-four hits and ten penalties by the final horn. Andrés Rojas opened the scoring for Guadalajara at 0:32, Santiago Torres assisting, but Tokyo answered twice on the power play: Ren Inoue at 9:08, assisted by Aoi Yamamoto, and Sōta Watanabe at 13:34, assisted by Hina Takahashi, sandwiching Daniela Salazar's goal for the Gatos at 13:04. It was 2-2 after a chaotic twenty minutes.
Alejandra Ríos put Guadalajara back in front early in the second, Sofía Navarro assisting, and the period turned into a fight card—Carlos Morales and Kaito Itō, then Sakura Shimizu and Alejandra Ríos herself, dropped the gloves in the same six minutes. Rojas sealed it in the third at 10:45, Emilio Delgado assisting, finishing with two goals and four hits on the night. At 1.93/1.88, this was close to a coin flip on paper, and Guadalajara's depth—three different goal-scorers—made the difference at The Neon Crossing.
BUS 2 — VLA 1
Quel drame at The Frozen Dock. Vladivostok were the 1.76 favorites, but Busan opened the scoring in the strangest way possible—an own goal at 6:14, the puck lost in the Whiteout and finding its own net, giving the home side a 1-0 lead they didn't entirely earn. Artyom Volkov and Soo-yeon Park fought in the opening minute, and penalties piled up on both sides through a chippy first period.
Darya Kuznetsova tied it for Vladivostok early in the second, Vera Orlova assisting, and the game settled into a defensive standoff through the third—Eun-bi Han and Kirill Morozov fought, So-hee Hwang and Denis Baranov followed, but the score held at 1-1 into overtime. Jae-won Kim ended it at 5:15, Hyun-woo Kwon assisting, sending Busan home with a stunning 2-1 upset. At 2.07 odds, nobody had Busan winning this one, let alone in overtime off the back of an own goal and a game-winner from Kim.
NRB 3 — STO 1
Nairobi were the 1.65 favorites at The Ochre Reserve and needed just one period to prove it. A scoreless, hit-filled first gave way to a three-goal second: Kevin Otieno cashed a power play at 3:57, Wanjiku Mwangi assisting, Dennis Wafula added another man-advantage goal at 11:39, Amara Osei feeding him, and Moses Okello made it 3-0 moments later, Mwangi picking up her second assist. Freja Sandström and Brian Kipchoge fought in between as Stockholm searched for a spark.
Filip Nyström finally got the Sirens on the board in the third, Axel Lindqvist assisting, but it was well too late to matter. Wanjiku Mwangi's two assists quietly built the middle-period blitz that decided this one. A hit-heavy, penalty-filled affair—eighteen hits, eight penalties—but Nairobi's special teams did the heavy lifting, and the home favorites cruised to a 3-1 win at The Ochre Reserve.
PRA 6 — DKR 5
Eleven goals at The Stone Opera, and Prague—2.09 underdogs at home—somehow came out on top. Jakub Černý opened it at 3:42, Lucie Šťastná assisting, before the second period turned into an all-out track meet: Martin Procházka, Barbora Králová, and Ondřej Marek scored for Prague, while Awa Diop, Rokhaya Faye, and Khady Bâ answered for Dakar—Bâ's goal echoing a second time moments later as the net remembered, making it 4-4 after forty minutes.
Ousmane Diallo put Dakar back ahead early in the third, but Marek tied it himself at 6:28, Markéta Polák assisting, and Adam Fiala's finish at 12:10, Barbora Králová returning the assist, completed the comeback for a 6-5 final. Cheikh Fall and Markéta Polák fought late as tempers ran hot to the final horn. Marek finished with two goals, Fiala and Králová each with a goal and an assist, and Ibrahima Sarr quietly racked up two helpers for Dakar in a losing effort. At 2.09 odds, Prague weren't supposed to survive this one. They did, barely, in the wildest game of the matchday.
WPG 5 — HAV 1
The Cold Lodge saw an even opening and a lopsided finish. Dylan Fife opened it for Winnipeg at 2:44, Leah Blacksmith assisting, and Claudia Pérez answered for Havana late in the period, Yordanis Sánchez feeding her, making it 1-1 after twenty minutes. Tara Ridsdale put the Wendigos back in front early in the second, Brendan Fehr assisting, and that's the last the Hammers would see of the lead.
Winnipeg pulled away completely in the third. Fehr returned the favor to Ridsdale at 6:29, Blacksmith scored herself at 7:31 off Curtis Favel's feed, and Anna Flett capped it on the power play at 10:24, Ridsdale picking up her second assist of the night. Ridsdale finished with a goal and two assists, the clear engine of a Winnipeg win that got away from Havana in a hurry. At 1.85 odds, Havana were the modest road favorites—Winnipeg made sure that didn't matter, 5-1 final at The Cold Lodge.
Five upsets, a hat-trick from Jenni Laine, and an own goal lost in the Whiteout that somehow held up as the building block of a game-winner—Matchday 38 had chaos in equal measure with quality. C'est Hockay. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 38 occurred. One goal at The Frozen Dock was recorded without a credited scorer, entering the record as lost in the Whiteout. Le Permanent Council notes the anomaly without further comment. The record has been updated accordingly.