Matchday Recap: S02D43
Seven upsets on Matchday 43, and somehow the two extra-time games might not even be the headline. Camila Aguirre needed a shootout to beat Montréal in Ushuaia, and McMurdo needed overtime to hold off a stubborn Busan side. Cairo upset São Paulo at 2.16 odds, Medellín stole one on the road in Guadalajara, and Mumbai and Perth both won as home and road underdogs respectively. Gander and Johannesburg played a thirteen-goal track meet at The Waypoint that finished 8-5, with Brian Mercer, Janice Hapgood, and Thabo Mokoena all finding the net twice. Allons-y, there is a great deal to cover.
DKR 6 — HAV 3
Dakar raced out to a four-goal lead inside the first period at The Sandy Parlor, and by the time Havana found its legs the game was already decided. Modou Diouf opened the scoring at 3:54, and Aminata Sow made it 2-0 on the power play at 6:22, Ousmane Diallo assisting. Cheikh Fall added a third at 8:42 with an assist from Abdoulaye Touré, and Diallo scored himself at 10:12, Sow returning the favor—four different Dakar goals inside the first twenty minutes. Awa Diop made it 5-0 on the power play early in the second, Ibrahima Sarr assisting, before Yarelys González and Mamadou Guèye dropped the gloves in matching majors.
Havana finally got on the board in the third: Osmany Leyva at 4:05, González assisting, and Claudia Pérez at 5:11, Yanelis Peña feeding her, cut the deficit to three. But Mamadou Guèye answered right back at 10:36, Abdoulaye Touré picking up his second assist, and though Lázaro Valdés closed the gap once more with a power-play goal at 14:46, Pérez assisting for her second point of the night, it was well too late. Odds had Dakar and Havana within five points of each other at 1.88 and 1.93, but this one was never that close—Sow's goal and assist, and Touré's two helpers, did the heavy lifting in a comfortable Dakar win at home.
USH 2 — MTL 1
Quel match at The South Passage, decided in a shootout after sixty-five minutes couldn't split these two. Valentina Giménez opened the scoring for Ushuaia at 3:26, Camila Aguirre assisting, and that lead held until Montréal's power play struck in the second: Amélie Bouchard converted at 5:45, Alexandre Paquette assisting, tying it 1-1. Nicolás Sosa and Chloé Moreau dropped the gloves late in the second period, and from there the game turned into a defensive standoff—no goals in the third, none in a scoreless overtime, hits piling up but nobody able to find the net.
So it went to a shootout, and Camila Aguirre—who had assisted the game's opening goal—buried the winner at 4:31 to send Ushuaia home with the extra point. Montréal were the modest favorites at 1.82 to Ushuaia's 2.00, and on paper this was the upset of the night, even if it took the full sixty-five minutes and a shootout to get there. Fourteen hits and eight penalties made for a physical, grinding affair, but in the end it came down to one shooter finding room where nobody else could.
RIM 2 — WPG 6
A scoreless, feisty first period at The Coastal Pavilion set the tone—Davide Marchetti and Jonas Brevik fought at 3:42, and Giulia Bianchi and Tara Ridsdale followed with a five-minute major apiece late in the frame—before Winnipeg took over completely in the second. Nicole Flett opened the scoring on the power play at 1:43, Marissa Spence assisting, and The Sixth doubled down: an echo goal at 3:23 added a second for Winnipeg out of nowhere. Curtis Favel made it three at 6:28, Leah Blacksmith assisting, and Anna Flett added a fourth at 11:50, Jonas Brevik picking up the helper. Valentina Colombo got Rimini's only answer of the period, a power-play goal at 12:16 assisted by Alessandro Conti, but the damage was done: 1-4 after forty minutes.
Kaya Bearclaw extended Winnipeg's lead early in the third, Brody Flett assisting, and though Elena Moretti pulled one back for Rimini on the power play at 9:23, Nico De Luca assisting, Jake Fehr answered for Winnipeg at 13:19, Tyler Chicken assisting, to make it 6-2 final. Rimini were the modest home favorites at 1.83 to Winnipeg's 1.99, but this one belonged entirely to the visitors—five different goalscorers, an echo goal for good measure, and an answer for every push Rimini made.
STO 3 — PRA 2
Prague struck first at The Still Strait—Pavel Krejčí opened the scoring just thirty-five seconds in, Kateřina Dvořáková assisting—and the game turned physical from there, with Ondřej Marek and Albin Nordlund trading majors in the first and Lucie Šťastná and Axel Lindqvist following suit before the period was out. Stockholm needed the second period to find their footing: Maja Forsberg tied it on the power play at 4:55, Lindqvist collecting the assist, after Klara Åström and Krejčí himself had dropped the gloves earlier in the frame. The score stood 1-1 after forty minutes in a game that had already produced three fights.
The third period belonged to the home side. Hugo Wikström put Stockholm ahead at 5:11, Astrid Engström assisting, and Oscar Söderström made it 3-1 at 13:48, Saga Ekström feeding him. Tomáš Novák pulled one back for Prague in the final two minutes, Eliška Veselá assisting, but it wasn't enough. Stockholm were the modest home favorites at 1.84 to Prague's 1.98, and Forsberg's tying goal proved to be the turning point in a result that held true to form, even if it took three periods and three fights to get there.
VLA 5 — HEL 1
Vladivostok controlled this one from the opening whistle at The Last Terminal, home favorites at 1.81 who made good on it against a physical Helsinki side. Yelena Pavlova opened the scoring late in the first, Igor Zaytsev assisting, after Aleksi Korhonen and Nikita Sorokin fought to a draw at center ice. Vera Orlova doubled the lead in the second at 8:19, Pavlova returning the assist, before Orlova herself dropped the gloves with Niko Mäkelä minutes later—one of five fights on the night at a building that clearly had some pent-up energy to burn.
The third period turned into a rout. Denis Baranov made it 3-0 at 2:10, Kirill Morozov assisting, Tatiana Novikova added a fourth at 5:45 off Darya Kuznetsova's feed, and Pavlova completed her two-goal night at 7:03, Baranov returning the favor. Noora Koskinen finally got Helsinki on the board at 11:00, Erik Johansson assisting, but it was well past academic by then. Pavlova's two goals and an assist led four different Vladivostok scorers in a comprehensive, if combative, home win—twenty-three hits and five fights made it the most physical building of the matchday.
CAI 2 — SAO 1
Cairo were significant home underdogs at 2.16 to São Paulo's 1.70, and The Pyramid Basin turned into a brawl before it turned into an upset. Youssef Mansour and Gustavo Ribeiro fought early, Amanda Barbosa and Khaled Naguib followed minutes later, and Habiba Sherif finally broke the deadlock late in the first, Omar Hassan assisting, to send Cairo into the second up 1-0. That lead held through a quiet middle period bookended by penalties, with Cairo's discipline keeping the score right where it started.
The third period brought two more fights—Amanda Barbosa dropped the gloves again, this time with Karim Fahmy, before Gabriel Rodrigues and Layla Mostafa traded punches of their own—before Salma Ibrahim extended Cairo's lead at 9:08, Sherif picking up her second point of the night. Rafael Oliveira pulled one back for São Paulo in the final minute, Thiago Pereira assisting, but Cairo held on for the 2-1 win. Four fights and nineteen hits made this the most combative building of the matchday, and at those odds, Cairo's upset—built on Sherif's goal and assist—will sting a São Paulo side that was expected to win comfortably.
GDL 1 — MDE 2
Guadalajara were the home favorites at 1.72 at El Rincón Perdido, and for a scoreless, hard-hitting first period that held up—Jimena Castillo and Mariana Zapata fought early, and neither side found the net through twenty minutes. Medellín broke through in the second: Andrés Quintero scored at 11:01, Daniela Mejía assisting, and that single goal held up as Guadalajara couldn't find an answer, taking a 0-1 deficit into the third.
Medellín extended the lead on the power play early in the third—Sofía Estrada converting at 4:40, Valentina Ospina assisting, right as Mateo Guzmán stepped out of the penalty box. Camila Flores got Guadalajara on the board at 10:43, Alejandra Ríos assisting, but the comeback stalled there. At 2.13 odds, Medellín's second-period goal proved to be the difference in a result that will sting Guadalajara at home—Guzmán's untimely penalty and Quintero's opener decided a game the Gatos were expected to win.
ANC 0 — TOK 2
A shutout at The Watch Station, and Tokyo's modest road-favorite odds at 1.76 held up against an Anchorage side that never found the net. Mei Fujita and Tara Alexie fought early in the first, and Ren Inoue broke the deadlock late in the period, Sakura Shimizu assisting, right after Haruto Nakamura had taken a penalty. That 0-1 score held through a chippy, penalty-filled second period that produced three more fights—Riku Mori and Kira Naluktaq among them—without either side finding the net.
The third continued in the same vein—Hina Takahashi and Heather Braund fought, then Riku Mori and Kira Naluktaq went at it a second time—before Haruto Nakamura sealed it with his own goal at 12:55, Yuki Sato assisting. Eighteen hits, fourteen penalties, and six fights made for a chaotic night at The Watch Station, but the scoreline stayed simple: Anchorage couldn't solve Tokyo's goaltending, and the road favorites left with a clean 2-0 shutout.
PER 3 — NRB 1
Perth were home underdogs at 2.01 to Nairobi's 1.81, and for most of two periods at The Red Furnace, the odds looked right. Nyambura Kamau opened the scoring for Nairobi at 9:27, Akinyi Ochieng assisting, after Liam O'Brien and James Odhiambo dropped the gloves early. That 0-1 lead held through a fight-filled second period—six fights across the night in total—with neither side finding the net again before the third.
Then Perth turned it on. Callum Reeves tied it on the power play at 5:32, Cooper Hale assisting, and Hale himself converted a man-advantage chance at 8:23, Mia Thornton returning the favor. Thornton completed the turnaround at 11:38, Hale picking up his second assist of the night, and Perth closed it out 3-1. Hale finished with a goal and two assists, the engine behind a third-period surge that flipped a game Nairobi had controlled for forty minutes. At 2.01 odds, this was the upset of the odds sheet if not of the eye test—Perth simply had the better final twenty minutes.
GND 8 — JBG 5
Thirteen goals at The Waypoint, and Gander's home-underdog odds at 1.97 held up in a game that looked more like a track meet than a hockey match. Johannesburg struck first through Lerato Dlamini at 5:14, Lindiwe Sithole assisting, but Gander answered twice in two minutes—Janice Hapgood at 5:39 and Vera Tobin at 7:00, Liam Coish assisting the latter—before Wade Bursey's power-play goal made it 3-1. Thabo Mokoena pulled Johannesburg back within one before the period ended, and Gander led 3-2 after a twenty-minute stretch that produced five goals and two fights.
The scoring never slowed. Liam Coish and Brian Mercer each struck in the second to push Gander's lead to 5-3, with Mokoena answering again for Johannesburg in between. The third period was the wildest of all: Johannesburg got goals from Thandiwe Radebe and Lindiwe Sithole to tie it, but Mercer's second of the night and a Janice Hapgood two-goal, one-assist performance—capped by a Bridget Walsh finish off Hapgood's feed—sealed it 8-5. Mercer, Hapgood, and Mokoena all finished with two goals apiece, and Gander's depth simply outlasted Johannesburg's push in a game that never had a quiet moment.
MUM 5 — WEL 3
Mumbai were home underdogs at 2.09 to Wellington's 1.75, and The Salt Pavilion delivered exactly the kind of back-and-forth game those odds promise. Mereana Brooke opened the scoring for Wellington at 4:31, Olivia Rangi assisting, before Rohan Deshmukh tied it for Mumbai at 11:32, Priya Sharma feeding him. Kavya Iyer put Mumbai ahead on the power play early in the second, Sanjay Pawar assisting, but Wellington answered twice—Kauri Thompson at 7:41 and Brooke's second of the night at 10:59—before Deshmukh completed his own two-goal night late in the period to tie it 3-3 after forty minutes.
Kiran Bhatt took over in the third, scoring at 5:54 and again at 11:37—the second assisted by Meera Naik—to put Mumbai ahead for good. Priya Sharma finished with two assists and a fight, the connective tissue behind Mumbai's win, while Deshmukh and Brooke each scored twice without their teams finding the last word. At 2.09 odds, this was the kind of result that rewards patience—Mumbai trailed twice and answered both times before Bhatt's third-period brace put it away for good.
MCM 5 — BUS 4
McMurdo were the modest home favorites at 1.75 at The Remote Range, and they needed overtime to prove it against a Busan side that kept answering every punch. Natasha Borova opened the scoring for McMurdo at 2:06, Elena Varga assisting, but Sang-hoon Bae tied it for Busan at 5:52, Dong-wook Yoon assisting, and So-hee Hwang put the visitors ahead late in the period. Tobias Frey tied it back up for McMurdo on the power play early in the second, Amira Hassan assisting, and the score held at 2-2 through a hard-hitting middle frame.
The third period alone produced four goals. Yumi Takeda and Ingrid Solheim scored to put McMurdo up 4-2, Chris Elliot and Ji-hoon Baek picking up assists, before Seung-ho Jung and Hye-jin Choi answered right back for Busan to force overtime at 4-4. It took less than five minutes of extra time for Ji-hoon Baek to end it, burying the winner at 4:04 off another Elliot assist—his second helper of the night. At 2.09 odds, Busan pushed McMurdo the full sixty-five minutes and then some, but the home side's depth scoring proved just enough.
Seven upsets, two extra-time thrillers, and a thirteen-goal track meet in Gander—Matchday 43 didn't want to make anything easy on anybody. C'est Hockay. À la prochaine.
—JM Laflèche, Voice of Hockay
Le Council acknowledges that Matchday 43 occurred. Thirteen goals were recorded at The Waypoint, and an echo goal was recorded at The Coastal Pavilion crediting no individual scorer. Le Permanent Council notes both figures without further comment. The record has been updated accordingly.