VSN Presents: What a RUSH! Yukon Captures the Founder's Cup!

[fromtheinside 1,278]

 

The last time the Yukon Rush captured a Founder’s Cup title, it was way back in Season 59 when the Rush survived a seven game marathon versus the Las Vegas Aces. Since then there’s been highs, lows, management changed, you name it. They’ve definitely come close from time to time, but have never been able to recapture the biggest prize in the VHLM. Two seasons ago when the Yukon GM job became vacated. @Juice stepped in and immediately initiated a plan to get Yukon back into the upper echelon of the league. The road to the Cup was a long one that truly started in the Season 77 VHLM Dispersal Draft.

 

Going into the draft, GM Juice was severely hamstrung with his draft stock with his first pick not coming until pick 56. Fortunately for Rush fans, Juice was meticulous in his draft prep and was able to unearth some gems with his late picks. At pick 57 Yukon took a young offensive-minded defenseman from Canada. Little did they know that come Season 78, @JB123 Nathan Powers would be their team captain and anchor the team's defensive core. Or if you delve even deeper, at pick 64 the Rush drafted European winger @hockeyis66 Jaromir Lemeiux. These two players spent Season 77 developing their talent on a weak Yukon roster. But the fact that the team wasn't strong meant there was tons of opportunity for these young players to work on their game. While the Season 77 campaign was a losing one, the Rush management were busy behind the scenes, wheeling and dealing to load up for a big S78 Dispersal Draft. Before the draft they made their first big move by acquiring defender @diamond_ace Tynan Sylvester from the Mississauga Hounds for a package of picks. Sylvester would slot in nicely alongside Powers to complete the top defensive pair for the team. 

 

In the aforementioned draft, the Rush added a couple of major staples to their team. With the third overall pick in the draft, Yukon took right winger @Zetterberg Tyler Reinhart. This move not only gave them the best rookie in the league for Season 78, but it also opened the door for Yukon to scoop up Reinhart's brother @MexicanCow123 Jerome when he opted join the VHLM at the start of the season. Netting both Reinhart brothers proved to be a game changer for Yukon, but they still were missing a number of components. Identifying that, moments after picking Reinhart third overall, the Rush traded up to secure the fourth pick in the draft. With this pick they chose the Satanic overlord @Beketov Papa Emeritus.  Yukon pledged their souls to their new ruler and in exchange they were provided the services of one of the best goaltenders in the league in Season 78. These consecutive picks really helped vault the Rush from pretender to contender in a hurry.

 

The Rush continued to draft well in the later rounds. Most notably they picked up a pair of Fins to bolster their depth. Center @Otto Numminen and defenseman @Big Bob Bob Beach. The Finnish talent continued to flow into Yukon as they scooped up rookie @jRuutuErlantz Jokinen off waivers. The Finnish trifecta have been huge fan favourites in Yukon all season. In fact, the popularity has reached such a high that their is a special district in Yukon dedicated to them dubbed "Little Finland". Finally, days before the start of the regular season, the Rush reached out free agent @Pythonic Gaspar Yakrevsky. The team had rostered Yakrevsky for the better part of two seasons and in Season 77 he experienced a breakout campaign and at one point he was leading the league in scoring. The Rush opted to trade him away for draft stock. Surprisingly, Yakrevsky never went up to the VHL so he was available to be had by any team in the M. Yukon was quick to bring him back into the fold and add yet another lethal weapon to their arsenal.

 

With much of their roster assembled, the season began and it became clear quite early that the Rush were for real. They were the last team in the league to earn a regulation loss. They were winning early and often. The team was getting offense from everyone and scoring in bunches. One of the main storylines during the regular season was their heated rivalry against the San Diego Marlins. A bet was placed between the two general managers before the season began. The GM of the team that lost the season series would be forced to sing a karaoke song of the opposing GM's choosing. The Marlins were a worthy adversary and rival all season and in a fitting fashion, the season series ended up tied 4-4. So the bet was a push and now the league will be treated to a duet of both Juice and @thadthrasher singing a song together (coming soon)! Aside from the friendly wager though, the Marlins were one of the few teams that played the Rush close in every game and it seemed likely the two teams would run into each other at some point in the playoffs.

 

After a non-eventful trade deadline passed, the door opened for new rookies to join the league and sign with teams. The Rush were quick to add two VHL community veterans, not to mention two solid defensemen for their playoff drive. Both @fonziGG Tony Adams and @BarzalGoat Sven Eightnine were quick to put pen to paper and get acclimated with their teammates. Adding these two latecomers really did make an impact, especially during the playoffs as the Rush were force to drop a couple of players due to inactivity. Adams and Eightnine really were invaluable to the team down the stretch and also were a great presence to have in the locker room. The Rush concluded the season the same way they started it, red hot. They finished with 375 total goals scored which was the most in the league by a ton. Amazingly, they had four players finish in triple digits for points (with a fifth coming up just short with 97). Tyler Reinhart led the team with 64 goals and 69 assists for a whopping 133 points in total. Of his 64 goals, an astounding 15 of them were game winners. Captain Nate Powers finished with 108 points including 87 assists! Any time a defenseman can break the 100 point plateau it's quite an impressive feat, so hats off to him. While the skaters were doing their thing, goaltender Papa Emeritus dominated the crease, posting a 55-10-4 record with a 2.91 goals against average and an .892 save percentage. Additionally he was able to post five shutouts. He will no doubt be in the running for Goaltender of the Year.

 

After handling their business in the regular season, it was time to shift gears and focus on the road to the Cup. The Rush won the Continental Cup (best record in the regular season in the VHLM) and therefore held the #1 seed in the playoffs. Drawing the #8 seed was the quickly rebounding Mexico City Kings. The Kings recently won the Founder's Cup back in Season 76, and fielded another strong team in Season 77. But time had finally caught up with them and new management had also been brought in as well, so it was definitely time for an overhaul. Surprisingly though, the Kings exceeded all expectations and snuck into the last playoff spot, which is quite a feat for themselves. Led by the strong play of their goalie Bastian Greiss, the Kings found themselves in a David vs Goliath matchup versus Yukon. Mexico actually played Yukon relatively tough in the regular season and even took a few games off of them so the matchup wasn't entirely a done deal.  The Kings kept it competitive, however the Rush took the series in five games. Mexico was able to take Game 3 at home, but once things were back on home ice for Yukon in Game 5, they locked it down with a 4-2 win to move onto the semi-finals.

 

The semis featured the matchup the whole league was clamoring for. The Marlins versus the Rush. Finally a winner was to be decided! San Diego came into Yukon for Game 1 and left it all on the line. In what was maybe the most entertaining game of the series, the Marlins topped Yukon 6-5 in a double overtime thriller. The lead flip-flopped multiple times throughout the game. Player/AGM @Eldredman Aldwin Craig scored with just over five minutes left in the third period to put the Marlins up 5-4. The Rush fought back though as rookie sensation Tyler Reinhart netted his fourth of the playoffs with just over a minute and a half left in regulation. The first overtime would solve nothing, so we went to a second frame of free hockey. At 8:55 of the second overtime  @Adrest245 Brent Skimmer buried a one timer from 16 feet out and the Marlins would take the pivotal 1-0 series lead. The Marlins kept the momentum rolling into Game 2 as they shocked Yukon and won 5-3. Goaltender @Erik Morgan Karlsson played a spectacular game in this one, making 40 out of 43 saves to earn the road sweep and head back to San Diego with a 2-0 series lead. 

 

In most situations like these, teams may panic and come apart at the seems. However, Yukon was built with a ton of savvy league veterans that brought a ton of internal leadership. The vets calmed down the younger guys and Yukon marched into San Diego for Game 3 and shutdown the Marlins. Down 2-1 in the second period, the turning point of the game was when Jaromir Lemiuex was sprung on a breakaway during a penalty kill and buried a wrister glove side on netminder Karlsson. This shorthanded marker tied the game and shortly thereafter, younger brother Jerome Reinhart picked up a drop pass from his brother Tyler and wired home a clapper to put Yukon ahead 3-2. From that point forward, Yukon locked it down and Papa Emeritus made no mistakes. The Rush avoided going down 3-0 and instead made the series interesting again. Game 4 was a bit of an odd one as all the goals came in the first period. The Marlins found themselves up 2-1 halfway through the first before the Rush scored three unanswered goals to go up 4-2. Despite the Marlins best efforts, Yukon took the game and the series was down to a best-of-three with the Rush re-establishing their home ice advantage.

 

When the puck dropped for Game 5 back in Yukon, it was clear that the series momentum had swung back in favor of the Rush. Despite a quiet night on the score sheet from the Reinhart brothers, Yukon grinded out a 5-2 victory off the performance of their captain Nathan Powers who had a big four point game. Also the fans in Little Finland were overjoyed as the trio of Fins all put up points and Otto Numminen had four points of his own. Yukon was really showing its depth on full display. In Game 6, Yukon dominated play and completely shut down the Marlins entirely. The Marlins could only muster 17 shots with their playoff lives on the line and would fall by a score of 4-2. After a quiet game 5, Tyler Reinhart was back in a big way for Game 6, scoring a hat-trick and leading his team to victory. Though the regular season series may have ended in a tie, there was certainly a clear cut winner in this series as the dispute could finally be put to bed. The Marlins will likely be regressing next season as they will be losing a good chunk of their roster to players making the jump to the M. 

 

Meanwhile in the other semi-final, the Houston Bulls would face-off against the Minnesota Storm. On paper this seemed like it could be an exciting matchup.  Game 1 was a back-and-forth affair that ended in heartbreak for Houston fans. The Bulls were up 4-3 in the third when Jannik Nylen scored his first of the playoffs on the powerplay to make it a tie game. Then with less than two minutes left in the game, Henri le Massif took a high sticking penalty for Minnesota.  During the powerplay though, a Houston defenseman made an errant pass that was picked off by veteran Ron World Peace III and he made no mistake and buried the game winner. This really set the tone for the series as Minnesota went on to win the next three straight games and make short work of the Houston Bulls. They enjoyed some rest days while San Diego and Yukon went on to battle each other for a few more days. Eventually the stage was set for the final. It was the top seeded Rush taking on the #3 seed Minnesota Storm.

 

The Rush wasted no time making their impression on the Storm as they capitalized on their first power play of the series when Jaromir Lemiuex buried his third of the playoffs just three minutes into Game 1. Minnesota stormed back and tied it quickly but a pair of goals by defenseman Tynan Sylvester quickly made it a 3-1 lead by the end of the first. From then on the game tightened up for quite a bit but midway through the third, Gaspar Yekrevsky erupted with two goals in less that a minute to put the Rush up 5-1.  This was a dominating win for Yukon in which they only allowed 11 shots on goal. Yukon was making the Storm look more like a light drizzle at best. Game 2 was more of the same as Tynan Sylvester stayed hot and scored a hat-trick giving the d-man an incredible 8 goals in the playoffs! Yukon more than doubled the Storm in shots and took the game by a score of 4-2. The series would shift to Minnesota with the Rush needing just two more wins to clinch that elusive Founder's Cup!

 

Unfortunately for the Storm, the change in scenery didn't help them as the Rush took a commanding 3-0 series lead after taking Game 3 by a score of 3-1. In a 46 shot barrage, the Rush again proved the Storm were no match for them. Jaromir Lemeiux netted his fifth goal of the postseason and third goal in consecutive games. Tyler Reinhart also added an insurance goal he scored his first of the series in the third period. With their backs up against the wall and their lives on the line, Minnesota came out flying in Game 4 with four unanswered goals in the first period. Though they tried to stage a comeback, this deficit proved to be too much to overcome. Zarek Kaczka led the Storm with a goal and three assists while rookie Jonathan Ori and Miks Sunish both added in three points of their own. Though it was disappointing to lose Game 4, the Rush and their fanbase were tantalized at the thought of winning the Cup in Game 5 on home ice.

 

Game 5 saw the Storm completely shut down the high powered offense of Yukon. Minnesota netminder Dexter Vaughn stood on his head this game and made 37 out of 38 saves. Otto Numminen scored a power play marker at 14:31 of the second period, but that was all Yukon could muster. The third period the Storm completely clamped down and held Yukon to just two shots all period. Coming off two straight wins, excitement was starting to build and it felt like momentum was swinging back to Minnesota. When the series went back to Minny for a second time though, Yukon got the job done. Game 6 saw Yukon put up three quick goals in the first half of the opening frame. Tynan Sylvester got the ball rolling with his ninth of the playoffs, and from there the Rush didn't look back. Nathan Powers put an exclamation point on things in the second period with a power play goal to make it 4-0. The game would end up being 4-1, and as the final seconds ticked down, the celebration began. The drought had finally ended and the long-term plan set out by Juice had finally paid off. 

 

Celebrations continue to rage on throughout not only Yukon, but Finland and Greenland as well. It was a dominating season from bell to bell for Yukon this year. Going forward, who knows where this team goes. Will they try to be competitive and go for the ever-elusive back-to-back Founder's Cups? Or is it time to head back to the drawing board and start from scratch? Many of the top players from the Rush will be graduating to the VHL next season, so it will be a daunting task for them to be competitive next season. But at least those players will be able to move up to the pros with a feather in their cap. They can now say they are champions!

 

 

[Beketov 8,642]

21 minutes ago, fromtheinside said:

The Rush won the Continental Cup

Oh damn, Sorry Warsaw, I guess it’s ours

 

Prime Minister’s Cup*

[JB123 722]

It was a magical season 

[fromtheinside 1,278]

3 hours ago, JB123 said:

It was a magical season 

 

definitely my fav season between all my agm and player seasons so far.

[jRuutu 2,303]

Great season! Happy to be part of the team that brought the championship to Yukon after some time!