The Eagles have won it! #comebackkids

[Peace 1,562]

Kyle Peace finished the VHLE playoffs with nineteen points in Vasteras' fourteen post season games, which, well, obviously concludes his first and final VHLE season with a championship in true Vasteras fashion. We quote another veteran VHLer in saying it was 'the most inevitable outcome', the team fought hard to get the VHLE's ultimate trophy; we covered it in another article, but we'll reiterate it here: Vasteras has a history as a dissolved/regressed team, so that quote is a reference to the Iron Eagles former life. Today, much to the disappointment of the Italians, Vasteras is the inaugural champions of the VHLE!

 

The team is celebrating a comeback victory after trailing the series three games to one.

But how were those games, we can look at the play-by-play to reveal the stories.
 

GAME ONE:
Rome wins 5-3, leads series 1-0.
 

Baby Bob scored the game winning goal 11:26 seconds into the third period, it was a goal that broke a then 3-3 tie and gave the Gladiators a small but significant 4-3 lead heading into the second half of the final frame of the first ever VHLE championship game. They wound up coasting to a 5-3 victory over Vasteras despite some late game efforts to even the score, ultimately Rome would head to the dressing room leading the series one game to none over the Iron Eagles. An otherwise innocent play doomed the 'comeback kids'. 

Gladiators' Numminen won a defensive zone faceoff against Eagle Captain Armani Calamari, dished the puck to Aky who opted to dump the disk into Vasteras' zone after being pressured through the neutral zone. Eagles' defender Nano retrieved the puck, but Nathan Steele connected on a quality check moments after Nano took control of the play. Numminen acquired the loose puck and set the game winning play up, he dished it back to the point where Ben Aky received a pass, quickly recognizing a now open Baby Bob. 

The twine was stretching before Booberry could really react. 


GAME TWO: 
Rome wins 4-3, lead series 2-0.

If the finals were a science fiction novel, then Otto Numminen would have been the antagonist to our Vasteras heroes. The Gladiator center simply dominated during game two, accumulating three points, ten shots on goal, thirty one and a half minutes... you get the point. Numminen also scored the game winning goal 16:57 into the third period, meaning Rome once again broke a 3-3 stalemate to win the game. Unlike Bob's game winning goal in the first game, Numminen's GW tally was pretty straight forward.

 

An errand pass by Kyle Peace was intercepted by Nalwa, but before a sloppy play resulted in Numminen's breakaway, Peace intercepted Otto's pass in the neutral zone. Now that there's some context, we can imagine the play developing. Numminen has the puck in the neutral zone, gets pressured into making a play, and the puck is intercepted by Peace. Peace doesn't have a lot of space, tries to squeeze it through Numminen's legs, but Nalwa is there to collect the puck. The clean pass over a sprawling Peace was enough to enable Numminen to enter Vasteras' zone on a breakaway, and he quick work of a chaotic moment. 

We're not even sure Peace was off the ice before the goal was scored.


GAME THREE:
Vasteras wins 4-3, trails series 2-1.

Vasteras' first win of the finals wasn't a literal 'flip the script' moment on the Gladiators, but it was a moment the team would take. Unlike the first two games, which were tied three apiece before a game winning goal was scored to seal the victories for Rome, Vasteras had already scored the game winning goal 15:39 into the third frame. The difference between Vasteras' first fourth goal in the first three games was their lead when it was scored, which so happened to be 4-2 when the goal was registered by Jocke Jockesson's first goal of the postseason. 

The play was pretty simple. Calamari was applied pressure through the center of the Gladiators zone, took a shot on net, and collected the rebound that scooted off towards the boards. A quick pass through some bodies found Jockesson's stick, and the Eagle tapped it home for a goal that extended the Eagles' lead to two. Less than two minutes later Rome would tally to cut their lead to one, but the goal held up and consequentially became the game winning goal.

Booberry stopped 39 of 42 shots to give his club the win. 


 

GAME FOUR:
Rome wins 5-4, leads series 3-1.

The fires of Mount Doom are glowing red, and the showers of the category five hurricane 'Gloom' are rapidly approaching Vasteras. Other than the obvious Lord of the Rings reference, there's also a subtle one if you can find it on the scoresheet. It doesn't take that long, but it is a bit of a stretch, so the hints you get are 'fellowship' and what happened to it. Oh fuck it, we'll explain why Nalwa's third period goal wound up being the final nail in the Iron Eagles' game four efforts. 

You see they lead the game 3-0 heading into the second period, and just after the second frames 11th minute, the Eagles had secured a 4-1 lead over the Rome Gladiators. Everything was looking up, the fellowship of the ring was healthy as it could be. Optimism was high, the mere idea they could tie the series at two had unified their play, and then the Orcs -- er we mean Gladiators -- ruined the fellowship by completely dismantling the Eagles through the last eight minutes of the second period. A once 4-1 game was tied at four heading into the third period, and Nalwa secured the victory over Vasteras 15:50 into the final leg. 

Brink of elimination.


GAME FIVE:
Vasteras wins 4-3, trails series 3-2.

Okay now we have a literal 'flip the script' situation here. Does this seem familiar at all to you? It's the third period, the game is tied 3-3 and the game winning goal breaks a stalemate to become the game winner. Yeah, it's pretty familiar to us too, but this time fortune favored the bold as Vasteras threw everything they had into the eventual powerplay goal. Oh damn, was that another reference? Just like any Star Trek movie, or really any movie not labelled Infinity War lately, our heroes seem to always find a way to have plot armor... er, find a way to achieve victory. 

Tipton's third period goal just over five minutes was enough to give Vasteras the lead, but it wasn't enough to secure the game. Oh no, that came on the back of Xavier Booberry, who had to make seventeen additional stops to ensure the Eagles weren't eliminated in game five. Overall the goaltender stopped all twenty three he faced during the period, and perhaps some of the most important saves were before Tipton scored the go-ahead goal, but nevertheless Xavier deserves special recognition for building a shield. Xavier La Forge, anyone... no? 

Oh and for the first time this series, Vasteras was able to save their 3-1 lead.


GAME SIX:
Vasteras wins 7-4, series tied 3-3.

Vasteras' win was pretty convincing in game six, and truthfully a spoiler to how the club would play in the decisive game seven. The seven goal output was nice, but the real factor in the victory was limited the Gladiators to just twenty four shots throughout the game. In a league/era where goals are seemingly scored through shot volume, the Gladiators simply didn't have enough darts on the board to get a bullseye. We're done with the movie references so don't worry, I had my fun and now it's over.

 

The Eagles-Gladiators series, however, has now become more interesting than anyone could have predicted following the first four games. In another 'flip the script' moment, Vasteras was able to comeback from Rome's 3-1 lead and successfully tied the series, something they were unable to do -- including game five -- throughout the finals against Rome. Our game winner this time around was scored back in the first period, on the Eagles fifth goal of the frame, which really recapped an impressive display from Captain Armani Calamari. 

Onto game seven! 


GAME SEVEN:
Vasteras wins 6-1, wins series 4-3.

Okay now the ultimate 'flip the script' moment has been completed. The Eagles' 6-1 victory has secured the players, staff, fans and city the inaugural VHLE championship. I'm not really sure what the award is called for the winning VHLE team but I'm sure someone will point it out. Regardless, and fortunately for our heroes in this book, the Eagles are ending the season on the highest note possible. The climax has arrived, and now the final chapters will be written in the history books. Many players will be graduating to their VHL teams, leaving Vasteras a hollow shell of the team that just won the VHLE's top trophy. 

In a six-one victory it's hard to pinpoint any particular turning point, the scoring was so spread out six individual skaters all recorded goals in the contest, although it could be said Vidot's four point effort or Booberry's excellent goaltending helped the team achieve what they achieved. The truth it this seventh game was a complete team effort, unlike some of the games above despite a win or loss at the end of the night. Everyone on the ice was celebrating as if it were the Stanley Cup, no one really cares who got the game winner, or who scored the most points. 

Remember that good sportsmanship is key. It was a hard fought series, Rome, you should be proud of your effort; you were a great antagonist to this story.

[ROOKIE745 607]

review time: Hey Peace! another excellent media spot from you! Fun to see you cover a playoff series, I think you got good detail in here and a decent amount of info on each game. From different font sizes to underline and bold and italics. Makes it more fun to read when you have all these little attention to detail bits. I think you could have thrown a "player holding the cup photo in here, at the top or bottom. Really good post though 9.5/10

[a_Ferk 766]

I like how you gave such a detailed analysis of every game in the series, really paints a clear picture of how it went down. Didn't know that the series was 3-1 at one point because I don't really follow the E due to my player being in the M. Funny to see Vasteras win the VHLE's inaugural season after being the ones to do so in the original VHL. Now we will see if they return to their previous form and become extremely mediocre for the next 30 seasons. Rating 9.6/10 to one up the last guy.

[Peace 1,562]

Claim 2!

[Peace 1,562]

Final claim.

[solas 1,952]

Wait Vasteras won the cup? How did I miss this?!

[Victor 11,027]

2 hours ago, solas said:

Wait Vasteras won the cup? How did I miss this?!

It was the first season, what did you expect.

[Beketov 9,103]

12 hours ago, Victor said:

It was the first season, what did you expect.

We’ll see them again in S105.