VHLM - Round 1 playoff review

[hockeyis66 143]

With the first round of the VHLM playoffs over, lets take a look at those series that surprised us and the ones that met our expectations in terms of the winners:

 

#7 Ottawa  v #2 Houston 

 

Needless to say, Houston came in as a heavy favorite against an Ottawa team that made the playoffs near the final games of the regular season, but this series certainly had a shocking outcome as Ottawa won the series 4 games to 1.

 

Ottawa won the first three games of the series including the first two games being on the road before Houston won game 4 to return home for the next game.  Game 5 would finish in a 2-2 after regulation, then after the first overtime and then again after the second overtime.  Early in the third overtime, Ottawa would get a power play chance on a hooking call and Ruutu would cash in to end Houston’s playoffs in 5 games.

It was Ottawa’s defense and goaltending that won this series for them as they only allowed Houston to score 3 goals once and that was in Houston’s game 4 victory as Houston was held to 1 or 2 goals in the other 4 games.  Ottawa’s goalie, Artyomov, had a .938 save percentage and a 1.76 GAA average in the series.  The penalty killing units were 96% successful against Houston in the series as the Bulls scored on only 1 power play chance in the 5 games.

 

Ottawa’s offense did just enough in the series by scoring 14 goals in the 5 games and was led by Ruutu’s 3 goals in the series and Banner led the team with 7 points on a goal and 6 assists.  The power play was about average in the series converting on 16% of its chances.

 

#6 Halifax  v #3 San Diego 

 

Defense would once again rule this series as the teams would combine for only 22 goals in the series with 7 of them coming in the last game.  Halifax would jump out to a 1 game to none lead on a 2-0 shutout over San Diego, but the Marlins would storm back and win the next 4 by only giving up 6 goals in those games and only allowing Halifax to score 3 or more goals once in the series to win the series 4 games to 1.

 

Goaltending and defense were once again keys to the San Diego series win as Clark posted a .941 save percentage and a 1.60 GAA.  No player on the team was a (-) player during the series either as everyone was even and above.  The Marlins PK was just slightly below league average during the series at 80% as Halifax tried to stage a massive comeback in Game 5 in the third period as they were down 4-1 and outshot San Diego 13 to 4 in the period.  Although they scored 2 goals in the third, Halifax could not get the game tying goal.

 

The San Diego offense was led by Sjin who had 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points to either lead the team in each category or co-leader.  Byrd and Marchand each had 6 assists for the Marlins as well.  The power play has been around league average so far in the 5 game series as they scored 4 goals at an 18% conversion rate with the man advantage. 

 

#5 Mississauga  v #4 Mexico City 

 

We finally see a series with a decent amount of goals – 35 in total, but Mississauga would jump out to a 1-0 series lead before Mexico City would storm back with 3 straight wins to take a 3-1 series lead.  Mississauga would win game 5 in overtime, but Mexico City would not be denied in game 6 with a 3 to 1 win to take the series.

 

Mexico City would score on about 20% of its power play chances but one thing they must fix in the second round is their penalty killing which only stopped 65% of Mississauga’s chances which is way below the playoff average so far.  Mexico City had a well round attack from forwards Ironhide, Walker Jr and Sanzone while defensemen Prince-de-Galles and Gorlab were also in the top 5 of team scoring during this playoff series.  Both goalies saw action in this but Avocado put together a little better numbers than Pagano did as Avocado won 3 of the 4 games against Mississauga. 

 

Mississauga was led by Kopecky who had 5 of the team’s 16 goals and 7 points while MacAvoy led the team with 5 assists.  Dutil was in goal for the Hounds and posted a save percentage of .888 and a goals against of 2.94.

 

#8 Miami  v #1 Philadelphia 

 

When you look at the series and Philadelphia winning 4 games to 2, you wouldn’t think that Miami put much of scare into the Reapers especially since they went up 2 games to 0 over Miami.  However, Miami did win the next 2 games at home to tie the series and in game 5, Philadelphia put the boom down on Miami in a 5-0 win.  Game 6 was close as well as Philly needed an empty net goal to win 5 to 3 and take the series in 6 games.

 

You would expect this series to have the most offense in it and it did with 44 total goals but it was the Philly 5 on 5 play that won the series for them.  The Philly power play only converted on just 12% of their power play chances against Miami and is something they will need to improve upon during the course of the playoffs to take pressure off of their 5 on 5 play.  The penalty killing units were below league average as well at just over 77%.

 

The Reapers had a well rounded attack against Miami with Simmons, Aky and Gunner having success against Miami.  Swift continued his success from the blueline with help from Johnson and Reingaard chipping in as well.

Panda got both of the Miami wins in goal with a .905 save percentage and a goals against of 3.78.  Crosby and Norden led the team with 10 and 9 points respectively with Crosby leading the team in goals with 4 and Norden leading the team in assists with 7.

 

Round 2 will now feature Mexico City against Philadelphia and Ottawa facing off against San Diego

 

Word Count 1068

claiming PT week of 7/23 to 7/29 and week of 7/30 to 8/5

[jacobcarson877 2,541]

Hey just so you know, multiclaim articles like this one, to claim for another week, you can just comment and use the comment as the link to claim again as the portal won't let you use the same link twice.