Miami's First Founders Cup -- From a 10-24 Team to Champions

[tcookie 927]

There’s a little under 7 minutes to go as Addison McLaren circles out from behind the net with the puck and takes aim on Vsevolod Askarov.

 

The Miami Marauders are nearing the end of an astonishing playoff run. In a season in which they started 10-24, they’ve run through the three best teams in the VHLM with a cast of players that, a few months ago, nobody had even heard of.

 

McLaren has everything on his stick right now. He’s got two goals tonight already, and completing the hat-trick would put Mississauga in an extremely difficult spot.

 

So how did we get here?

 

…

 

Kris Rice was the VHLM’s GM of the Year in S73. In addition to playing an active role in developing and retaining players, he also put together a roster that would go 56-14-2 for the best record in the VHLM. That Marauders team was a powerhouse, featuring several big names that would go on to quite a bit of success at the VHL level - Dakota Lamb, Matty Socks, Patrik Laine, and Victor Grachev among others. But it did leave the team vulnerable heading into S74. In fact, comparing the roster that finished S73 with the roster that finished S74 sees no overlap between the two squads at all. Miami entered S74 with just a few solid VHLM vets on the roster and the hopes of their season mostly relying on the possibility of receiving game-stealing goaltending from top S75 VHL prospect Rara Rasputin.

 

A little past the one-third mark of the season, something unpredictable - and quite possibly unprecedented - began to take shape.

 

The first of Miami’s new wave was winger Addison McLaren. It was a completely inauspicious signing when it was announced - just another unknown prospect landing with a VHLM team through the waiver process.

Behind the scenes, the VHL had been working on a recruitment initiative. McLaren was not a part of the recruitment initiative, but within a few days of him landing in Miami, the VHLM had a massive influx of new players attempting to join the league.

 

Eventually, in the off-season, this would lead to the S75 draft being – by far – the deepest draft in VHL history. 112 players were selected; the next closest draft had 80 players selected, and only three drafts have ever had more than 68. Matthew a Sovick Jr, drafted 106th overall, would eventually become the latest-drafted player to ever play in a VHL game by 28 spots.

 

But in the moment, what it led to was a massive opportunity for everyone in the VHLM to fill out their rosters, and a combination of landing the right players and developing them quickly had the potential to save a season.

 

The second of Miami’s new wave was centre Cabe McJake. It was another inauspicious signing at the time, but McLaren and McJake formed a dynamic pairing of new young players who improved at a rapid rate and pushed each other to continue developing. They became the two highest-drafted first-gens in S75, with McJake going 7th overall and McLaren 9th overall – both to Riga.

 

“When Cabe came to Miami, there was this really interesting dynamic because we both took things very seriously right from our first day in the VHLM. We both wanted to improve as fast as we could,” recalls McLaren. “We both attended all the practices we could and sought out opportunities to practice even more, above the league’s cap. I think we both looked at each other’s improvements and pushed each other to keep up. And then we started winning and all of a sudden we had a whole bunch of these players, brand new to the VHL system, wanting to get better, but more importantly just having an awesome time… and all of that just sucked everyone into the league more.”

 

When the Marauders signed McLaren, they were sitting outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 8-18-0. Over the next eight games, they went 2-6-0 to fall to 10-24-0, while adding to their roster with the signings of McJake, Sheldon Juniper, Vivek Weiner, Nikolas D’Andrea, and others. (They also would add Henry Tucker as a waiver pickup after the trade deadline - Tucker barely played as a fourth liner during the Marauders’ playoff run, but he would eventually go on to a VHL career in which he scored 525 points with three 100-point seasons).

 

Then, over their final 38, they went 22-14-2 and jumped the Philadelphia Reapers by 3 points for the final playoff spot. The Marauders weren’t the only team that had a big influx of new players, but they were the most active group of new players, showing the most improvement over the course of the season. To illustrate that fact - in Miami’s eventual playoff run, 62.7% of their goals and 60.8% of their points overall were recorded by players they’d picked up on waivers mid-season.

 

In their opening round series, Miami took on the Halifax 21st, who had finished the regular season with twice as many wins as Miami and a ridiculous 64-7-1 record. The 21st were heavy, heavy favourites to win the Cup all season long. Their first round opponent should have just been a tune up. Miami wasn’t hearing it.

 

“Well, we weren’t going out there to lose. Obviously there were teams with bigger names and better regular season records, but there was a strong sense of belief in the locker room - while acknowledging that we were definitely underdogs,” says McLaren.

 

Miami looked surprisingly game in forcing the first game to OT, then winning it on an early goal from Peter Louis, but Halifax responded by shelling them 6-2 in game two and quieting any early chatter of an upset. There was a split in Miami and then another 5-2 Halifax rout in game 5. The series appeared headed for a game 6 finale that still would have won Miami some respect around the league given Halifax’s year-long dominance. But, one Rara Rasputin save at a time, the Marauders found another crack in Halifax’s armour. Rasputin made 45 saves in regulation. Overtime was all Miami.

 

“Miami wins the draw and Byrne fires the puck over to McLaren. McLaren top of the circle, fires a shot wide - THEY SCORE!! McLaren’s shot goes wide off the end boards and Cabe McJake finds the puck and stuffs it home! Don’t go anywhere, folks! The Marauders have forced a Game 7!”

 

Game 7 was a wild match in which Miami jumped out to four separate leads: 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 5-3, just to see Halifax rally back every single time. McJake broke the tie for the fifth and final time with less than 3 minutes remaining, he and McLaren combining for 7 points on the night. Halifax had been slayed.

 

The Las Vegas Aces were Miami’s round two opponent - another strong team, with 51 wins and 109 points in the regular season. They had the second-best record in the VHLM, albeit a far cry from the 21st. But if Miami could surprise Halifax, why not Las Vegas, too?

 

“I don’t know if I can say we honestly thought we would beat Halifax,” McLaren reflects. “Like, they had 8 losses in 72 games all year, so obviously putting 4 on them in 7 games was going to be tough. We went out there to give them everything we had. It turned out that was enough to beat them. Once we beat THAT team, then we knew we could go all the way.”

 

Miami opened up a 3-0 series lead, but it was Las Vegas’ turn to show some resilience. Led by Nicholas Sunderbruch and Gary Rush, the Aces turned the tide and won 4-1, snuck out a 2-1 OT win in Game 5, then dominated Miami 6-2 in Game 6 to force another Game 7. It was Juniper, this time, with the late go-ahead goal that sent Miami to the finals, scoring with 1:37 to play before Miami added an empty netter for a 5-3 win.

 

The Mississauga Hounds ranked as the VHLM’s third-best regular season team, with 53 wins and 107 points. But Miami had made their point clear by now, and most expected a close series.

 

Then the Marauders won 5-3 and 3-1 in Mississauga to open the series off and all of a sudden, everyone knew what was about to happen.

 

A 3-2 overtime decision in game 3 put Miami on the brink of a sweep in the Founders Cup final. Mississauga scored the first goal of game 4 before McLaren tied it in the second and gave Miami the lead in the third. So, here we are.

 

“McJake leaves it for Byrne who speeds into the zone. Byrne for McLaren down low - he jams away at it! Puck goes behind the net now. McLaren retrieves it, circles out front away from Blob, fires AND SCORES! A natural hat-trick for Addison McLaren, and it’s 3-1 Miami with under seven minutes to go!”

 

…

 

“The Miami Marauders have capped off their Cinderella season - they are your S74 Founders Cup Champions!”

 

-----

 

I've talked about this in anecdotes a few times, but my first few months in the league were a pretty magical time, and I figured revisiting S74 Miami in a more fleshed out article would be perfect for this theme week.

 

1516 words

Edited June 17 by tcookie

[LucyXpher 1,578]

I always wondered whatever happened to that 64 win Halifax team and why they never won the Founder’s Cup

 

Now I know lol.  This is an excellent article with so much great detail and an awesome story!  I really want to like it but, you know, it’s Miami…

 

well, maybe I’ll like it…

No— I can’t….

 

Okay, fine, just this one time…

 

boats pirates 

[tcookie 927]

36 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

I always wondered whatever happened to that 64 win Halifax team and why they never won the Founder’s Cup

 

Now I know lol.  This is an excellent article with so much great detail and an awesome story!  I really want to like it but, you know, it’s Miami…

 

well, maybe I’ll like it…

No— I can’t….

 

Okay, fine, just this one time…

 

boats pirates 

 

LOL it's a truce

 

I actually took my second player to Halifax, but I was always going to be pretty inactive with them. It came at a super busy time in my life and I still wanted to try to participate in the league. Was going to be a clicker, but ended up kind of just disappearing for a couple of years instead. I would love to play there again at some point. Also, I love Halifax IRL

[LucyXpher 1,578]

11 minutes ago, tcookie said:

It came at a super busy time in my life and I still wanted to try to participate in the league. Was going to be a clicker, but ended up kind of just disappearing for a couple of years instead. I would love to play there again at some point. Also, I love Halifax IRL

That's totally fair!  Maybe next player  
I've only been to Halifax once myself IRL, but it really is a beautiful city and I'd love to go back at some point!  Tbh, I want to go back to Canada in general lol  

But Miami really isn't all that bad, just have to keep up the rivalry-- you know how it is!

[tcookie 927]

56 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

That's totally fair!  Maybe next player  
I've only been to Halifax once myself IRL, but it really is a beautiful city and I'd love to go back at some point!  Tbh, I want to go back to Canada in general lol  

But Miami really isn't all that bad, just have to keep up the rivalry-- you know how it is!

 

Maybe 

 

I've been twice, and once was accidentally in the middle of the 2019 Memorial Cup, so I also got to go watch some of that. Super neat atmosphere around the city for that!

 

And of course! Rivalries are part of the fun!

[tcookie 927]

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[Victor 11,021]

One of Rara's finer moments.