Malmo Offense Springs to Life!

[tcookie 927]

It was about a week ago that I wrote about some offensive struggles plaguing Phillip Rave and, to a lesser extent, the Malmo Nighthawks - a top of the VHL team with a then-mid-pack offense. Perhaps they were reading that article, as the Nighthawks have, over the last 10-12 games, put up a bit of an offensive explosion that all of a sudden has them just slightly behind the league's top-3 scoring teams with 187 goals.

 

Malmo is scoring 4.3 goals per game over the last 12 and just dropped an 11-spot on the Los Angeles Stars (admittedly, an NA Conference bottom-feeder this season, but still - ELEVEN goals). Most notably, in that 11-3 win, Randy Bobandy put up a 7-point night on the strength of 2 goals and 5 assists.

 

Savaisk Tzesar turned in back-to-back hat-tricks, having scored 3 goals against Chicago in the game prior, and had a 4-game goal-scoring streak in which he'd found the back of the net 9 times. It also marked back-to-back 4-assist games for Viktor Jensen, who suddenly finds himself chasing down the league leaders in assists (53, six back of the league lead).

 

Then it was Rave's turn to bust the slump, exploding for a 4-goal night against Davos. Rave was the only player to score at all in this one as Ash Sparks posted a 26-save shutout and Malmo won 4-0. Rave now has 11 points in his last 7 games, recapturing some of his early-season form. Jacob Stone, who also had a goal and 4 assists against LA, assisted on every one of Rave's goals, for a cool 9 points in 2 games.

 

Given they've established themselves as one of the league's best defensive teams and Ash Sparks sits comfortably in the league's top-3 in save percentage, if Malmo can sustain this offensive surge, they figure to be tough to beat the rest of the way.