The Road to Game 7!

[Alex 3,292]

With 3 of the 4 first round matchups going to game 7, and me needing to write a article for this week, I figured I might as well dive a bit into each series and what brought us to this point.

 

North American Conference

Vancouver (1) vs. Seattle (4)

Toronto took out Calgary in game 6, so the only series here remaining is the wildcard Seattle bears taking on the reigning champs. Seattle has nothing to lose here, after a tough wildcard round they found themselves in a difficult spot. So far on their run both The Phantom of the VHL and Giorgiy Costanzov have been crucial to their success, the former has 8 goals and 17 points in 10 games played and Costanzov has been lights out with a 0.928 SV% and a 2.72 GAA. Vancouver on the other side of things has been struggling as their offense just hasn’t materialized with no player being above a point per game (3 with 6 points in 6 games) and Soju has been playing well but will need to be the best goalie in game 7.

Seattle carried their momentum from the wildcard into this series taking the first 2 games, but then Vancouver stormed back to win the next 3, taking a 3-2 series lead heading into yesterday’s game 6. In game six, it was all Seattle as they had a dominant 5-2 win, forcing today’s game #7.

 

European Conference

Malmo (1) vs. Riga (4)

 This series has been a weird one for Malmo as their strength in the regular season just hasn’t been there as they have 19 goals against in only 6 games after averaging just over 2 against all season. Lovstrom has been very just average, which has really given Riga a chance especially with their offense having a slight edge on paper.

This series has been a close one with Both teams having a turn in the lead, and Malmo having the chance to end the series after being up 3-2 in the series yesterday. With every game being decided by at most 2 goals this should be a close one.

Moscow (2) vs. Davos (3)

This series has been really close and depth scoring has been crucial as both teams have got production from their entire lineup. Moscow has 6 players with 6 or more points, while Davos has 5. With how high scoring this series has been it could very well come down to the goaltending with Deadpanda currently having the stronger series as they boast a 0.915 SV% in stark contrast to A K-K’s 0.901. Davos will be looking to pull off the upset today in what has been yet another David vs. Goliath type series for the team.

Most the games in this series have been very close with the first 4 games being decided by only 1 goal before Moscow broke out to a massive 6-2 win in game #5 to take the 3-2 series lead, Davos then answered back with a 4-2 win of their own to force game 7 and bring us to where we are today.

 

Best of luck everyone with your game today and congrats to Toronto on making the conference finals yet again!