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Moscow Red Wolves - Top Dogs in Europe

 

The Season 46 VHLM Playoffs are now underway and the Moscow Red Wolves locked down the top spot in the European Conference and a first-round bye on the strength of 21 straight wins and winners of 26 of their last 27 games to end the regular season. Moscow finished the regular season with a record of 53-15-4 with 110 points, topping the Bern Royals by three points who finished with a 51-16-5 record on the regular season with 107 points. The Bern Royals must face the Oslo Storm in the opening round of the playoffs while the Moscow Red Wolves sit at home, anxiously awaiting the winner of that series to find out who their opponent will be in the VHLM European Conference Finals. The series is currently tied at one game a piece, Oslo taking the opening game by the score of 5-4 and Bern bouncing back in game two with a 3-1 win.

 

During the regular season, the Red Wolves scored 306 goals which was good for second in the entire league, the Ottawa Lynx and their 310 goals the only team to best Moscow in the scoring department. Moscow also finished the regular season ranked second in goals against, allowing 158 goals, just behind the Bern Royals who allowed 145 on the season. Moscow's +148 goal differential was best in the league, ahead of Ottawa's +147 goal differential. The Red Wolves powerplay connected on 65 of 303 powerplay chances, a 21.45% success rate, good for third in the league behind Ottawa (21.50%) and Brampton (25%). The penalty-kill unit was also very successful, finishing second in the league, killing 214 of 251 chances against for a 85.26% success rate, just behind Bern at 85.71%. They finished the season second in shots for with 33.76 per game and third in shots against with 19.56 per game and were not a very physical team, throwing just 19.38 per game, ranking them seventh in the league.

 

 

Tom Lincoln was an absolute offensive beast for the Moscow Red Wolves, finishing second in league goal scoring with 66 while adding 72 assists for 138 points, second in the league behind Ottawa's LeAndre St. Pierre once more. Moscow owned two more of the top ten point scorers in the league with Jory Rose accumulating 128 points and Lucas Zhukenov putting up 105. Zhukenov led the league in assists with 90 on the season and finished third among defensemen in points. Lincoln and Rose finished 1-2 among centers in point scoring and Erik Hedman owned the third best plus-minus rating in the league at +72. In net, Artom Zhumbayev ranked second in goals against average at 2.19 and third in save percentage at 0.891%. He finished with seven shutouts, just three back of the league leader, despite playing nearly twenty less games and was fourth in wins with 39.

 

Will the week-long layoff for the Moscow Red Wolves give them some much needed rest and help them continue their winning ways on their way to a Founder's Cup appearance or will it hurt them and cause some rust on their way to an early playoff exit? Those questions and many more will be answered when Moscow takes to the ice against either the Bern Royals or Oslo Storm next week.

Edited December 20, 2015 by fever95

[eaglesfan036 4,595]

It's good to see Moscow do well after so many seasons of awful

[Kendrick 4,741]

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