Claimed: Bring on the Lynx

[Eggy216 136]

Bring on the Lynx

Saskatoon set to face Ottawa in the first round of the playoffs

 

As the regular season winds to a close, the matchups for the semifinal round of the VHLM Playoffs are starting to come into focus. While Oslo awaits their first opponent of the playoffs, a matchup between the Saskatoon Wild and the the Ottaway Lynx is set in stone. While the season series seems to favour the Lynx, with the Wild holding a 7-10-1 record against their first opponents in the playoffs, that's not always the full story. While the record seems to be a little one-sided in favor of the opposition, the Wild remain confident that this series will be closer than some experts may believe. The goal totals in the series are actually a mere +1 differential, favouring Saskatoon (47-46) while Powerplay goals favour the Wild as well, 16-14. Shots in the series also remain close and favour the Wild, sitting at 414 to 392. While I can't find a general faceoff percentage for the two teams against one another, Saskatoon has won a greater percentage of faceoffs in the offensive zone, neutral zone, and defensive zones meaning they hold the advantage in this statistical category as well - and by a greater margin than the other categories already mentioned here.

 

Where things seem to favour the Ottawa Lynx, however, is the recent games played. While Saskatoon has done well to keep stats even throughout the season, a look at the last six games between the two teams highlights that the Lynx may have the advantage heading into this series, winning 4 of the last 6 contests between Saskatoon and Ottawa. If we were looking at the most recent game only, however, Saskatoon did win the final game of the season between the two franchises. Saskatoon found the edge in shots, putting 31 on net while Ottawa only managed 21, and the goals fell similarly with the Wild taking the game with a commanding 4-1 final tally, Charles Murphpy's 21st of the season proving the difference as the game winning goal for Saskatoon.

 

Notable in this game as well is the fact that there were a total of 11 powerplays, with each team managing to capitalize on only one of them. If penalties are going to feature so prominently in this series (which they very well could conisdering the physical play we saw in this game, with 26 hits on behalf of the Lynx (with Igor Mjers' seven hits leading the way) and only 16 hits coming from the Wild (Daring Do's 3 hits taking top honors in this category for Saskatoon).

 

This looks to be an extremely interesting series, and it's going to be exciting to watch it play out for sure. There's no telling what could happen here, so all eyes should be on these two franchises as they do battle on the ice this postseason.