Lars Bergers Triple Overtime Winner Needs a Deep Rewind

[Matt_O 897]

The day is May 14th, 2011. We are in Toronto, with game five of the finals tied at three. The Legion were up 3-1 in the series, on the verge of winning it all. But we find ourselves here, in overtime. Not the first overtime. Not the second overtime, but we are in triple overtime. How did we get here? How did the Legion get to the finals? How did Davos get here? Who has been the hero for the Legion and the Dynamo? This moment needs a deep rewind.

 

 

 

Season 21 saw the Legion win the Victory cup, and finished 19-1 in their last twenty games. Right behind them were the Seattle Bears, with Markus Strauss, Cam Fowler, Joey Clarence, Phil Gerrard, Alex Stoyanovich, and Jordan Berglund, as the two teams were in the middle of their intense rivalry.

 

The two teams met in the first round, where Toronto got the best of Seattle in a hard fought seven game series. Bears forward Markus Strauss had seven goals through the series, while Viottu Jannula shined for Toronto. Aiden Shaw did typical Aiden Shaw things and was a beast through the whole series as Toronto won games 6 and 7 3-1 en route to a series victory and berth in the Continental Cup finals, where they would face Davos, who were fresh off of a six game series against Riga

 

 

After winning the cup in S20, the Dynamo decided to trade away their MVP Patrick Bergqvist, Jordan Berglund and Geno Esposito, all of which were key pieces to their championship. Of course, they still had Daisuke Kanou, who is all they needed. They also had Anton Brekker and David Vidal with over 100 points. They met a dangerous Riga team, who had also gotten worse since the season prior. In Season 20, the Reign had perhaps the most insane offense in VHL history, breaking all kinds of records. They ended up being eliminated in the semi finals vs Davos, and they had a chance at redemption in the S21 playoffs. Davos handled them in six games and we were bound for a rematch between the Legion and the Dynamo.

 

Now we know how these two teams got here, but how does this stack up against other games? Sure this game was nuts, but other games have been insane as well. What about the S34 Cup Finals Game 7, where Helsinki won in overtime? That was pretty crazy. Perhaps even better, the S50 Game 7 that went to Double Overtime, and had the Legion's threepeat on the line, but Zach Parechkin came through and scored in double overtime to win it. We also have the S41 Game 7 where Tom Slaughter scored with under three minutes left to win the game for the Americans. Those are tremendous games, but none truly stack up to this one.

 

The entire series has been a battle. Every game was a one goal game, and all were fairly low scoring. Game three went to overtime but the Legion won 2-1, off of Christopher Hawkins overtime winner. Davos had lost the last three, only winning game one. They had still been putting up a great fight in a series they were supposed to lose. As game five started, Davos struck quickly with a goal from Heinrich Olen two minutes in. Then three minutes later, DAV RW scored on the powerplay, and surely for the crowd in Toronto that was deflating. I mean, how do you let a garbage computer score in the cup finals. Anyhow, their two goal lead didn't last long. Just one minute later, Peyton Nydroj brought the Legion back to within one with his fifth of the postseason. We are six minutes in and have three goals. The Dynamo dominated play in the first, outshooting the Legion 15-7. Later in the period with five minutes left, Anton Brekker scored and the Dynamo were back up by two. Heading into the locker room after the first, Davos felt confident. 

 

The second period was the only part of this game that wasn't absolute nuts. It was a tight period with no goals put on the board, and a normal shot total. But we haven't got to the third period. This was the turning point of all turning points.

 

 

Just four and a half minutes into the third, Peyton Nydroj scored again on the powerplay, to cut the Dynamo lead down to one for the second time that game.. Davos began to play sloppy, and took penalty after penalty in the third period. The Legion completely controlled the game this period, and it frustrated the Dynamo. It all boiled over with eight minutes left in the third, and the Dynamo still up by one. Anton Brekker, the Dynamos top scorer, gets a major and a game misconduct for a check from behind. JD Stormwall would score on their long powerplay, to tie the game at three a peice. Then with three minutes left, Viottu Jannula and Marek Mueller got into a fight which resulted in Jannula getting ejected. Two of the top players in this series were gone from the game. The third period ended tied. We were going to overtime.

 

In the first overtime, it was absolute pandemonium. The Legion fired twenty pucks at Daisuke Kanou, and he stopped all twenty. Perhaps the best chance for the Legion was when Heinrich Olen took a roughing penalty, where Frans Spelman had a close in chance on Kanou, which Kanou stopped. Spelman grabbed his own rebound and fired another one to the net, which was also stopped. Spelman got his own rebound again, and Kanou made another spectacular save, this time without a rebound. Olen had six total penalties this game, four of which came in overtime.

 

 

Now, we can head to double overtime. In this overtime, the Dynamo kept pace with the Legion, and the best chance of the period belonged to Gordon Shore for the Dynamo, who rang one of the post with nine minutes left in the period. The Dynamo had a lot of pressure this period, and had the majority of the shot attempts on the Legion. Another important moment in this period was regarding the Legion's David Walcott. He got ejected from the game and was given a major, giving the Dynamo a five minute powerplay in overtime. They could not score on the powerplay and this game was heading to a remarkable third overtime. 

To start the third overtime, it was clear that these teams were exhausted. It took on the feeling that no one would ever score. But four minutes into the third overtime, Heinrich Olen took his sixth penalty of the game. Just moments later, Chad Murphy took a penalty and the Legion would have nearly a minute of 5 on 3 play. JD Stormwall ripped off shots on Kanou, who kept his cool and was on fire, stopping shot after shot. After a faceoff win for the Legion, Peyton Nydroj's pass was stolen by Jonathan Slade, who brought the puck up the ice on a two on one break. He tried to feed it to Olen, who was coming out of the box, but that pass was intercepted by James Bencharski, who quickly fired it to Max Kroenenburg for a three on one with Berger, Kroenenburg and Nydroj. Nydroj and Kroenenburg exchanged passes before Kroenenburg passed one over to Berger, who found the back of the net. It was the 70th shot of the night for the Legion, and this one was the winner. The Legion had won the Continental Cup, and it capped off the craziest playoff game in VHL history.

 

 

After this, the Legion would go on to make the finals in S22 with a dominant regular season, but lost to the Titans in an epic underdog win. In S24 they matched up against the Dynamo again in the finals, but Davos got the better of them. What moment in VHL History should we review next?

 

 

Daisuke Kanou - @tfong

Lars Berger - @Victor

Peyton Nydroj - @Bushito

Anton Brekker - @DGFX.

JD Stormwall - @Zero

Aiden Shaw - @Ree_21

David Walcott - @Knight

Viottu Jannula - @McNeil

[Victor 11,015]

Yes, we should revisit this on a daily basis.

[Phil 5,129]

Glory days! The epicness will live on forever!!