S58 Finals Re-visited

[Ricer13 2,776]

Season 58 Riga Reign vs. Seattle Bears

 

      Here on history week I would like to take some time to visit one of the most classic VHL playoff finals matchups. In S58 the Riga Reign won the championship in a six game series against the Seattle Bears. I will break down how the seven game series went down and note on a few players who stood above the rest during this epic series.

 

The Series

 

      The Riga Reign started this series off on the right foot. They took the first game of the series with a score of 4-2. Led by the dominant play of Niko Bogdanovic and Rusty Trombone the reign were able to secure the victory. They continued to roll on as they took game 2 of the series by a score of 2-1. A much closer affair as both teams battled defensively throughout the entire game. Gabriel McAllister of the Bears scored on late in the third to bring them within one but Riga tendy Markus King shut the door saving 26 out of 27 shots. 

 

      Game 3 is when the tieds began to shift for the Seattle Bears. Led by Peter Quill and Shawn Gretzky the bears beat the Reign in convincing fashion 4-1. Game 4 Seattle continued to carry the momentum forward as they pull off another tight defensive contest 3-2 in overtime. Bears player Fook Yu scored the overtime winner to tied the series at 2 games a piece.

 

      The Reign gained some momentum pushing the bears to overtime in game 4. They came out in game 5 like a team possessed. The reign scored three third period goals as they crushed the Bears 6-2 putting them on the brink of elimination. Game 6 was do or die for the Seattle Bears. This game was an absolute nail biter from beginning to end. The Reign scored in the second to take the 1-0 lead and put the pressure on the Bears. In the third period the Reign capitalized once more to make it 2-0. The Bears answered right back to make it 2-1 and started to put the pressure on late but Markus King stood on his head once again to secure the Championship title for the Reign.

 

The Players

 

 

            Although Seattle would end up losing the series in six games their offense was tops during the playoffs. They had three players in the top 5 in playoff scoring. Shawn Gretzky led all players in points with 4 goals and 14 assists for 18 points in the playoffs. Alexei Federov was another notable who had 1 goal and 15 assists for 16 points and the last was Gabriel McAllister who has 10 goals and 5 assists for 15 points and was tied for first in playoff goal scoring with non other than the Reigns John Locke. Although the Bears had an unbelievable offense it wasn't enough to get past the well balanced roster of the Riga Reign.

 

      There is only one player who I want to touch on for the Riga Reign and he is in my eyes the MVP of the s58 playoffs. The man who backstopped the Riga Reign to the title Markus King. With an unbelievable .939 save percentage and a playoff high 8 wins he was rated as the S58 playoff top goalie. The balance across the roster is what ultimately pushed the Reign to Victory in S58.

 

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[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

i wish i was more active with Shawn Gretzky

[Banackock 7,978]

34 minutes ago, TheLastOlympian07 said:

i wish i was more active with Shawn Gretzky

Me too

 

kidding. Enjoyed you on the team