Bears win the cup

[Acydburn 1,555]

 

So the Seattle Bears won the Continental Cup, no one thought they would win this season. The expectations were for the bears to win it next season. They had a young team and going against some juggernauts was going to be difficult. Throughout the season the league kept saying how the north american conference was the weakest conference. How the 5th seed team in the European Conference should have made it into the playoffs. Well I guess we can all say that the North American Conference wasn’t that “easy”. After the first round the bears swept through the competition and won the cup. They easily dismantled the Calgary Wranglers and somehow managed to sweep the “favorite” Malmo. The Bears went on to a playoff of record of 12-1-1, went on a 10 game win streak, which in my opinion was kind of ridiculous. 

 

Semi-Finals - Toronto Series:

The North American conference was an interesting one this season with most teams making the playoffs despite being lower in the league standings. Toronto came into the playoffs being the 9th best team out of 12. They managed to go 29-29-14 with a goal differential of -13. If we compared them to the European Conference, the Moscow Menace who didn’t make the playoffs had a higher point total than the North American 2nd (Vancouver Wolves), 3rd (Calgary Wranglers), and 4th seeds (Toronto Legion).

  

Toronto was the only team that gave the Bears a hard time, they managed to give the Bears the only two losses in the playoffs, forcing a 6 game series. The first game of the series was a way for Joel Ylonen to display his skill as a playmaker, scoring 1 goal and 2 assists. I’m going to say he was the MVP for the first game in the series.

 

In the second game of the series, the Toronto Legion handed the Bears their first loss. The MVP of this game despite the loss was Maxim Kovalchuk, who led his team with 3 goals. The runner up is Teagan Glover who managed 2 goals and 1 assist but walked away -1. 

 

The third game in the series was a shut out for the Bears, making the series 2-1 in favor of the bears. Rayz Funk was the MVP of this game with 20 saves on 20 shots. 

 

The fourth and a complete flip of game 3 was a shutout for the Legion, handing the bears their second and last loss of the playoffs for that season. Just like how the goalie was the MVP of the third game, JB Rift is the MVP of the game. 

 

Game 5 was an overtime win for the Bears, the game lasted 72 minutes but the MVP was none other than Shawn Glade who scored 1 goal and 2 assists. That lone goal was the game winner and ended it. 

 

The 6th and final game of the series was a Bears win 4-2. The bears really wanted this one with a the Bears shooting 42 shots to the Legions 24. MVP of this series was Kevin Low who went 2 goals 1 assists as a defenseman. This game ended the series and moved the Bears on to the next round. 

 

Conference Finals - Calgary Series:

Calgary came into the playoffs as the 3rd seed in the North American conference. Coming in at 35-34-5 and a goal differential of 3. Like the Legion the Wranglers had less points then a European team with more points. The Wranglers beat the 2nd seed Vancouver Wolves in a best of 7 series going 4-3, taking it right to the end. 

 

The first game of the Calgary series was a lively one, the bears won the game 7-1 despite both teams having 33 shots on goal. MVP of this game was John Frostbeard who managed 5 points against his former team. Getting 2 goals and 3 assists for a total of 5 points. Something to note is the Bears went 3-5 on the power play for 60%. 

 

The second game of the series was Rayz Funks second shutout of the playoffs. The Bears winning the game 3-0. Despite the shutout the MVP of this game was Maxim Kovalchuk with one goal and 2 assists for a total of 3 points. 

 

Game 3 was another shutout for Rayz Funk in which the bears went 2-0. Seattle was hungry with 35 shots on net compared the wranglers 16. Unlike the last shut out the MVP of this game was none other than Rayz Funk. 

 

The final game of this series was the Bears winning 3-1. The MVP of this game was an underrated player by the name of Henrik Zoiderberg who scored 1 goal but had 7 hits on the night. He was a force to be reckoned with playing almost 28 minutes that game. 

 

Contentintal Cup Finals - Malmo Series:

 

After a dominant performance in the conference finals the Bears were ready to play their next opponent the Malmo Nighthawks. Malmo were the favorites coming into the playoffs being the team with the most points in the league going into the playoffs. They managed 98 points on the season with a goal differential of 52 and a record of 46-20-6. 

 

The first game of the series was a close one, which is going to be a theme going forward. The Bears won the game 4-3. The MVP for this game was MAxim Kovalchuk who scored 1 goal and 2 assists and got an apple on the game winning goal. 

 

The second game of the series went into overtime with the Bears coming out on top with the same score as the first game 4-3. The MVP of this game was Acyd Burn, who scored 2 goals in the series and the Game Winning goal in Overtime. 

 

The third game was a little more clear cut for the Bears winning 3-1. The MVP of this game was Rayz Funk, putting up 27 saves on 28 shots with a .964 save percentage. 

 

The fourth and final game of the series was another game that went 4-3 in the Bears favor. The shot totals were the same with 38 a piece so the goalies had their work cut out for them. The MVP of this game was Acyd Burn who managed 1 goal and 2 assists. Acyd Burn scored the 4th goal for the Bears and ended the series. The third period was a big turning point for the Bears in this game scoring 3 of their 4 goals in the 3rd.  

 

With the sweep complete the Bears ended up winning the Continental Cup with 2 sweeps and a hard fought first series. They are possibly going into the next season as the favorites again despite some roster changes. Will the Bears be able to go back to back or will STHS shut them down?

Words: 1139 Claiming for 11/10 and 11/17

[Acydburn 1,555]

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