IIHIRN- Founders Cup Review

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This is IIHIRN and this is Nathan Walker, thank you for joining me on this special segment, as I won't be interviewing anyone today I will be speaking of the VHLM finals.

 

What a special part of the season for fans, you wake up around this time of year and you can't wait to watch these finals. As it's either a team you adore, or a team you despise, or maybe you're not a fan of either team and you're watching it because it's hockey. Either way it doesn't take away from the thrill and hype of two of the best teams fighting it out for the trophy after a long playoff road of battling, but I'm not just going to look at the two teams in the finals I'm going to look at how they battled their way through.

 

First round of the playoffs you have first-seeded Saskatoon Wild versus the eighth-seeded Yukon Rush. This on paper looked obvious and ugly a stacked Wild team going up against a barley slipping into the playoffs Rush team, and you ask yourself looking at this paper how is this Rush team going to even come close to competing against the Wild team, they don't come close to having the talent the Wild do and it just looks ugly. Sadly the papers would be right, but personally I expected too see a better series but to end up seeing a disaster of one, as the Wild would score 30 goals in 4 games and having 6 or more goals in each of the four while only giving up 5 total.

 

The next series was the number two-seeded Mississauga Hound's taking on the seventh-seeded Ottawa Lynx. Easily a better series than the Yukon series even though Ottawa got swept, they ended up keeping the series close and fighting till the last puck dropped for them. Looking at this series just like the Wild vs Rush it was a given on paper who was going to win, and it was by far the Hound and they didn't let their fans down as they would score 12 goals at home, and giving up only 2 it looked like it was heading for another blowout series, but at home Ottawa would only shorten that to 7 goals, and putting up 3. I do believe they could have stolen a game if they had the offensive production, but as we know by now they just couldn't get things going. I'm not as disappointed in the way this team played as I was with Yukon, but I can't say I was pleased with their performance either. It definitely wasn't a series I was hyped to watch.

 

The next series was third-seeded Mexico City Kings against the sixth-seeded San Diego Marlin's. This was a series I was for sure we would all get to see an upset, I was confident in it, but I couldn't have been more wrong as it wasn't close either at least looking at the series score. As the Kings would knock the Marlins off in 5. Even though the Marlins could only manage one game I really liked them, they played fantastic in all 5 games and in my opinion exposed the problems Mexico had, and needed to fix for the second round, the Marlins kept every game close they just couldn't capitalize on golden opportunities, and the mistakes the Kings made. This honestly was very enjoyable to watch in my opinion. They would allow 17 goals though but they would put 12 of them on the board themselves, but that would show it wouldn't come close to being enough.

 

The last game of the first round would be against the fourth-seeded Philadelphia Reaper's against the fifth-seeded Halifax 21st's, and I would have to say this was the biggest upset of the playoffs. This is a series the Reaper's were favored heavily even though Halifax was fifth-seeded, they were over 20 points behind in the regular season, but they set a statement showing why playoffs is a different story, and they would handle the Reapers in 6 games scoring 16 goals and letting in 13 themselves, including a game 6 shutout. It was a close series and the Reapers just really looked flat footed and couldn't get anything going, and it really just bit them in the foot.

 

That will wrap up the first round and I will be back with round two after this commercial break.

 

Welcome back, Round two was more of an exciting round to me out of this whole playoffs. You had a team who could potentially upset a powerhouse of the league, and a matchup we all couldn't wait to see, and this is how it went.

 

The first series I would like to go over is the first-seeded Wild and the fifth-seeded 21rst, and I was interested in this series. A series that we could potentially see a fall over another top team, and well…. That didn't come close to happening, they would be beaten in five games and scored on 27 times and only managed to put up 15 goals, but don't get me wrong, Halifax should be proud of how far they made it with all odds against them. They scored the most out of any team in these playoffs against the Wild, and on top of all of that they managed to steal a game from a team that only two teams have managed to beat in the regular season. With everyone betting on this being a sweep I really have respect with how they played, and wish them the best of luck for next season.

 

This next series was a match up I wanted to see all season long, and it was the second-seeded Hounds against the third-seeded Kings, in my opinion it was a series that I thought who ever would win would have the best chance against the Wild. It would turn out to be my favorite series of this whole playoffs both teams played great to me, it was a hard close fought series but this is where the Kings problems would unfortunately come back to bite them, As they wouldn't be able to take it to a game seven and they would be out scored 13-11. They would battle back from being down 2-0 in the series to end up losing the next two, and I couldn't tell if they just didn't have the energy to keep up with the Hound's, or they just couldn't find their groove, and don't get me wrong I think they played great defensively but they just couldn't find the back of the net, and that's very crucial in winning games, especially in game six when they only held the Hounds to one goal that's where you have to really contribute.

 

That's the end of the second round and we will finally go over the teams that battle their way to make it this far, and find out who took home the founders cup after these messages.

 

Welcome back, and now I'm going to go over the finals Saskatoon Wild vs Mississauga Hound's a matchup that was definitely well deserved… or so I thought. This series didn't disappoint me it shocked me, I expected a game 7 series of two teams at the beginning of the season no one expected to make this far with Saskatoon's rebuild that had them either average or around the bottom of the league for the last two seasons, and with Mississauga's slow start to the season, but eventually being a nuisance to Saskatoon around the end of the season stealing three games from them hoping this was going to be a series of the decade, just to be given a five game series that just looked like the Hounds were dead. They just couldn't offensively produce anything and I would like to say for the first time in the playoffs, but it really showed against the Kings. My theory is that series really took a toll on them. They would allow 21 goals and managing 12. After game one it really looked like it was going to be a close defensive series, just to turn into another team that can't figure out how to stop the Wilds scoring, but do not get me wrong the Hound's organization should be proud of how far they made it, and on a fantastic season, on top of that the players should be proud of what they accomplished this season, and be excited on what there is to come for them as they are great players, not many can say they've got a chance to play in the finals.

 

I would like to congrats the Wild on an unbelievable season, it was a well deserved cup finals and wish everybody, players and the organization the best their future holds whether it's in the VHLM or the VHL. This is Nathan Walker and thank you for joining me tonight on this special segment, and wish all a good night. 

 

 

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[Spaz 297]

claiming doubles week

[zepheter 586]

 

founder's cup btw

[Spaz 297]

Ooooooooohhhhhhh fuck I knew that too and completely forgot thank you for the reminder 

10 hours ago, zepheter said:

 

founder's cup btw

 

[Spaz 297]

Claiming 2/3

[Spaz 297]

Claiming 3/3