VSN Weekly Report - S70 Week 2

[Erik Summers 451]

Welcome to the second edition of VSN’s S70 Weekly recap (Games 49-123).  We’ll cover a host of things in this recap each week including highlights of important VSN happenings, three stars of the week, power rankings, rookie profiles, and anything else of importance.

 

Recap

The second week of the S70 season has commenced. Let’s take a look at some of this week’s highlights and low-lights. Competition is fierce in the European Conference and I wouldn’t be shocked to see any of the top four teams at the moment in the first place spot by this time next week. As for the North American Conference, I don’t know if you can pay one of the bottom three teams to take the last playoff spot willingly. Week performances this week from Toronto and D.C. have allowed Seattle to begin clamouring at the door again and they will be a threat to everyone in the conference if they manage to make the playoffs.

We saw an uptick in hostilities around the league as several teams faced off against bitter rivals with thirteen fights in total and two bench-clearing brawls. One such helter-skelter resulted in some of the dirtiest hockey I have seen in this league and calls player safety strongly into question. This correlated with an uptick in scoring across the league, but whether the fights were the cause of or the result of the scoring isn’t clear. This includes the highest-scoring game of the season so far, 6-5 fireworks show between Moscow and Malmo.

This week also featured several players who were traded over the off-season facing off against their former teams for the first time. Most notable among these was the league’s current winningest goalie, Brick Wahl, facing off against his former team, the Calgary Wranglers, with an outstanding performance. But that is just some of the excitement from this week’s games, so strap in and get ready for a lot of recapping.
 

3-Stars

First Star
JB Rift (CGY) - .935 SV%, 2.05 GAA, 1 SO
Second Star
Aston Martin (RIG) - 5 Goals, 10 Assists
Third Star
Guillaume Fontenette (HSK) - 7 Goals, 7 Assists

 
Power Rankings

European Conference

• Riga Reign - (+3) Skyrocketing to the top after a very strong week of sims against top teams.
• Moscow Menace - (-1) They need to start beating top teams if they want the #1 spot back.
• Prague Phantoms - (-1) Wildly inconsistent, beating good teams, losing to lower teams.
• Helsinki Titans - (-1) Once again, Europe looks very strong this season. I’d rank Helsinki #5 in the league.
• HC Davos Dynamo - Falling behind isn’t an option in this conference, but Davos is still in striking distance.
• Malmo Nighthawks - They beat Vancouver this week! That’s about it...

 
North American Conference

• Vancouver Wolves - (+2) Stop losing to teams at the bottom of the table! That being said, this was a successful week for the Wolves 
• Calgary Wranglers - (-1) Calgary is currently playing all of the top teams. It shows in their record this week.
• New York Americans - (-1) A late-week slide really hurt New York this week. They still have a high upside.
• Toronto Legion - The bottom three here is almost interchangeable at this point. That is bad news for Toronto.
• Seattle Bears - There is a light at the end of the tunnel that maybe even includes sliding into a playoff spot.
• D.C. Dragons - A couple of impressive wins by Seattle slips D.C. into the last spot.

 

Notable Games

Game 58 - Vancouver vs D.C.
What an upset! D.C. has some great veteran talent, but it just hasn’t come together often for them so far this season. This was a flash of the greatness that we wish we could see from them on a regular basis. The veterans really stepped up this game with Frostbeard and Kriketers dominating the shootout for an important 2 points. We also saw some cracks begin to form for Vancouver with the disgusting OT play of Jeff Downey. There is no place in the league for that kind of play, and doing it out of frustration in OT cost his team a chance to win the game before it went to a shootout.

Game 75 - Riga vs Prague
A battle for the top spot in the European Conference, Moscow leads both these teams but is yet to face either on the ice, so for now, this is the closest we get to a title bout. The first period was insane with a combined twenty-three shots and six goals. Riga got out to an early lead, up 3-1 after seven minutes, and didn’t take their foot off the gas. The Reign can be truly explosive at times and showed it here. However, to be fair to Prague, they went on to win the rematch in Game 98, so their defence is certainly cable of hanging with even the best scorers.

Game 89 - Vancouver vs Moscow
The rematch of one of the best games from last week, this could very easily be a preview of this season’s cup final. Both teams executed their game plans with excellence. Vancouver appeared to dominate offensively through the first two periods, but still, Moscow stayed within one with very efficient shooting on their limited offensive opportunities (at one point, they were scoring on 1/3rd of their shots). In addition to that, both teams produced on the power play, scoring two goals apiece while holding the man advantage. The Menace looked as though they would force overtime through defensive mastery in the third, but Vancouver was able to resist their continued pressure and secure the win.

Events of the Week

Fights

• Game 49 - Nolan draws with Vigneault
  • After an action-packed first period, it had been twenty-eight long minutes since the last scoring. Nolan and Vigneault must have been getting bored because they decided their last fight needed round 2. This time, they each got in a few solid blows but there was still no clear winner. These teams face each other again in Game 127, so key an idea on these two to see if they get up to these antics again.
• Game 51 - Kastelic draws with Plunkett
  • After going up 3-1 on the Dynamo, Ryan Kastelic decided to add injury to insult. Right from the faceoff, Kastelic started throwing his weight around. He was eventually able to find a sparring partner in Brendan Plunkett, but even he didn’t seem interested in a real fight. After a lot of jersey holding and jabs, refs broke it up and sent Kastelic off for instigation.
• Game 56 - Jubis beats up Vigneault
  • In his third fight in as many games, Edward Vigneault finally got what was coming to him. Fighting is fine, but being a goon is different. One can only hope that the beating Vigneault received at the hands of RJ Jubis was enough to make him think twice before dropping his gloves at the drop of a hat again. Jubis’s victory was the only one the Phantoms would find in this game.
• Game 61 - Barabash Jr. draws with Vigneault
  • So much for knocking some sense in the Edward Vigneault; this makes four in a row. This time, the job of fighting Vigneault fell to Tyler Barabash Jr. It took the refs four games to finally have enough of Vigneault’s nonsense and ejected him from the game following the fairly meaningless fight.
• Game 62 - BRAWL!
  • This was a shameful display by both teams. Hockey sticks are dangerous weapons and should be treated as such. Brendan Plunkett and Walter Clements got into a heated discussion right off the faceoff and their fight sparked complete chaos. John Madden ended up bloodying Jaxon Walker and Fernando Jokinen threw a few punches at Ryo Yamazuki II but the smaller forward had no interest in that matchup. The truly horrific part was the four skaters who wildly and dangerously tried to hit others with their sticks. Matthew Materazo, Joseph McWolf, David O’Quinn, and Jagger Philliefan should all be ashamed of their actions and the league should take a hard look at further discipline for those involved.
• Game 70 - Adrienne beats up Dissanayake
  • After scrapping in the corner for the puck, these two came out swinging. It is unknown what really sparked the hostilities in a game tied 1-1, but Adrienne definitely managed to get the upper hand over Dissanayake. Play resumed uneventfully while these two sat in the box and another goal wasn’t scored for another thirty-five minutes.
• Game 91 - Summers draws with Laughton
  • Blake Laughton is the most penalized player in the VHL, but sometimes he is answering the needs of his team. Prague was down by a goal going into the third period and they needed a spark. Laughton provided that when he dragged Erik Summers into his first VHL fight. Summers managed to hold his own through the fight, with both sides landing several blows, but it lead Titans to draw four more penalties in the third, with one of them resulting in the tying goal. Despite Laughton’s ejection from the game, Prague went on to win in the shootout.
• Game 101 - BRAWL!
  • These undisciplined melees are becoming more common as the season goes on. After Jack Lynch bodied Gritty on the forecheck, Gritty came up swinging and found Ambrose Stark ready to drop gloves. Dan Baillie picked up Lynch and started wailing on him. Neither fight had a clear winner, but both Moscow players were ejected from the game for instigation. Plenty of sticks and fists flew from other players as well resulting in penalties to Oskar Lagesson, Vladimir Pavlov, Henrik Zoiderberg, Berocka Sundqvist, and Mat Tocco.
• Game 109 - Tear draws with Okada
  • Two players who rarely fight, these two had simply seen enough of each other tonight. Following a puck tipped away from ACL Tear as he entered the zone by Hiroshi Okada, the play moved on but the players different. It was a long fight, as both players refused to go to the ice, but in the end, they each sat their five minutes and by the time they returned, the game-winner had been scored.
• Game 123 - Forest draws with Crosby
  • It isn’t clear what transpired between these two earlier in the period, but they had some words a few minutes earlier. That conversation continued on the bench with chirping back and forth. Eventually, both players decided to give in to the inevitable and as soon as Crosby stepped on the ice, he skated straight to Boris who was eagerly awaiting him. The fight was over quickly, and both sides seemed to cool down as they went into the second period.

 

Hat-Tricks

• Game 55 - John Madden
  • After going down by two goals in the first period, John Madden put the rest of HC Davos on his back and got to work. Over the next twelve minutes, Madden put up three unanswered goals. From there, Bert Meyers took over with two of his own to put the game away for the Dynamo.
• Game 57 - ACL Tear
  • With an empty-netter in the final seconds, ACL TEAR has secured his first hat-trick of the season. The early season series between Helsinki and Riga has been intense and each side now has a hat-trick in the series as well. Apollo Hackett deserves recognition here as well with assists on all three goals. 
• Game 66 - Mat Tocco
  • Mat Tocco becomes the second player in S70 to put together a four-goal game. To do that and somehow still not be the highest-scoring player in the game is a cruel fate. At least they were smart enough to give Tocco the first star, but Vladimir Pavlov’s five assists should also be made note of.
• Game 80 - Codrick Past
  • A one-period hat trick! Svoboda tacked on one more in the second, but this game was over as soon as Codrick scored his third goal in less than eleven minutes. Also of note, Ryan Kastelic had four assists (two primary and two secondary) in this game to move himself up into the top ten in assists in the league while Past moved into the top five goal scorers.
• Game 95 - Jet Jaguar
  • It took overtime, but Jet Jaguar managed to put together his first hat-trick of the season. Jet scored the game-winner with just twenty seconds left in OT to save his team from the ever-fickle shootout. Moscow and Riga are racing to lead the league in hat-tricks.
• Game 108 - Dan Baillie
  • And just like that, Moscow ties Riga with three hat-tricks so far this season. Dan Baillie counted for nine of Moscow’s forty shots and ended the night with three goals and an assist. Despite having four points in the game, Moscow still needed one more goal from Nate Telker, his first of the season, to put Malmo away.
• Game 117 - Tyler Barabash Jr.
  • Tyler Barabash Jr. opened up the scoring for Calgary on the power play just over three minutes into the game. In the second period, he went on to score the game-winner and then put the cherry on top with a phenomenal short-handed goal. He also nearly had another goal in the second put it was tipped in by his teammate instead when Barabash’s shot seemed to be on target but Kris Rice secured the goal with a last-second tip to beat Samuel Ross.

Shutouts

• Game 56 - Calgary vs Prague
  • Sweet, sweet revenge. After threatening to retire if he stayed in Calgary, this matchup holds an unimaginable amount of significance for Brick Wahl. How sweet, then, it must feel to get a shutout in your first game against your former team under such circumstances. Brick Wahl is showing us all that he still has some great goaltending left in him.
• Game 65 - Malmo vs Seattle
  • Is Seattle getting over their cup hangover? Maybe back-to-back cups means double the hangover. If Seattle wants to 3-peat they are going to have to have performances like this from Rayz Funk a lot more often. Seattle’s defence also deserves a shoutout for only allowing four shots in the second period.
• Game 67 - Calgary vs New York
  • Oof! That is two shutouts in a week against Calgary. This team has the weapons, but scoring has been ice cold recently. A Red Guy records his first shutout of the season and New York manages to keep the series between these teams close and the rankings at the top of the North American Conference even closer.
• Game 86 - Calgary vs Davos
  • JB Rift has been on a tear this week and this shutout was the finishing touch on his this masterpiece of goaltending he has put together. Davos has struggled to produce a lot of scoring opportunities in a few of their recent games and the Calgary defence took full advantage of the struggling Dynamo to hold them to only seventeen shots.
• Game 113 - Toronto vs Seattle
  • This game was a goal-tending clinic. The two goaltenders walked away with the first and second star and combined for sixty-eight saves on sixty-nine shots (nice). However, only one can walk away with the win and the shutout, and that honour goes to Owen May with his first of the season.
• Game 114 - Malmo vs Vancouver
  • In what might be the most shocking box score of the week, Malmo shut out the Vancouver Wolves despite allowing forty-nine shots on goal. Michael Johnson records his second shutout of the season and he deserves every ounce of the glory. His team hung him out to dry again and again and he simply could not allow a puck to slip by him. Easily the most impressive single-game performance of the season.
• Game 119 - Vancouver vs D.C.
  • Greg Eagles must have felt inspired after watching Johnson’s performance in the Wolves’ last game. Either that, or he didn’t want someone else to have more shutouts than him because he came into this game with a chip on his shoulder. By the second half of this game, with a 3-0 lead, Vancouver’s defence simply became oppressive, allowing only twelve shots in the final thirty minutes of play.
• Game 120 - Moscow vs Seattle
  • Remember what I said about the Malmo/Vancouver score being the most shocking of the week? This is the only game that rivals it. Rayz Funk wasn’t going to let another amazing performance go to waste as he was a Walrus in net while his team chased Moscow’s starting goalie from the ice. Toronto should be scared knowing this Seattle team is clawing up behind them for a playoff spot.
• Game 122 - Prague vs. Davos
  • Brick Wahl is now the winningest goalie in the league so far this season. He has played a couple more games than his nearest competition, so we will have to wait and see if that stands, but performances like this one will keep him firmly in that position. Prague killed off nine penalties in this match, nine. It was a miraculous piece of goal-tending that saved them here.

 

Rookie Spotlight

Calgary’s Youth Line

At one point this week, the Calgary Wranglers had the three highest-scoring rookie forwards in the league. Ondrej Ohradka, Kris Rice, and Mikko Lahtinen have combined for 27 points in their first season in the VHL. Ohradka and Lahtinen had some great chemistry coming into the season after spending last year together on the cup-winning Saskatoon Wild team of S69. There, they combined for 211 points while Rice put up 137 in Mississauga, first among forwards.
 
Interestingly, Rice and Lahtinen also had a VHLM connection while playing together for the Mississauga hounds in S68, but found themselves on opposite sides of the ice for the S69 cup final. Apparently there are no hard feelings because these two have been playing off each other wonderfully so far this season.
 
Calgary’s future is looking extremely bright with so much young talent at hand, it just took a strangely constructed tank last season to get there. If the Wrangler can entice these three to spend a large chunk of their careers in Calgary, expect this to be the top-scoring line in the league just a couple seasons from now.
 

Spoiler

Mentioned Players - @FacebookFighter, @Greg_Di, @fonziGG, @Ahma, @Donno100, @Matt_O, @McWolf, @David O'Quinn, @Philliefan, @OrbitingDeath, @nethi99, @Grape, @Erik Summers, @xsjack, @eaglesfan036, @Banackock, @wcats, @fever95, @Victor, @HenrikZoiderberg, @Berocka, @Matmenzinger, @Quik, @enigmatic, @SidTheKid87, @chillzone, @Kylrad, @StamkosFan, @gorlab, @Sullvino, @okochastar, @Rayzor_7, @.sniffuM, @studentized, @Patpou22, @Enorama, @MetalToday, @Bushito, @rjfryman, @cpetrella, @Thranduil, @hewasajazzman, @BladeMaiden, @FrostBeard, @hedgehog337, @JeffD

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Erik Summers

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

Nice article!

[animal74 1,855]

Thanks for featuring Calgary's "Young"lers!