Quick Playoff Preview: Riga VS. Prague

[animal74 1,810]

         VS 

 

After losing the extra point in a shootout against Helsinki in their final game of S71, the Prague Phantoms find themselves tied with the Moscow Menace for first place in the European Conference with 82 points. Unfortunately for the Phantoms, Moscow wins the tie-break due to having one more win and so Prague slides to the 2^nd seed in the European Conference which means a match-up with rivals the Riga Reign.

 

The Phantoms will have home ice advantage against the Reign in what should be a very close series between the 2^nd and 3^rd-lowest scoring playoff teams. The Phantoms only had two more wins and five more points than the Reign and while Riga scored 181 goals to Prague’s 177, Prague allowed 169 to Riga’s 175.

 

Riga held a slight edge in the regular season series with a 5-2-1 record in eight games versus Prague and outscored the Phantoms 16-12. Six of the games were decided by one goal with each team recording a 1-0 shutout, one game going to overtime (Prague won 2-1) and one decided by a shootout (Riga won 2-1).

 

Ironically, both teams were led in scoring by defensemen: Lincoln Tate @Tate led Riga with 67 points and Cinnamon Block @omgitshim topped Prague with 69 points. Riga has the edge in scoring depth as they had five 20-goal scorers and Prague only had two. Each team will rely heavily on their netminders who will need to be razor sharp as veterans Greg Eagles @Greg_Di and Brick Wahl @BladeMaiden will look to match each other save for save.

[Doomsday 4,130]

This is gonna be a tough series for sure, cases can be made for both sides to win it. IMO, whichever defense plays better will decide this one.