VSN Weekly Review - S71 Week 6

[Erik Summers 451]

 

Welcome to the final edition of VSN’s S71 Weekly recap (Games 386-432).  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.
 

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Recap

 

With the season over and a short week, we’ll be doing a slightly shorter version of weekly review this time.
 
The big story this week in the European Conference was who would get the final playoff spot. Seeding at the top of the conference was mostly settled, with Moscow securing the top spot early in the week, but Malmo entered the week with just a three-point lead over Helsinki. The Nighthawks didn’t give the Titan’s much of a chance, however, with a strong finish to the season, securing ten of fourteen possible points this week.
 
In the North American Conference, the noteworthy stories were all about playoff seeding. The Vancouver Wolves held onto the lead the established last week and Seattle took hold of the second spot. The most shocking result was the fall of the Calgary Wranglers who find themselves as the fourth seed. There were many points throughout this season where a Calgary-Vancouver first-round matchup looked possible, but few would have guessed Vancouver would be the number one seed in that scenario.
 
3-Stars
 
First Star
Finn Davison (VAN) - 0.953 SV%, 1.38 GAA, 4 SOs
Second Star
Roque Davis (DAV) - 3 G, 8 A, 23 SB
Third Star
Owen Nolan (NYA) - 4 G, 4 A, 1 HT
 
Notable Games

 
Game 397 - Vancouver Wolves vs. Prague Phantoms
Although it will be highlighted in the shutouts section bellow, I chose this game to bring special attention to the role Finn Davison played in Vancouver’s control of the top stop in the standings this week. The other major factor in the Wolves’ success was their absolute dominance in time of possession. They outshot opponents all week, but especially in this game, outshooting Prague 43-20. For the Phantoms, this game was essentially the end of their dreams of making the top seed int he European Conference.
 
Game 399 - Calgary Wranglers vs. Seattle Bears
On the flip side of Vancouver’s rise to the top was Calgary’s fall from grace. By the end of the week, the Wranglers found themselves as the fourth seed in the North American Conference. This crushing loss to the rival Bears played a big role in that decline. Despite only having one more shot than Calgary, Seattle outscored their opponent 3-0. Not only did Rayz Funk have a shutout in this game, but he also got a point with an assist on the game-winner by Odin Omdahl. Jacques Lafontaine simply couldn’t keep up with the veteran in this one.
 
Game 416 Moscow Menace vs. Malmo Nighthawks
This game was exciting for several reasons, but chief among them for the Nighthawks was that it clinched their playoff spot for them. You could tell they knew what was on the line in their determination to make every shot count. The Malmo scored all four of their goals on their first seven shots, resulting in Moscow goalie, Raymond Bernard, being pulled for their backup. The nighthawks would only manage ten more shots from there, all of which would be stopped. At the other end of the ice, Henrik Zoiderberg was on fire, scoring a hat-trick with a goal in each period. The rest of the Menace roster, however, was unable to find the back of the net, making the final score 4-3.

Events of the Week

 
Fights
 

• Game 409 - Lahtinen beats up Tear
  • This game was a battle in every sense of the word, so it is fitting that we got a real battle as well. As Malmo was fighting to secure a playoff berth, Calgary was fighting to stop their freefall into the fourth seed. Shortly after Calgary tied the game 1-1 in the first period, Mikko Lahtinen and ACL TEAR got into a bit of a tussle. The tangle resulted in both players dropping gloves and going at it. Despite winning the fight decisively, Lahtinen would be on the losing side of the larger battle as Calgary failed to outscore their opponent in any period.
• Game 412 - Svoboda beats up Zoiderberg
  • Sometime scrappy works and one of those times is when you are the last-place team in the league facing off against the juggernaut of your conference. Davos entered the third period with a lead but lost that lead just five minutes into the period. It was a slog from there that got heated in the twelfth minute with a fight between Pat Svoboda and Henrik Zoiderberg. Svoboda would win the fight and his teammate would go on to score the winning goal off his assist in the final minutes.
• Game 420 - Washington draws with Vikingstad and Forest draws with Nygren
  • Despite not having much of an impact on the game, seeing as Seattle was down 3-0 with less than five minutes left in the game. These two fights were notable because they took place only four seconds apart. Apparently, after seeing what great fun George Washington and Ola Vikingstad got into, Boris the Forest and Markus Nygren decided to have a go at it themselves. Neither fight was overly decisive and, in the end, Seattle would just narrowly avoid being shutout with a powerplay goal with just twenty-six seconds left on the clock.

 
Hat-Tricks
 

• Game 389 - Brady Stropko Jr
  • Calgary has an abundance of defenders who can score, but it is always special when one gets a hat-trick. Brady Stropko Jr. had eleven goals so far this season going into this game, so it was a big jump to his total to earn three in a single game. Stropko started off the scoring in this game with a goal in the fifth minute and then went silent until the third. Early in the third, he scored his second, which would go on to be the game-winner, and then followed that up just a few minutes later with his third.
• Game 405 - Phil Marleau
  • When Phil Marleau scored his first two goals in this game it was to pull Riga back into a tie with the Titans both times. However, by the time he completed the hat-trick, Riga had already scored the game-winning goal. Marleau is another player who isn’t necessarily known for goal-scoring who scored a hat-trick this week. Going into this game, Phil was fifth on the Reign in goals scored.
• Game 416 - Henrik Zoiderberg
  • In the final games of the season, we had a rash of hat-tricks that were kicked off by this one by Henrik Zoiderberg. Zoiderberg scored all three of Moscow’s goals in this game and all on assists from Jet Jaguar. However, three goals would not be enough for the Menace to overcome Malmo, who scored four goals on just seventeen shots.
• Game 426 - Uhtred
  • The Seattle Bears were already up 4-1 going into the third, so they likely could have just played conservatively and locked up the win. However, no one gave Uhtred that memo. He entered the period without a goal and in less than seven minutes he had three of them. His first came on the power play in the second minute and he quickly followed that with goals again in the fourth and seventh minutes as well.
• Game 430 - Owen Nolan
  • Owen Nolan had himself a great season, but it looked like he was going to come up just shy of a point per game. He wasn’t having any of that, however, and completely changed this game in a single period. New York entered the second period down 3-0, but, due to Nolan’s efforts, left the period tied. With just twenty-three seconds left in the game, the Americans would find the winning goal to end it in regulation.

Shutouts
  

• Game 388 - Vancouver vs. New York
  • Vancouver wasn’t outshot in any period of this game, as the whole team contributed heavily to this shutout by maintaining offensive pressure at the other end throughout. New York managed to make a little bit of headway in the third, getting eight shots in the period, but Finn Davison remained perfect with twenty-one saves in total to secure the shutout.
• Game 397 - Vancouver vs. Prague 
  • It was an amazing start for Finn Davison this week, earning both of the week’s first two shutouts. Again, Vancouver was dominant on offences, including spending over thirteen minutes on the powerplay, and outshot Prague 43-20. Brick Wahl was also incredible, making forty-two saves, but the one he let in will haunt him as the game ended at a score of 1-0.
• Game 399 - Calgary vs. Seattle
  • It was a rough week for Calgary and this is really how it all got started. Despite outshooting the Bears in the first two periods, and only being outshot by one goal in the game, they were unable to find the back of the net. Meanwhile, Jacques Lafontaine allowed three goals, but, after facing thirty-six shots, it would be hard to ask much more from him. Rayz Funk made all thirty-five saves for what was arguably his best performance of the season.
• Game 401 - D.C. vs. Moscow
  • This game started with fifty shots in fifty minutes but not a single goal for either team. That alone was a solid performance from both goalies, but it was JB Rift who was able to hold out until the end. In total, Rift faced thirty-two shots, stopping them all.
• Game 402 - New York vs. Riga
  • The close of the season came with several great goalie duels. In this one, A Red Guy faced off with Greg Eagles, and each player faced twenty-three shots. However, it was Guy who made all twenty-three saves, as Eagles let in a goal while shorthanded in the closing minutes of the second period.
• Game 404 - Moscow vs. Vancouver
  • For the third time this week, Finn Davison has locked the other team completely out of the game and, amazingly, for the second time this week, Raymond Bernard has earned one of the three stars of the game while being the second-best goalie in the match. While he had to make twenty-four saves in total, Davison also had the easiest period of his life while Vancouver outshot Moscow 22-0 in the second period. Moscow made a huge surge in the third with seventeen shots, but ultimately they were unable to put one past Finn, who has been on fire all week.
• Game 407 - Riga vs. Toronto
  • Jaxx Hextall is developing well, but this season was far from an excellent one for the young goalie, giving up more goals than any other goalie in the league. You won’t find him on many of the leaderboards for positive stats, except, this was Hextall’s fourth shutout of the season. That is a promising marker for the future of this rookie how made thirty-four saves in his best performance of the season.
• Game 408 - HC Davos vs. D.C.
  • You can’t ask for anything better than a shutout from your back-up goalie. It wasn’t a gimmie either as Stone Wolski made twenty-three saves to earn his first shutout of the season. D.C. scored early and used that advantage to play a more conservative style that assisted in this shutout.
• Game 415 - Vancouver vs. Toronto
  • For much of the season, it looked like the top of the shutout leaderboard was going to be a race between Michael Johnson and Brick Wahl, and going into this week, Johnson appeared to have the spot locked up with a two-shutout lead. However, with his fourth shutout of the week, Finn Davison propelled himself into a tie for first on that leaderboard. Vancouver followed the formula that has worked for them all week by dominating time of possession and only forcing Davison to make twenty saves to earn yet another shutout.
• Game 417 - Seattle vs. HC Davos
  • Seattle had a powerful showing in the final week of the season and it was capped off by this Rayz Funk shutout. Holding Davos under ten shots in each period, Funk made a total of twenty-one saves for his fifth shutout of the season. 
• Game 428 - Calgary vs. Malmo
  • As I mentioned before, Michael Johnson and Finn Davison were tied at nine shutouts on the season. But, with one game left, Johnson claimed his spot at the top of that list. Despite being outshot 38-25. Johnson put the team on his shoulders and carried them to victory with a flawless thirty-eight saves for his tenth shutout of the season.
     

 

Spoiler

Players Mentioned: @Poptart, @Josh, @studentized, @Rayzor_7, @zepheter, @SlapshotDragon, @Mr_Hatter, @HenrikZoiderberg, @Beketov, @Quik, @StamkosFan, @Enorama, @Dil. @chillzone, @Devise, @Bushito, @Phil, @gorlab, @BladeMaiden, @Greg_Di, @.sniffuM, @ROOKIE745, @DollarAndADream, @fonziGG

 

[Beketov 9,025]

1 hour ago, Erik Summers said:

Mikko Lahtinen and ACL TEAR got into a bit of a tussle.

Battle of the blues