What's the deal with McPine?

[HearnNation67 129]

The Minnesota Storm were a force not to be messed with all season long. Carried by strong offense and goaltending, they had multiple 10+ game win streaks. But as the season wound down and the playoffs began, goaltender Woody McPine failed to show up. This seems to be a trend in the young goaltender's career. McPine has failed to show up in the games biggest stages, whether it's the VHLM playoffs were he and the Storm bowed out in 6 games to the San Diego Marlins, or in the World Junior Championships, where he failed to get Canada past a bronze medal in 2 years. This years playoffs are going similarly, with McPine being pulled 4 times against expansion team Miami Marauders and the Mexico City Kings in 11 games. McPine has a 5-5 record so far in this years playoffs, with a save percentage of 0.837, a career worst, and goals against average of 3.94. These numbers are a stark contrast to his regular season record of 60-10-2, 0.900 save percentage, 2.25 GAA, and 9 shutouts. Is the young tendy cracking under playoff pressure again? Or could he just be tired after playing all 72 games this season? Storm GM @Rayzor_7 seems to believe its the latter, as he benched McPine for Bennett Dahl in game 3 against Mexico City.

 

The first round series saw 8^th place Marauders started off hot, winning the first 2 games with scores of 4-1 and a dominant 5-1 game 2, before the Storm woke up with a 7-6 victory, and then another Miama victory of 3-2 to push the regular season champs to the brink and go up 3 games to 1 in their first ever playoffs series. With their backs against the wall, Storm players bailed out their goaltender and rallied off 3 straight wins, led by Mickael Keef with 5 points, and Cole Newhook, Ike Bennet, Mickey Dickson, and Liam Flaten with 4 points each.

 

Minnesota's second round sees them matched up against the 4^th place Kings, and it's been a wild ride so far. The Storm took the first game 4-3, and then got thumped by the Kings 7-0 in game 2. Woody was riding the pine in the next game, as the Storm started reliable backup Bennett Dahl instead. The move almost paid off, as the Storm took Mexico City to overtime before Kirishima Wakaro put the puck past Dahl to give the Kings a 5-4 win. McPine was back between the pipes for game 4, which saw the Storm come away with a big 7-4 victory, led by Newhook, Flaten, and Joe Exotic with 3 points a piece. Game 5 was a tight one, a 2-1 victory of Mexico City to once again push Minnesota to the brink of elimination. McPine has played better in games 4 and 5after his benching, with save percentages of 0.892 and 0.882, respectively, and a GAA of 2.5 over the 2 games while picking up 1 win and 1 loss. Time will tell if he can keep it up, but one thing is for sure, McPine will need to play much better if he and the Storm want to raise the cup this year.

 

Word count: 532

[Ricer13 2,592]

Review: Tough road for a young goalie. Keep your head up and have faith that your player will only get better as he heads into the VHL. As for the article you did a really good job breaking down the numbers to help the reader visualize McPines successes and struggles. The paragraph separation was good and grammatically was solid. The subject matter was good as well. It’s always good to hear how a player is feeling about their career so far. Rating: 8/10.

[bigAL 2,176]

Woody, man, it just doesn’t make sense! You must’ve accidentally peed on the ancient burial ground of Simon’s ancestors to earn such bad STHS luck. Oh well, if nothing else, ol’ McPine always makes sure things stay interesting!

[diamond_ace 3,106]

I have confidence those numbers will come up behind Block, Perrin, and Stansson next season