S2 World Cup

[HOF 91]

S2 VHL WORLD CUP

The S2 World Cup was the inaugural international tournament and within the Victory Hockey League (VHL), and was a test to see which nation was the power house of the league. For the most part there were two favorite teams; Team Canada, and Team Switzerland each of which contained a phenomenal talent at the time. Brett Slobodzian, of the Calgary Wranglers, was looked upon to lead Team Canada, while Scotty Campbell of the Vasteras IK Black Eagles, was to dominate the tournament and win gold for Switzerland. These teams, however, were in the same division, Pool A, and it was stated that these two teams would meet in the Gold Medal Game. To close out the pool, the third team was Central Europe, which was made up of high-end talent, but lacked depth within their roster.

Coming out of Pool B, the only respectable team was said to be the United States of America. The team had limited high-end talents, but for what they lacked there, they made up with depth. The USA had to compete with Western Europe, which was the team that was to join the USA in the Medal Round. They were strictly a defensive team and because of this, they were not seen as a threat in the medal round for most teams. As for Team Scandinavia was not a threat to any team, and relied heavily on their star goaltender Maxim Desny.

When play started there were no surprises in Pool A as Team Canada came out in first, while Switzerland followed in second. In Division B The United States won the division as expected, but barely edged out Western Europe for first place as it came down to the United States getting a single overtime point in a game against Western Europe. Moving into the medal rounds it was Canada against Western Europe and the United States against Switzerland. Like the pre-tournament predictions indicated, Team Canada and Team Switzerland would be facing off for a medal in the medal round. Instead of fighting for the gold, they saw themselves in the Bronze Medal Game as Western Europe was able to edge out Canada in an overtime victory with Edward Eldred potting the marker. In the other Semi-Final, Team Switzerland and the United States, it came down to the final five minutes. Bruce Wayne opened the third period scoring just forty-seven seconds in to tie the game at 5-5. With four minutes and fifty-eight second to go LaDanian Tomlinson took a penalty that he would never forget. Forty seconds into that penalty Marrko St. Urho picked up a rebound off a Bruce Wayne shot and beat Fernando Garcia to give the States advantage that the did not give up.

Bringing on the anticipated Bronze Medal Game, sixty-minutes plus overtime was not enough for the medal to be decided as the game went into the illustrious shootout. The goalies were getting lit up until Jesus Christ pulled out a miracle and shut the door on Jeff Downey’s five hole shot. With this it came down to Jonathon McKelvie, the eighth shooter in the shootout, to bring Canada to victory and he did not disappoint the crowd as he made a magical move around Fernando Garcia and shelved it. It was not what Canada was expecting, but nonetheless, they won a medal.

In the gold medal game, Team USA and Team Western Europe once again went into overtime. Both goalies were standing on their heads throughout the whole game, until Chris Julien took the Ryan Downey face-off win and beat LaFluer short side to give Western Europe the inaugural World Cup Gold Medal. To this day, the S2 World Cup may be considered the most exciting World Cup in VHL history.

S2 Gold Medalist: Team Western Europe

Roster:
F - Soloman Brewer
F - Ryan Downey
F - Chris Julien
F - Edward Eldred
D - David Night
D - Brett Noiles
D - Danny Tremblay
D - Patrice Reynaud
G - Adrian McCreath

S2 Silver Medalist: Team United States of America

Roster:
F - Brannan Anthony
F - Shawn Crowley
F - Marrko St.Urho
F - Mike Szatkowski
F - Robbie Zimmers
D - Doug Schneider
D - Keyser Soze
D - Bruce Wayne
G - Sam Lafluer
G - Greg Goldberg

S2 Bronze Medalist: Team Canada

Roster:
F - Jonathan McKelvie
F - Brett Slobodzian
F - Guillaume Latendresse
F - Brad Janssen
F - Alex Gegeny
F - Jon Clarke
D - Sterling Labatte
D - Shawn Howard
G - Jesus Christ
G - Robert Sharpe

Round Robin Standings

POOL A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team GP W L T P GF GA GD
*Canada 4 3 1 0 6 25 19 +6
*Switzerland 4 2 2 0 4 19 18 +1
Central Europe 4 1 3 0 2 15 22 -7

POOL B
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team GP W L T P GF GA GD
*USA 4 3 0 1 7 12 10 +2
*Western Europe 4 3 1 0 6 11 9 +2
Scandinavia 4 0 3 1 1 9 13 -4

Final Rankings
Gold - Team Western Europe
Silver - Team USA
Bronze - Team Canada
4th - Team Switzerland
5th - Team Scandinavia
6th - Team Central Europe

Top 10 Tournament Scorers
1. CAMPBELL, scotty (SWI) - 6GP . 9G + 16A = 25P
2. BOULET, scott (SWI) - 6GP . 12G + 12A = 24P
3. SLOBODZIAN, brett (CAN) - 6GP . 7G + 12A = 19P
4. GEGENY, alex (CAN) - 6GP . 4G + 10A = 14P
5. JULIEN, chris (TWE) - 6GP . 8G + 4A = 12P
6. JANSSEN, brad (CAN) - 6GP . 5G + 6A = 11P
7. LABATTE, sterling (CAN) - 6GP . 3G + 8A = 11P
8. NOILES, brett (TWE) - 6GP . 3G + 8A = 11P
9. SKOKAN, ondrej (TCE) - 5GP . 8G + 2A = 10P
10. ANTHONY, brannan (USA) - 6GP. 6G + 4A = 10P