Miami Shocks the VHLM World in Game 7 Thriller!

[fromtheinside 1,290]

 

Miami Downs Halifax in an Epic Game 7 Finale

Associated Press- AP

70-1. Those were the Vegas odds posted at the start of the VHLM S74 Playoffs for Miami to come away victorious against the top-seeded powerhouse Halifax 21st. And despite those longshot odds, Tuesday evening the Marauders Cinderella season rolled on as Miami topped Halifax 6-5 in what may go down to be an all time VHLM classic. First-gen rookie phenoms @tcookie25 Addison McLaren and @RedSusCabe McJake combined for a whopping 7 points. Of those 7 points, none were as important as when McLaren made a beautiful one-touch cross-seam pass to a waiting McJake on the half-boards with just under 3 minutes to play in the game. This powerplay marker proved to be the difference in this high-offense affair. Like many other games in the series, Halifax outshot their opponents heavily but thankfully for Marauders fans, @Victor Rara Rasputin was up to the task again in this one, turning away 34 saves. On the flipside, normally rock solid tender @chatfan036 was not his usual self tonight letting in 6 goals on 26 shots, however, it should be noted that 4 of those goals did come on the powerplay where Miami had an astounding 11 man advantages! There were rumors going into this one that Malone would hang up his skates if Halifax lost this series, I guess only time will tell if he's serious or not but let's hope for London United's sake they don't lose their tender of the future!

 

To fully understand the gravity of this upset victory, you really need to analyze the turnaround the Marauders had this season. With about half the season in the books, Miami was on the ropes and hope was dwindling. They had some great players with the like of Rasputin between the pipes, along with @chiknChicken Wing and  @LatinVikingEoin Byrne on the blueline, but there were missing some major offensive punch up front. Then from seemingly out of nowhere, @Ricer13GM Ricer became a man on a mission. He went on a tear signing the aforementioned McJake and McClaren as well as another rookie standout, @coochimanVivek Weiner. All 3 of these players made immediate impacts to the team all the while developing at a rapid pace. Still not satisfied, Ricer also went on to add D-man@BeavissHulk Hogan Jr as well as winger @fyreflySheldon Juniper super late into the regular season and both played pivotal roles in taking down the goliath's known as Halifax. We met up with the Marauders GM post-game and asked him about his club's late season surge and success in the first round. Here is what he had to say:

 

"Miami was extremely fortunate to have signed the players we did. There were some real stand outs who took a liking to the game right away. A few of those being Addison McLaren, Cabe McJake and Vivek Weiner. They came in eager to learn and did every possible thing they could to improve their game. I told them all that the goal was playoffs and they are the ones who put in the work to make that happen. I can’t go without mentioning a few more waiver signings who made a huge impact. Our tendy Rasputin signed with us early in the season and has become a big game tendy for us down the stretch. Hulk Hogan Junior and Sheldon Juniper were late season acquisitions and they’ve made huge impacts with the team in such a short amount of time. I have been so impressed by this group and they deserved every win from that series." - GM Ricer
 

Following our discussion with GM Ricer we had a chance to catch up with a couple of Miami's players to get their thoughts on their impressive feat. First we approached Addison McClaren. We asked who he considered to be the leader in the dressing room for Miami and also how will the young team of rookies be able to re-focus on their next matchup versus Vegas. Here's what Addison had to say:

"It's such a great group we have in there... obviously, a lot of new faces on this team and we've all been pushing each other and supporting each other but if I have to pick someone, Cabe's the guy with the biggest personality, always vocal and always believing in this group. He's got that attitude that get everyone ready to go, like the series was 2-2 and he was making sure to remind us hey, this isn't about taking 2 games from the best team in the regular season - we can do better, we can win this thing.

We just have to get back to work and do the same thing we did preparing for Halifax. We had a big run at the end of the season to get us into the playoffs and we're the type of team that wasn't just happy to make it, we're here to win, and we're a really hard-working team. So we just have to carry that attitude over into our future series'. We enjoy this win tonight, but then it's back to work and doing what we have to do to win that next one." -Addison McClaren

 

Finally, we were able to track down Cabe McJake, the man who scored the game-winning goal in tonight's contest.  We asked him what he considers to be the key to the Marauders success and what he was planning to do to prepare for the Aces in the semi-finals. McJake was quoted in saying:

 

"I think what's propelled us so much in the past weeks is the tight knit locker room that we have. We are a very humble group being that we are all waiver claims which help each other out as much as we can. I like to think me and McLaren led by example by showing how quickly you can improve in this league, I believe a lot of the waiver claims that came after us saw what we did and knew they could do the same. And of course a lot of the credit has to go to our GM Ricer who pushed all of us to be as good as we can. As for Vegas, we are determined to play with no fear. We have nothing to lose at this point as we already accomplished more than we could imagine." Cabe McJake

 

On the flipside of things, the disappointment must be immeasurable for the 21st players, staff and fans. After seasons of rebuilding, this year's roster was fine-tuned to win a championship. On paper they were an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. But as an old saying goes, "that's why you play the games". Unfortunately it may be awhile until Halifax fans see a team of this caliber again. Many of the teams top players will be moving up to the big league next season. An estimated 9 players off Halifax's roster could potentially be getting their big league promotions and what's worse is Halifax cashed in many of their picks in this years draft to go all in for a championship. It's easy to criticize management decisions in hindsight, but fans should be happy to have an organization that will do anything it takes to win a championship. We reached out to Halifax management for this article but unfortunately they were not available for comment. 

 

For the Cinderella-story Marauders, it's off to Sin City for a match-up with the Aces in the semi-finals. This matchup will prove to be just as difficult as Las Vegas boasts one of the most lethal scorers in the league in @G_RushGary Rush as well  as another top end tender in @DreMin15 Drew Minott.  Minott declared earlier this week he was planning to make the jump to his big league team in LA next season, so you know he will be extra hungry for that last chance to win the Founder's Cup. The Marauders will need to go all in on Vegas to punch their ticket to the finals. It should shape up to be a great series.

 

 

Note: I did reach out to Halifax's GM and AGM but I posted this pretty quickly after (probably an hour or 90 mins after asking them) so if they were asleep they didn't get much chance to provide comments. That's on me, I just wanted to get it finished and posted. All the best to both clubs!

Edited October 28, 2020 by fromtheinside

[Beaviss 4,957]

Great read!

goodnight Halifax

[fyrefly 172]

LET’S GOOOOOO MARAUDERS!!!! 

[bigAL 2,176]

Love it when an article is supplemented with quotes from people around the game. Great work on the article and EVEN BETTER JOB with the comeback!!

[Ricer13 2,796]

Great article!

[G_Rush 64]

It’s time for Rush to steal the show.