Marauders Finals-Bound After Game 7 Win Over Vegas

[tcookie 934]

Miami's second line of Theodore Hoffman, Sheldon Juniper, and Peter Louis II had already been putting together one of their best games of an impressive post-season.

 

With two minutes to go in Game 7, it got even better.

 

The play began as Hulk Hogan Jr. intercepted a pass and immediately began the transition up ice. Theodore Hoffman hit Peter Louis II entering the offensive zone, where he took a shot that was blocked but bounced free to Martin Master at the point. Master delayed for a second, then hit Sheldon Juniper with a pass down low. As Juniper took the puck to the net, he was running out of space, defended well by Kasper Kankkunen, but he drew the puck back, aimed high on Drew Minott, and fired.

 

Kankkunen and Juniper collided, a hush fell over the crowd, and the Marauders' bench exploded.

 

With 1:37 left in game 7 of an absolutely thrilling series, Juniper snapped a three-game goal drought with his 8th of the playoffs and gave the Marauders a 4-3 lead.

 

Hoffman's empty netter 1:17 later ensured the Marauders' Cinderella playoff run would continue into the Founders Cup finals.

 

The Marauders played well in the second half of the VHLM season, but nobody envisioned this. A series against the 64-7-1 Halifax 21st should've been their undoing. The 21st lost eight games all regular season. They lost four of seven against Miami in the playoffs.

 

When Miami made a statement by winning the first 3 games of their series against Las Vegas, they suddenly couldn't finish it off. They lost the next three, letting the Aces back into the series. The magic was gone.

 

And then it wasn't, and Juniper's goal was yet another reminder of what the Marauders have consistently shown this post-season - that they aren't ever out of it.

 

If the Marauders are to come away with the S74 Founders Cup, they will have to have beaten three teams that went a combined 168-39-9 over the course of the regular season with a waiver-claim-heavy roster that has only one player picked higher than 44th overall in the S74 VHLM Dispersal Draft remaining on its roster. Yet here they are... one seven-game series away.

 

It's an underdog story written by GM Kris Rice, by veterans Theodore Hoffman and Eoin Byrne, by waiver pickups Rara Rasputin, Addison McLaren, Cabe McJake, Sheldon Juniper, Vivek Weiner, Martin Master, Hulk Hogan Jr, Nikolas DAndrea... and many more. Next week, the final chapter will be written against the Mississauga Hounds.

[Victor 11,043]

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