Chicago's underdog run comes to an end

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It was a wild ride for the Chicago Phoenix, but they finally came back to earth yesterday with a loss in game seven of the North American conference finals to the D.C. Dragons.  Chicago had shocked the world with a three-game sweep of the Seattle Bears in the wild card round, before taking out the Victory Cup-winning Calgary Wranglers in the second round over seven games.  For the first time, the Phoenix fell behind in the series to D.C., but came back from a 3-1 deficit to force seven games in dramatic fashion with a dominant 5-0 victory in game five and an overtime winner by L boosted the team to a 3-2 win in game six.  Even though the fairy tale came to an end with a 4-3 loss (with all four D.C. goals coming in the second period), there will be many positives for the Phoenix and their fans as they move towards the future.

 

The core of this Chicago team is young and mostly comes from the last three drafts.  Camus and Socks come from S73, Mingle and Xin are from S74, L and R are from S75.  That’s not to mention prospects like Darius Marimoto (S74), Jordan Tate (S75), and Steve Eso (S75) who will be making the jump to the VHL for next season and will likely be replacing some of the depth players that might not have been producing the way Chicago had hoped.  The main exceptions to this will be the team’s two regular season scoring leaders - Jeff Downey has played his final season and will be retired, while free agent pickup Aleelee Kiak is at the end of his current contract and entering regression.  The front office will be reassured, however, by the flexibility offered by the team’s cap situation should they decide to make any moves.

 

“I think we proved a lot of people wrong,” Jean-Pierre Camus said in a post-game interview.  “We did well, but there’s still a lot to work on here too.  We’ve got a bright future ahead of us, and now we’ve got some good experience to build on as well.  I’m looking forward to Season 76.”