Legacy vs Venom
Legacy win 2 straight, punch ticket to final
Both teams showed up with stacked benches, knowing a trip to the Finals was at stake and they didn’t disappoint. In game 1, J.Courteau was a force for Venom, as the power forward bagged a hat trick, but it wasn’t enough as P.Assadi found the back of the net for the game winner, with a little over 2 minutes remaining in the contest. As frustrating as losing game 1 was, Venom knew they had very little time to re-group to get back in the series. As expected, game 2 was also tightly disputed as both goaltenders stood on their head to keep the game close, with Venom forcing a shootout to keep their playoff hopes alive. F.Baratta was solid between the pipes as he denied all 3 Venom shooters, while E. Girouard capitalized on his shootout opportunity as the crafty veteran was the only one to solve M.Trivisonno, propelling Legacy to the Finals.
Armadillos vs Orient
Malkoun shuts the door, Orient prevail
It is often said that defense wins championships and the Orient seemed to buy into this message as they played shutdown hockey in order to muzzle the veteran Armadillos. By limiting their opponent to 35 shots in 2 games, the Orient we’re able to prevail in a thrilling game 2 shootout victory, as Billy Cabral scored the lone shootout marker as C.Malkoun stopped all 3 Armadillo shooters. F.Nasser was the most productive scorer accumulating 4 points, while J.Bolonakis did his part for the Armadillos with 3 points. Credit goes to their overall team defense, as well as banking on the brilliance of netminder C.Malkoun, which allowed them to prevail. It certainly didn’t help the Armadillos who were missing some key pieces and had a shorter bench, but hats off to the Orient for pulling through.
1 Timer vs Dragons
Series goes the distance, 1 Timer gets the job done
In a battle of 2 evenly matched teams, Maxime Carpentier was a force for the 1 Timer, participating in 7 of his team’s 10 goals with an impressive 5 goals & 2 assists. Game 1 went to 1 Timer, as they did their damage in the first period scoring all 3 goals and then managed to hang on and play sound defence as the Dragons comeback fell short. Dragon’s captain J.DeStefano rallied his troops as they came out a with a much better effort prevailing in game 2 and forcing a 3rd and deciding mini game. In the series finale, The 1 Timer was firing on all cylinders, getting 5 goals on their opponent, while shutting the door and only allowing 2 to get by F.Koch, as the goaltender was solid for his team when they needed him most. The 1 Timer have been on quite a roll lately, with timely scoring and clutch goaltending that sees them with yet another trip to the Finals of their respective division.
Ice Breakers vs Excalibur
Excalibur squeeze by in tight checking affair
They say anything can happen in the playoffs, you just need to get in. That’s exactly what happened as the Excalibur defeated the Ice Breakers in what you could call a slight upset. Game 1 was tightly contested, with Excalibur grabbing an early 1st period lead only to see the Ice Breakers come storming back in the 2nd period to tie it up, thus requiring a shootout, where both F.Bchara and A.Fonrose found the back of the net to decide it. Game 2 was a little different as the Ice Breakers had a better start and kept it tied late into the 2nd period, before J.Azoulay buried the most important goal of the series, with about 3 minutes remaining and it stood up as the game and series winning goal. Give credit to the Ice Breakers who held their own versus a veteran side in Excalibur and also to S.Sauk and his troops who held the fort allowing only 4 goals over 2 games.
Degenerates vs Chic Choc
Degenerates right the ship and advance to Final
Resilient teams find a way to win when the chips are down, and that’s exactly what happened on this night. After dropping a very close game 1 fairly late on a goal by JR Lemay, captain S.Sicuso remained calm and knew all that was needed was a few adjustments and a reset. The Degenerates stormed back to take both games by identical scorelines of 4-1, with A.Lanni being the catalyst as he often is igniting his team’s offence by bagging 3 goals. The Chic Choc tried their best to capitalize on their game 1 victory, but ran into a stingy defensive unit as well as a wall in goalkeeper J.Atch who shut it down and allowed his team to advance to the finals.
The Salumi Vino player of the night goes to M. Carpentier from 1 Timer.
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