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Mack · 05-13-2020, 03:29 PM

Double Media - Week 2

S43 Challenge Cup Champions
West Kendall Platoon

10 seasons ago the West Kendall Platoon shocked the SHL. They swept the Presidents' Trophy winning Winnipeg Jets in the Finals to win the Challenge Cup. This really was an underdog story as the the Platoon just barely limped into the playoffs. Out of all teams to make the playoffs, the Platoon had the fewest points in the regular season with 49. They lost their final two games and were lucky to make the playoffs as the Stars finished just 2 points back of them, the Wolfpack 3 back and the last place Rage were only 4 points behind the Platoon.

I was not a part of either of these teams but when writing another article this team got on my radar and I wanted to write a bit about it to learn some more. I am sure someone from the Platoon at the time can give a better insider perspective but let's take a look at the team.

S43 WKP Regular Season

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In the regular season the Platoon were really pretty average finishing 23-24-3. They were not great at home or on the road and nothing was that special about them, although they did have a few things going for them. They were 4th in the league on the Power Play with a 24.44% as well as 5th overall in PK with a 79.14% rating. They managed to put a lot of shots on net as well averaging 34.74 a game, good for 2nd in the league. Also they were a well disciplined team taking the 3rd least amount of penalties against.

Regular Season Scoring Leaders:

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Here we can see they were lead by Winger Dani Forsberg with 57 Points in 50 games. (Winner of the S43 Jeff Dar Trophy for best two-way player) Forsberg played mostly on the 2nd line with Center Alex Light and he was very effective on the Power Play from the point as his coach would like to play 4 forwards and 1 D on the Power Play. This strategy was great in STHS and it lead to a lot of success for Forsberg. Also Forsberg was a hitting machine leading his team with 194 hits. Right behind him on the list of points is his center Alex Light and these two clearly had some nice chemistry. The 1st line was not too shabby themselves with durable winger Trevor Wilson getting 52 points and his center Leafer Rielly netting 21 goals and 42 points. The two star defencemen on the team were Jon Ross and Ludwig Koch Schroder. They were both amazing players and the coach would play them on different lines most often to try and have one of them out there as much as he could. They did spend some time together occasionally.

Trade:

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Around halfway through the season the GM of the WKP JR95 identified a need for a 3rd line winger. He had Cam Ouellette playing down there and it just wasn't working out very well. He decided to trade away a big up and coming name in David Fantobens with a 1st round pick for Paddy O'Sullivan who just finished his rookie SHL season with the Renegades and two 2nd round picks. He hoped Paddy could spark that 3rd line which was struggling all season. O'Sullivan took a bit of time to get used to the WKP but overall he had a really solid playoffs for them as a 3rd liner so no matter what happened with the trade eventually, the WKP won a cup with him playing over 14 mins a night in the playoffs so congratulations to them, some great teams/players never win a cup. He had 5 points in the playoffs is his 3rd line role finishing +4 with 17 Hits and only 1 minor penalty.

Playoffs:

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Hamilton Steelhawks

In the playoffs the Platoon first had to face the best in the East and 2nd best team overall,the Hamilton Steelhawks. The Steelhawks made it a good series but in the 4 wins for the Platoon a few players really stood out. Dionyz Vyskoc was one of the 3 stars in 3 out of 4 wins. He finished with 4 goals and 3 assists in the 6 games and was really solid for WKP. Trevor Wilson had 4 goals and 5 assists to lead the team in scoring with 9 points. In the sixth and deciding game Dani Forsberg went off scoring a hat-trick and adding 2 assists as the WKP won 6-3 and sent the Steelhawks packing. Platoon goaltender Beaujeaux Biscuit was amazing in this series but also all throughout the playoffs. Biscuit had the best numbers of any goalie finishing the playoffs with a stellar 0.927 Save Percentage and a 2.29 GAA.

Buffalo Stampede

Next up was the Buffalo Stampede who finished 8 points ahead of them in the standings. Beaujeaux Biscuit was warmed up from the first round and he was a brick wall in this series. In two of the wins he was first star, starting with game 1. In the first game he had 40 saves on 42 against as the WKP won 5-2 and put the heat on the Stampede early. Buffalo did steal a win on the back of their goalie Jordin FourFour Jr in game 3 as they were outshot 41-22 by the Platoon but won 4-1 thank to FourFour Jr. The Stampede just couldn't match the big guns of the Platoon and in game 5 Alex Light and Jon Ross were the two best players for the Platoon and really helped carry their team to a second series victory.

Winnipeg Jets

In the Finals the West Kendall Platoon faced the Presidents' Trophy winning Winnipeg Jets. The Jets were lead by the legend himself, Jason Visser -ToeDragon84. He finished the regular season with 74 points, his second highest total of his career. (Good enough to win both the Ron Mexico and the Sarmad Khan trophies) Also 12 points ahead of Seattle's Louie Garret who finished 2nd with 62 points. Visser entered the Finals of these playoffs with 15 points in 13 games and was looking to lead the Jets to a cup. The Platoon had other plans and somehow were able to not only sweep the Jets but keep Jason Visser to only 1 assist and zero goals in the 4 game series. Locking him down like that was too much for the rest of the Jets to make up for. In game 1 Karsten Kadinger, a 3rd pairing defenseman had a hat-trick! What a way to start the S43 Finals. The Jets had a strong game from Pietra Volkova with 2 goals but goalie Artom Zhumbayev struggled letting in 4 goals on only 22 shots against. Game 2 was all about the WKP first line as Leafer Rielly, Trevor Wilson and Dionyz Vyskoc each had 2 points. The Jets first line did get a goal and Visser his one and only point of the series but it just wasn't enough and Biscuit shut the door in the final 2 periods as the WKP won 3-1. In Game 3 it looked like the Jets had a good shot to make this a 2-1 series as they were winning 2-0 with under 1 minute left in the 2nd period. That's when the player the Platoon traded for, Paddy O'Sullivan scored his first goal of the playoffs to get the WKP on the board late in the 2nd. It ignited them and they scored 2 PP goals in the 3rd to win the game 3-2. In the fourth and final game of the series the Platoon just were out for blood. They outshot the Jets 18-5 in the first period and got a goal from Forsberg. The 3rd line of the Jets couldn't handle the Platoon and although the Jets did score a goal with under 3 minutes left in the game, they never really had a chance and lost 2-1. Alex Light was the 1st star and had the Cup Winning goal. Crossfit Jesus did get 4 points in the series and lead the entire playoffs with 22 points in 17 games. Trevor Wilson of the WKP had 21 in 15 to lead the Platoon. The Platoon outshot the Jets 121-92 in the series.
The Anton Razov Trophy for playoff MVP went to Beaujeaux Biscuit with his amazing numbers listed earlier he was by far the best goalie of the playoffs.

What happened?

Was Beaujeaux Biscuit just unbeatable? Well for the whole season the Jets top line was winning them games as C-Visser LW-Bearss RW-Arrivabene. In games 1 and 2 of the finals they continued with these lines but lost both games in pretty tight losses. The top line was getting points as Maurizio Arrivabene had 2 goals and 1 assist. Corey Bearss had 2 assists and Visser was trailing with just the 1 assist. The trio had 25 shots total in the 2 games as well so they were getting lots of chances but Biscuit was great. The Coach of the Jets decided to mix it up though and bumped Visser and Maurizio Arrivabene down to the second line for game 3. Center Zach Evans and winger Crossfit Jesus were bumped to line 1 alongside Bearss. In game 3 the Jets managed to only get 19 shots on net to the WKP's 29. They lost 3-2 but got two goals from defenseman Karl Hefeweizen. Line 2 with Visser, Arrivabene and Volkova didn't click well and they were each -1 with no points. The coach decided to keep the lines the same and again in game 4 the Jets couldn't get anything going offensively with only 17 shots on net to the WKP's 36. The new top line did get a goal with under 3 mins to go in the game but it just was too little too late. Looking back at it now it would have been cool to see what might have happened if the Jets stuck with the Lines that got them there. Biscuit might have just been too much no matter what they did though, who really knows. (not I, this is just for fun) That being said the Jets did get revenge the following year winning the S44 cup against the same WKP! The finals went 6 games and I checked game 6 to see what the lines were and here we go:

Center: Jason Visser
Left Wing: Corey Bearss
Right Wing: Maurizio Arrivabene
Defense: Troy McClure III
Defense: Max Weber
Goalie: Artom Zhumbayev

So it looks like the Jets stuck with Visser all the way the next year and managed to win the cup from the Platoon. Overall though the Platoon just all came together well as a team. It wasn't just Bojo but they had a lot of great performances in the playoffs across their roster. What a great battle it was over these two seasons for the Jets and Platoon, must have been fun to be a part of for both teams.

Final Platoon S43 Playoff Stats:

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So congratulations to the West Kendall Platoon for this great Cinderella run Cup win after just winning it 2 seasons prior in S41. You are now the Baltimore Platoon and I am sure the winning ways will follow you there as this organization always seems to be run very well. Cheers to the underdog!

Double Media - Week 2

*Zoone16* · 05-13-2020, 04:16 PM

We pulled a LA Kings and went on a streak at the right time. The trades shored up our weaknesses at the same time. Perfect eye of the storm moment.

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