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1. And after that stoppage in play, we’ll see these two of the top centers in the SHL at the dot for this face-off in the Steelhawks’ zone. We’re about 40 seconds into this overtime period, and the fans are on their feet chanting “DE-FENSE, DE-FENSE.”

Colt wins the face-off versus Szlerchek and passes to Ziepens who tries to get the puck out of the defensive zone. He dishes to Pellegrino, who gives it back as Ziepens enters the neutral zone. He’s got the defense on its heels, and enters the Platoon zone without difficulty. Maximova stops retreating though, and steps into Ziepens who crumples to the ice. Maximova scoops the puck up and makes the outlet pass to Lloren in the neutral zone. Lloren passes the puck to a streaking Ales Smirnov, and the rest of the Platoon is entering the ‘Hawks zone en masse. Smirnov drops it back to Maximova, who quickly gives it to Szlerchek. ONE-TIMER! That shot misses the net entirely, and we’ve just crossed the minute mark into the overtime frame. That shot was so hard, it bounced off the end boards, and is almost back to the blue-line. Maximova comes up to the top of the circle, fires a slap shot through traffic. Tanner can’t see it, it’s over his shoulder… and IN! PLATOON WINS! PLATOON WINS! Maximova is the hero of the night, after tying the game up in the third period, she gets the defensive stop and the overtime goal to win it.



2. Zalleras Szlerchek was the West Kendall Platoon’s most reliable weapon in the regular season campaign. He fell just shy of repeating his point per game performance of S28, scoring 49 points in 50 games this season. He scored 22 goals (.44 gpg), 27 assists (.54 apg), delivered 80 hits (1.6 hpg), took 205 shots (4.1 spg), and won 55.15% of his face-offs.

In the playoffs, he actually exceeded the point per game mark by notching 8 points in 6 games (1.33 ppg). He tallied 2 goals (.33 gpg), 6 assists (1 apg), 15 hits (2.5 hpg), 17 shots (2.83 spg), and won 51.98% of face-offs.

From this examination, we see that Szlerchek improved his assists and hit production, but his goals tailed off significantly. This correlates well to the fact that he was only taking about 75% as many shots during the postseason as the regular season. We can only wonder if Szlerchek had been a little more selfish in the playoffs – if he’d taken more shots, he might have notched a couple more goals and the Platoon might’ve taken home some more crucial wins. Furthermore, the fact that he was losing 4% more face-offs wasn’t helping matters either. While his numbers were still fantastic through the post-season, he’ll spend the offseason wondering if he could have given more.


3. Game 6 of the first round of the SHL Challenge Cup Playoffs was arguably the most pivotal game of the postseason for the West Kendall Platoon. West Kendall had been plagued by several problems throughout the postseason, including penalties, poor play from net-minder Colin Schmidt while seeing unbelievable play from opposing goalie Jakob Tanner. West Kendall managed to overcome one of those problems, allowing only one power play (though Hamilton did in fact score on it), but saw no changes from the netminders. With Tanner stopping 39 of 42 shots, Hamilton would get the OT win to move on to face Toronto. But what if the Platoon had won?

West Kendall would have then faced a game 7, in Hamilton, and still would have faced quite the challenge in advancing. However, a game 6 loss just might have rattled Tanner enough to bring him from the god-like performance he was putting on to merely being superhuman. In that scenario, West Kendall’s high octane offense would’ve likely had sufficient firepower to squeak by and into the Eastern Conference Finals. If that were to happen, WKP would have faced their rivals, the Toronto North Stars. During the regular season, West Kendall had a 3-1-0 record against the North Stars, but only a +1 goal differential. Still, it seems reasonable to posit that had the Platoon won Game 6, they could have won through to the conference finals, the Cup finals, and might have even hoisted the cup itself.

4. Upon winning the Challenge Cup for the first time in his career, Klaus Wagner pondered what to do on his day with the cup. He decided that the best thing to do would be to bring the Cup to Germany. He started by bringing the cup to his hometown of Munich, as he wanted to show the fans back home that the football club wasn’t the only game worth watching. He came into town on the train – in Germany, it’s the only way to travel (assuming you don’t favor the Audobahn) – and stepped off to a crowd chanting his name. This was quite unexpected to Wagner, who had grown up in relative obscurity given that he wasn’t a footballer. Wagner hoisted the cup over his head, and the crowd burst into uproarious cheering.

Wagner carried the down the main street, to the arena where he’d played hockey as a youth. There, he met with the kids in the youth program he’d played in, and encouraged them that if they continued to work hard and train hard, they too could one day be a professional hockey player, and bring honor and glory to their family, team and nation. Wagner took pictures with the kids and the cup, and signed them all. Wagner spent the rest of the day with his family, and returned the cup at the end of the day.