After a solid regular season from the St. Louis Scarecrows, we landed ourselves the #7 seed with a record of 36-24-6 led by Louis Belanger with a 92 point regular season in 66 games. This seeding placed us against the #8 seed Ottawa Highlanders who had a record of 36-27-3 led by Easton Schaffer with a 87 point regular season in 66 games. On paper, Ottawa had the better high-end scoring depth, when they had 6 players who had above 74 points, meanwhile the Scarecrows only have 2. Along with this, Ottawa also had the higher Goals For, Shots For and Powerplay percentage. On the otherhand, St. Louis had the better defense, with a lower Goals Against, Shots Against, and Penalty Kill. 

The series was quite high scoring, a defenses nightmare, with the first game going 8-5 in St. Louis' way. They dominited the shots 38-25, and converting on both of their 2 powerplay opportunintes they were given. On the other hand, the highlanders dominated the faceoff circle, 57-43, however did not get a single PP chance, which helped in their fall in game 1. In game 2, it was a much closer event with St. Louis taking it 5-4, however like the previous game they dominated the shots 51-37. However, this time the Highlanders were the one who got most of the powerplay chances, with 5, however they only converted once. Meanwhile with the one powerplay St. Louis got, they converted it. In game 3, this was a must win for the highlanders, and they played like it. Dominating the shot counter 50-33, and converting on their single powerplay chance. However, this wasn't enough to beat the Scarecrows, who took the game 6-5 thanks to their powerplay converting both of the 2 chances they had, and their goalie who played lights out stopping 45/50 shots. In game 4, the Highlanders took one back, making the overall series score 3-1, with a dominate performance, beating the Scarecrows in basically every statistic, shots, FO%, PP, hits, GA and TA. Scarecrows just made it obvious they didn't want this game, besides their goalie E.K Murray who kept them in the game. With game 5 coming back to St Louis, they knew they had to win this game in order to avoid the drastic momentum that could occur if they let the highlanders get hot. And they did exactly this, winning in a dominant fashion 7-2. They dominated every statistic just like the Highlanders did in the previous game. It was clear in this series the Scarecrows were relying on their first line dominating the opponents, and their 2nd and 3rd lines contribute to the scoring while also be solid defensively. 

In the next round, St. Louis had to face the 44-18-4 #3 seed Carolina Kraken led by Walbilly Koala, who scored 90 points in 66 games in the regular season. Scarecrows needed to start off strong on the road in order to have a chance to win this series, but the exact opposite occured and took an embarassing 7-2 defeat in game 1. Carolina near doubled their shots 44-25, and besides for the PP and Faceoffs they dominated everywhere on the ice. Carolina's depth helped a-lot with this, where 14 players scored a point in this game. Game 2 was a nightmare for both goalies, with the final score being 8-6. Unfortunately, although the game was much closer St. Louis fell. It was a better game, but the giveaways the Scarecrows were producing was costing them heavily, even so that their powerplay that went 2/3 couldn't save them. In Game 3, we brought our game however, with a dominant 9-1 victory. Shots were in our favour 36-29 and everything was better from the previous 2. Especially our giveaways. Depth were also scoring well with 10 of our players registering a point. And definetly helped out by our goalie E.K who stopped 28/29. With this dominant win, we thought we would be able to tie this series in Game 4, however the exact opposite occured. With Carolina winning 6-1, an embarrasing performance coming off that dominant game. We were dominated from the faceoff dot, it was a pure line diff. With multiple players on the Scarecrows going -5 and -4. A single line cost us this game which is quite bad. (I was on this line ;c). With the momentum gone, we hoped we would be able to squeeze out a game 6, but this didn't happen and we were dominated in Carolina 8-1. Getting outshot 40-29, giveaways high, and we were just outplayed. Carolina were the better team in this series. This was shown as in the final game of the series, 13 of their players scored a point. It was a very humbling experience especially coming off that game 3 high. 

The Scarecrows are a young team, and I only see them getting better from here. We will need to see how things play out.

@PandaMan approved, +5 tpe

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. ... There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”





Rurik Markov| C | SMJHL Prospect | Future Madison Valkyries
Birthplace: Visby, Sweden
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