Task 01: (Written, 3 TPE)
You are at the airport awaiting a flight to meet back up with your team after spending the day being honoured as a 'Hometown Hero' in the place where you grew up! Tell us about your day... what did they have planned for you? Who did you see there? What were you given? How did it turn out? ... In 150 words or more, tell us all about this big moment as hometown hero.
When I arrived into my home village - known as Turku, I was greeted by a group of hefty ladies. I have never hidden my love towards the chunky dames, so the local XL fan club of mine were there to say hello! I thought that was nice of them to come to the airport on a Monday morning. They had planned couple hours of activities for us. First stop was at the local restaurant called ´Rax´, all you can eat and we did. After the giant meal I started to feel sleepy, the fans thought that is something that could happen, so they brought a tent with them!

We walked into the woods near Rax, set the tent up and took short nap. After hour or so, we started moving towards the center of Turku, where a little musical event in my honor was supposed to happen, but unfortunately the band was nowhere to be seen, couple drunks sang the Finlandia hymn to me, nice voices those lads had, I appreciated the effort and thanked them. From there on I spent the day alone in my hotel. I´m not that famous in Turku, I have openly told that I dislike people of Turku with passion, that has ruined my reputation in the city.

Task 05: (Written, up to 6 TPE)
Pick up to 6 challenge cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth '1' TPE. Each answer must be '50' words or more.

3. Which player in the finals should be considered their teams playoff MVP and which should be considered their teams unsung hero thus far and why?
From WKP the MVP has to be Beaujeaux Biscuit, save percentage of 95 is ridiculous number. Calgary´s MVP I´d give to Rainbow Dash, 9 points in 11 games, 25 hits and only 4 penalty minutes - great two-way player who has been able to score at solid pace as well. Unsung heroes of this matchup is WKP`s Brokstad and Kirkby, 4 points for both and +/- rating of +4, great defensive performances.

4. Which player do you believe will be the differance maker in their franchise winning the title here in S47?
I just have to mention Biscuit from WKP again, he is carrying WKP on his shoulders and pushing the team forward, excellent goalie who gives his team a chance to win and a lot more, he can be the difference maker on any game, four shoutouts already in the playoffs and only 16 goals against in 11 games - elite totals.

5. After trading off there best players and declaring themselves in a full rebuild back in S45, The Calgary Dragons have made it to the S47 finals.. just 2 seasons later.  Choose: ('No surprise', 'mild surprise', 'major surprise' or 'in shock') and explain why.
Mild surprise. It´s maybe slightly too early to say they are out of rebuild, is this more of a luck thing? and maybe they are not even saying that they are done rebuilding, but making the finals so early after declaring for rebuild two seasons earlier has to be surprise of some kind, especially when you think about what kind of teams did not make it as far.

6. Which young players in this series (S42-S47) have a chance to break out and make a name for themselves here in the Challenge Cup Finals? (*Tag that player)
Chico Smeb from Calgary is one, drafted on s46, 2+2 and +8 on the +/- column so far in the playoffs, he is elite defender in this league really soon!

Rex Kirkby is a leading player for WKP already, drafted on S43, so he is bit older than Smeb, but still has room to grow, 1+3 in 11 games and playing tough minutes on the first pairing, important player for WKP.

@xDParK @Acsolap

7. The West Kendall Platoon are back in the finals after a season out of the playoffs and a team that was in serious regression Choose: ('No surprise', 'mild surprise', 'major surprise' or 'in shock') and explain why.
Mild surprise. When you miss the playoffs, usually the main goal for season after is not to make the finals, so at least for me WKP making it has been a surprise. Obviously they are a talented team right now, but competition around the league is fierce, impressive that WKP managed to find one more gear after a weaker season.

8. Star netminders Kata Vilde and Beaujeaux Biscuit have both carried there teams into the finals. Which franchise goalie has a better chance to carry their franchise to a title?
Biscuit is my pick, simply because he has been more impressive so far. Vilde has faced 50 more shots, so in that way comparison between the two is not as fair as it could be, but when you look at the save percentages, Biscuit has been on top of his game all playoffs long and deserve the nod over Vilde. Vild is not a bad goalie, but if Kata wants to beat Biscuit, need to find one more level in the finals.


TASK 08: (Graphic, 3 TPE)
The WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) and the SHL are working together as the cover of thier June magazine will boast an SHL player in the finals along side an animal.. and your job is to create the cover!  On a Magazine cover, should include the WWF logo, a title of front page, an SHL players render, his name and team logo, plus an animal of your choice next to him.





Task 09: (Written, 3 TPE)
Which organization that didnt make it to the finals would you consider to be the biggest disappointment? What do you think are the main reasons why they fell short this season? (Must be 150 words or more)

I have to say Edmonton Blizzard not making it was a big blow to the good old gonads. Defense and goaltending is among the best in the league, maybe even the best. On top of that the regular season was a good one, third most points in the whole league, the least goals scored against on average,second most goals scored and best powerplay. The expectations were high before the playoffs, but unfortunately for Edmonton, ride ended on the first round againts Calgary who won 4-2. One of the biggest reasons for Edmontons failure was undisciplined style of play, too many penalty minutes and too many high percentage chances against on 5v5. Icing on the cake was first line Rockefeller,Knouse and Lombardi scoring only two goals, so Blizzard was not deadly enough on the other end either. Top line guys were not leading players offensively against Calgary and to give credit to the Dragons, they did great job shutting the line down. Overall, a lot of smaller things combined that unfortunately costed games and in the end the series.



TASK 13: (*CASUAL MEMBER SPECIAL* Send answer in PM, up to 3 TPE)
Its trivia time with 4 questions related to our Challenge Cup participants!

PM SENT