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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.

Nicky Pedersen Jr. Day May 24th - the headline ran in the Ridgebury News Times, the hometown paper of Pedersen Jr. Nicky,fresh off his breakout performance thru the first two rounds of the Western Conference, to reach the SHL final, visited his hometown Ridgebury, CT to meet the fans and tour around his old stomping grounds, before heading to West Kendall to face the Platoon. While visiting CT, Nicky was excited to do a meet and great for the first time in his career. As a third year player for the Calgary Dragons, it is tough for Peds to make it back to the east coast. So Nicky enthusiastically accepted the invite to go home and meet the young fans. Something that he saw first hand as the son of a SHL Hall of Famer, and always wanted to be able to one day have the opportunity to take a few minutes to make a young fan happy. So after the meet and great, Pedersen and a couple of his old high school friends, Stephon Frye and Schwinn Jensen went down to his favorite deli, loaded up on the Chicken Parms to bring to his Dragon Teammates, that he and his old man had been claiming as the best Parms on the planet. We shall see what kind of effect this will have on the Dragons as they face off against the best team in the league.

237 Words

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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.

1. Breakdown this finals matchup for us, how will it play out? who will be the stars of this series, what will the outcome be? (*tag anyone involved)

This series will come down to goaltending. They always do, and this series will also. Coming into this series, both Goal Tenders have been playing amazing. Both sport 8-2-1 records, with Beaujeaux Biscuit completely dominating his competition to the tune of 1.45 GAA, .950 save % & 4 Shutouts. Truly spectacular numbers, if that continues, it will be hard for anyone to beat WKP. On the other side of the ice, Calgary's Kata Vilde is doing some spectacular things of his own, sporting a 2.47 GAA. .924 save %, and 1 Shutout. Any other year, those numbers would be the talk of the playoffs.
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2. A major managerial showdown is about to take place Between WKP's (Jr95, Wongy) and Calgarys (Steelhead77, C00kies) which set of GM's have the tactical/managerial advantage in this series and why?

I have 5 reasons why I believe that Calgary's - Steelhead77 and C00kies have the advantage in this series. Season 27 - Down 0 games to 3 in the finals, finds a way to defeat Hamilton - Season 29 - Proved the first wasn't a fluke - Season 32 - Came back after a heartbreaking loss in S31 to Win their 3rd in 5 seasons - S40 - Built one of the best teams in SHL history - S42 - The "end" of the dynasty, so they say. They have continually found success, even after a complete rebuild. Missed the playoffs one season, had them back last year, winning a series, then this season back in the finals. Never count Esa out.

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?

For me West Kendall Platoons MVP is Bojo. Hands down, he's playing the best of any player in the playoffs. Insane numbers, I hope he comes back down to earth, because I'd like to win another cup, but it will be tough with goaltending like that. For the Dragons, I could go the easy route and pick Nicky Pedersen Jr., with his 11 points, including an OT Series winner, and another OT GWG. But that would be the easy route, so I am going to give my team MVP to Kata Vilde, without his stellar playing there is no way the Dragons are in the position they are in. Amazing playoff run for Vilde, and if it weren't for Bojo we would be talking more about Vilde.

4. Which player do you believe will be the differance maker in their franchise winning the title here in S47?
For the Dragons to win the title, they are really going to need their top line step up, and most importantly their Captain - Mike Izzy. Izzy has not had a bad playoffs, but when the 2nd line of the team and their goalie are doing most of the heavy lifting, there comes a point where the teams top line and best player needs to step up, put the franchise on his back and bring home another cup.


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.
I think that this is a mild surprise. I have outlined it before, when you have Steelhead77 at the helm, you can always expect for him to have the Dragons in a position to do well. We saw that last season with their sweep of Edmonton in the first playoff round, then moving on to this season, with the Dragons young players playing significant roles, it was matter if they would step up from the regular season. You saw it in the first game of the playoffs, when Rainbow Dash hung 4 goals on Edmonton. Then Nicky Pedersen Jr. putting it all together with an amazing end to the first round thru the Conference Finals. Am I surprised that they are in Finals, kinda. But I think you may have to get used to it though.

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?

With the way that Beaujeaux Biscuit has been playing, he could possibly carry a team of peewee players to the SHL title. Good thing for him, that his team is not full of peewee players so he should have some help along the way. As long as WKP keeps the pressure on Calgary, it will be hard not seeing the Biscuit raising a cup as well as the playoff MVP.


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Task 12: (Written, 3 TPE)
Theres no path to the finals without a little bit of adversity. In 150 words or more, write about the adversity one of the teams faced on the road to the Challenge Cup Finals. (*tag anyone involed)

Winning series are tough in the SHL, putting a team out of its misery is the hardest thing to do, when a team has their back against the wall, they do everything possible to be able to fight on and play one more game. Game 6 - Calgary v. Edmonton in the 2nd round of the playoffs was one of those situations. The Dragons and Blizzard played a hard fought series up to this point, with Calgary winning game 1 in OT, then getting blasted 5-1, before shutting out Edmonton 3-0 in game 3. Edmonton came right back with an OT victory of their own to knot the series at 2. Game 5 the Dragons came out of the gates firing on all cylinders scoring the first 4 goals of the game, and held on to win 4-2. That brings us to game 6. Backs against the wall, what does Edmonton do, they come out in the first period and out shoot Calgary 17-5... Fortunately for Calgary Kata Vilde decided tonight was the night, standing on his head, and turning away Edmonton time and again. The second period was more of the same, with one giant exception, the Dragons got on the board 2 times, only to have Edmonton cut their lead to 2-1, 22 seconds after Mike Izzy scored. Amazing again, the Blizzard outshot Calgary 14-9 in the 2nd. The third period, Edmonton struck early to tie the game at 2. They could smell the blood in the water, and the only thing that was keeping the Dragons boat afloat was Kata Vilde. Time and time again making saves on the Blizzard. The whistle sounded ending regulation in a 2-2 tie. The shots in regulation were - Edmonton 43, Calgary 17. Amazingly this game headed to overtime. Whistle blows 41 seconds into the extra frame, and Edmonton is on the power play. SHot after shot, save after save. Penalty Killed. Still the ice is slanted in Edmontons favor, until:

Free Puck Retrieved by Tor Tuck. Pass by Tor Tuck intercepted by Nicky Pedersen Jr. in neutral zone. Puck is dumped in Edmonton Blizzard zone by Nicky Pedersen Jr.. Puck retreived by Ensio Kalju.

Time : 12. Pass by Ensio Kalju intercepted by Nicky Pedersen Jr. in neutral zone. Pass to Maxime Bouchard in Edmonton Blizzard zone. Pass to Nicky Pedersen Jr.. Shot by Nicky Pedersen Jr.. Goal by Nicky Pedersen Jr. - Edmonton Blizzard : 2 - Calgary Dragons : 3

Without that timely goal by young Pedersen, and more importantly the amazing 47 save performance by Kata Vilde, who knows if the Dragons get out of the 2nd round of the playoffs to face Texas in the Western Conference Finals.

@mstuk41 @BarnabasCollins

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TASK 13: PM Sent