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Jearim · 05-26-2019, 12:17 AM

It was a hard fought battle. 7 games and even that looked to be way to tight to call. Texas and New Orleans went head to head in the 2nd round of the SHL playoffs and it was a classic series for the books. NOLA, only their second season, have built a strong and vibrant rivalry with none other than the Texas Renegades.

6 regular season games split down the middle with 3 wins each. Texas slightly outscoring Nola 21 to 18 in those 6 games and even tho it was tight between them, Nola finished 1st in the west while Texas had a round 1 bout with SF.

With Texas winning Game 7, we take a quick look back at the 7 games that will be remembered for seasons to come. NOLA may have been outscored in the regular season but they did the outscoring this time around with 24 goals for and 21 goals in favour of Texas.

Texas Shocked New Orleans right out of the gate with a 3-2 win followed by a 4-3 Ot win right after taking a quick 2-0 series lead. However, right after came a quick 5-1 Nola win. Making a statement that they were all but done. They followed that with a 4-3 win and 5-3 win to take a 3-2 strangle hold on the series and all but claim victory over the Renegades.

But like all things between NOLA and Texas, things never go as planned. Texas coming home to a huge 3-2 overtime win to tie the series and force a game 7.

Texas came out of the gate flying and it only took 4:12 for Texas to take the lead as Nico Gross got his 3rd on a pass from Logan Jensen and Karen Gronkjaer. Nola replied fairly quickly as at 6:30 Soren Kierkegaard got his 1st of the post season. Oisin Fletcher followed that goal with his own at 12:29 with assists from Patrick Brumm Jr and Joe Kurczewski. Texas would not go into the 1st intermission down 2-1 so Chuck Crutchfield got his 5th of his rookie playoff season at 13:30 on the power play to end the first 2-2.

The second was relatively quiet as the only goal came from Joe Kurczewski at 8:22.

The third period saw much back and forth but at 18:09 Louie Garrett scored to tie the game at 3 with under 2 minutes to go. Finally at 19:14, Texas took the lead when Iam Essellemm scored his 8th of the Post season to eliminate New Orleans and progress to round 3 where Texas will meet another rival team, the Calgary Dragons.

A quick post season Comparison of Texas and Calgary. The Dragons have Rainbow Dash who leads the team with 8 points, 5 of those are goals, in 6 games. Rookie Bouchard has 7 points, all Assists, and Mike Izzy and Nick Pedersen Jr both have 5 points. Goalie Rival/ Friend to Walter Hobbs, Kata Vilde is 4-1-1 with a .925 sv% and a 2.41 G.A.A. He has 1 Shutout and has started his playoffs hot.

Texas, having played more games due to round 1 not being a bye, bring a ton of fire power. Iam Essellemm has 15 points in 12 games. Leads the team in goals with 8. Louie Garrett also has 15 points as he has 12 assists. Logan Jensen is second on the team in goals with 6 and he has 13 points. Goalie Walter Hobbs started hot but has seen his performance drop a little. In 12 games he is 8-4 with a .910 SV% and a 2.85 G.A.A. He has 1 shutout. He will need to be on top of his game to help Texas have a shot at a Challenge cup Championship for the first time since S36.