[2553 words, ready for grading]

note: This was originally going to be just one long piece, but as I wrote I realized that the total length of the article could potentially exceed 4,000 or even 5,000 words, so I figured that it would be best to split it up into two releases since the first half is done. Part 1 will discuss the quarterfinal and semifinal series, Part 2 will be everything after. Enjoy!

The sound of Sophie Bordeleau's alarm pierced the afternoon air. The Quebec City Citadelles star awoke with an excited air about the room. Today would be the first game of the team's playoff run as they took on the Yukon Malamutes at home. Sophie knew that she would be expected to be a leader on the team, and she was determined to do everything she could to make sure that this run would end with lifting the Four Star Cup. In the locker room before Game 1, the air was tense as the players quietly dressed for their game. All of them knew what the stakes were for these playoffs; even though they hadn't expected to win the Laurifer, it was the last shot at the playoffs for their two senior stars in Sophie and her linemate Portgas D. Ace and both of them had been through the same heartbreaks. The first game of this second-round series started out physical at first. With the Citadelles having been on a bye, both teams were feeling each other out to try and figure out any weak spots and get their legs under them. There were a few power plays to give teams chances, but neither side could break through until the third period when the Citadelles got a break and fired a shot past the Yukon goalie to break the deadlock. Sophie herself added a goal for some insurance and the game ended with a solid 3-0 victory from the home side to open their playoff run. The second game was more even but still yielded the same result as the Citadelles buckled down with a three-goal third period to take a 5-2 victory and a 2-0 series lead as the team prepared to head up north.

As the series shifted to Whitehorse, Sophie found herself annoyed as the first few minutes of Game 3 went by. The Citadelles had scored the first goal, but Yukon had come back to take a 2-1 lead. Sophie herself was having trouble getting free of the tight-checking Yukon defense, whose goal seemed to have been simply to stop her line from doing their thing. She'd been good in the faceoff circle to get her team the puck to start plays, but with being a smaller centre it was tough to create space with a physical disadvantage. She tried her best to use her skating to get into open spots and make something happen, and sometimes she pushed too hard to create a play out of nothing and it would result in a turnover. The Malamutes took the third game 4-1, and for Sophie it was a reality check that she would need to get tough for the next game. Game 4 started out encouragingly as well. The Citadelles were almost all the way through a power play, and with a Yukon player off the ice they weren't able to cover her line as tightly. Tony Hawkey took a pass in the high zone and made as if to shoot. A blocker went down, and for a second Sophie was able to get free of her check and get a stick on the ice. That second was all Tony needed as he fired a quick pass that she could tip into the net for the game's opening goal. Unfortunately, the tight checking returned and the Malamutes tied the game before tacking on three goals in the second period to bring the series even. Sophie, the central factor in Quebec's offense, was being neutralized and the team was paying for it. 

Coming back home for Game 5, Sophie was frustrated. Her line with Ace and Tam Kove had been getting shadowed closely the entirety of the first four games and she hadn't been able to break through. Getting back on home ice, the coaches had made some adjustments in the morning skate and practice that would hopefully get Sophie and her linemates some more time and space. It seemed to pay off immediately, as just two minutes into the game she was able to benefit from a nice play by the Kove brothers, Tam and Nevek, and put away an easy shot to give Quebec a quick 1-0 lead. A few minutes later, Sophie took a pass from her rookie teammate Alexander Minaj with a head of steam in the neutral zone. Using her speed and shiftiness, Sophie was able to get some loose ice and fire off a quick shot which beat the Yukon goalie clear on the blocker side. Now with the monkey off her back from being dogged for the first four games, she played an inspired and driven game as the Citadelles simply had their way in the game. With three more assists to lead Quebec to a 6-0 win, it was a happy squad that decamped to the locker room with a 3-2 series lead and a chance to close out the matchup.

Heading back to Yukon for a potential series-clinching game, the match got off to an inauspicious start for Quebec when Yukon scored on the first shot, and the home team added another goal to take an early 2-0 lead. The motivator in this one would be Jack St. Clair, who jumped on a turnover and fired in a goal to cut the lead in half. From here, it was a back-and-forth affair where neither team could break free of the other. In the third period, Sophie got on the board on a power play. She took a pass from the defender and looked for a shooting lane, but didn't find one. She waited for the defender to go down for a block, then with a quick stride pivoted and found her linemate Portgas D. Ace with a laser-precise pass for an open net. 4-3 Citadelles, and for Quebec they finally had the lead and the momentum. With a little over two minutes to go, Ace took a penalty that put Quebec down a player at a critical time. Yukon won the faceoff, made a quick pass back to the defender, and with one screened slapshot the game was tied and life was poured back into the arena. The game seemed like it was going to go to overtime late. With time running out, the puck was dumped into the Quebec end and the breakout wasn't clean. The puck was turned over and went into the corner where a pitched battle for possession took place. With only a few seconds left, the Yukon player got control of the puck and found the defenseman at the blueline. With no time left to think about it, the defender just fired it on goal. There was the sound of the goal horn, and just barely later, the buzzer. Yukon's bench erupted while the Citadelles players on the ice cried foul, but after a review the goal stood. Quebec would be going home for a seventh game.

Despite the loss, you'd never have known how gut-wrenching Game 6 had been by watching Game 7. With a day off, Sophie had taken a break after practice and film study to clear her head. With the way Game 7 went, you'd never have known about the brutal ending. The Citadelles came out with a confident air and were up 3-0 by the halfway point of the game, and with a near two-to-one ratio in outshooting their opponents they were able to lock down the game at home for the series win. Next up after the Game 7 victory was a familiar foe in the St. Louis Scarecrows. The Citadelles had met and beaten them in last year's semifinal, so there were definitely rivalries here as many of the same players were back for another run. After a closely-fought series and fighting through a tough personal matchup for her line, Sophie was confident in her ability to get going in the next series against St. Louis. Little did she or the team know that their difficulties were just getting started.

~~~

The semifinal series got off to a promising start for the Citadelles in Game 1. Their opponents played an undisciplined game and Quebec had seven power plays in the game. Despite this, the Citadelles man-advantage unit couldn't capitalize on any of them and a close 2-2 game went to overtime. With six minutes left in the first extra frame, Seamus Weaver jumped on a loose puck to score his first of multiple huge goals in Quebec's playoff run. The bad luck continued in Game 2, as despite outshooting the Citadelles 43-18 and massively outhitting them Quebec just couldn't solve Anthony Dionne. Wiping out two power plays with costly penalties hurt the team as well. With eight minutes left to go in Game 2, the Scarecrows took a 3-2 lead that they would add an insurance goal to later, evening the series and taking home ice. Once the series shifted to St. Louis, the wheels seemed to be coming off as the Citadelles faced an uphill battle. Both games 3 and 4 seemingly played out the same way: Quebec was massively outshot, and though Caleb Hayden put up some masterful goaltending he couldn't hold off the surge forever and the dam broke for a quick succession of goals that put the game out of reach. For the first time in these playoffs, Quebec was trailing in a series, and this time it was with their backs against the wall.

Down 3-1 in the series to the St. Louis Scarecrows, there was a sense of urgency in Sophie that was permeating the team. She didn't want to go out like this. Having one of the best seasons in franchise history to lead a team expecting to rebuild to a first-place finish, and with the past playoff heartbreaks in the minds of everyone on the team nobody in their room wanted their amazing run to end like this. In Game 5, Sophie got the ball rolling on the comeback by scoring the first two goals of the game in the first period, injecting much-needed energy into the team and stadium. The rest of the team kept the wave going as Jack St. Clair added two more goals to cap off a dominant first period. When Tony Hawkey scored less than 30 seconds into the second period to make the score 5-0, the crowd was fully into the game and never stopped cheering. The Scarecrows tried to mount a response of their own, but several penalties just shut them down. The final score was 6-3, and for the second straight Game 5 Sophie had been one of the team's leaders. They would next be off on a road game to try and win the right to play at least one more game at home. Heading into unfamiliar territory, it was like the Citadelles had brought their crowd's energy with them. Tommy Thompson got the scoring started with an early goal, and while the Scarecrows tied it early in the second Quebec was just warming up. The party really got started when Hunter Havok, Ace, Nikolai Skovgaard and Viktor Hargreeves all scored within a 7-minute span to chase Anthony Dionne from the net and take a huge lead. The Citadelles would hang on to this lead for the rest of the game and left the arena that night having pulled even in the series from an unlikely deficit.

Having regrouped and pulled off two huge wins to force a seventh game, tensions were high going into the rubber match at home. The game started out fairly even, with neither side being able to break through, but very late in the second period disaster struck when Dan Baltisberger tipped a shot past Caleb Hayden to take the game's first lead. Going back to the room, there was a sense of apprehension and tightness in the team as they sat down at their stalls to catch their breath. Sophie rested her elbows on her knees and held her own head, closing her eyes and trying to clear her mind of the stress of the series. Almost four minutes into the third period, the situation got even worse when the Scarecrows added a second goal to their lead. Emotions ran high, but the coach called a timeout after this goal and it seemed to help. Just after seven minutes into the period, Ace got open for a shot that beat Anthony Dionne for a goal to pull within one. The Citadelles kept trying for the tying goal, but it wasn't until there were only three minutes left that they got the break they needed. A shot by Tommy Thompson was deflected out by the goalie, but it took a bad bounce and ended up going right to Hunter Havok. He reacted instantly with a shot that hit the back of the net and sparked pandemonium in the arena. After being down 3-1 in the series, and trailing by two goals with less than 15 minutes left in a decisive game, the Quebec City Citadelles had come all the way back to be just one goal from going back to the Four Star Cup finals.

Game seven, overtime. The biggest of clutch situations. The overtime started out slow as the two teams tried to feel each other out, not wanting to overcommit and make a mistake that would lead to the winning goal for the other side. Gaining confidence, Sophie tried to lead her line on a break into the Scarecrows zone but they weren't able to get past their back line and ended up going to the bench while the other lines took their shot at cracking the problem. Almost six minutes in, a turnover in the neutral zone sent two St. Louis forwards in on a break with only one player back to defend. One of the worst situations for a goalie possible, and it was happening with the whole season on the line. The puck was passed across and a quick shot was taken, and for a moment time seemed to slow down. Lunging across in desperation was Caleb, and Sophie silently hoped with everything she had that he'd get there. Seemingly out of nowhere, a flailing blocker caught the path of the puck and redirected it to the corner of the rink, and a great cheer was heard through the rink as the fans realized what had happened. Back to pick up the puck was Alexander Minaj, and with his strong skating he was able to get it up to the "Kid Line" that had been so good throughout the season. Tony Hawkey corraled the past and played a quick give-and-go with Seamus Weaver in the neutral zone. Tony waited to draw attention, then fed a quick pass to Seamus who got the jump on the defense and was in behind them all alone. He didn't go for anything fancy and took a quick shot when he got close enough. Sophie didn't actually see the puck go in, but she saw the red light go on and heard the sound of the horn and the roar of the crowd. The team, as one, climbed over the bench and raced towards Seamus to celebrate the overtime hero. Back from the edge of going home, the Quebec City Citadelles would play for the Four Star Cup.