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Challenge Cup Finals - NOLA v HAM
#1

The finals are set.  This seasons Challenge Cup will pit the Eastern Conference Champions, and reigning Challenge Cup winners, Hamilton Steelhawks against the New Orleans Specters, a team who in their relatively short history have been to the Cup finals once before, in their inaugural season (S46), losing in a seven game series.

I wanted to take a quick look at how these two teams got here and give an quick overview on what to potentially expect. 

Let’s start with the Hamilton Steelhawks, they won the Challenge Cup last season, their second in the past three seasons, and had the second best regular season in the SHL, only behind the Buffalo Stampede.  The Steelhawks 38-10-2 record was good for 78 points, and along the way they scored 220 times (2nd in the league in goals for as well) and only let in 106 goals (once again, good enough for 2nd overall in the league).  Led by Flacko Lagerfield, Hamilton put up a lot of points, Lagerfield lead the league in points with 84 (42 goals / 42 assists) and his teammates Aaron Wilson and Robert Phelps both found themselves in the top ten of scoing, with 66 and 65 points respectively.  On the back end, defenders Tig Murphy and Gabriel Johnson led the way, Johnson scoring 8 goals and 36 assists and Murphy netting 10 goals and adding 32 assists.  On the physical side of things, Tig Murphy and Samuel Michard were the only two Steelhawks who had over 100 hits during the regular seasons.  In goal, Geezus Kryyst started 43 games for his team, with a final record of 32-9-2.  His GAA was 2.22 and his save percentage was .913%.

The playoffs started at home for Hamilton, and first up for them was the Manhattan Rage.  They made quick work of the Rage, winning the first two games at home and then continuing the trend, and took the next two on the road.  Sweeping their Eastern Conference competitors, the only team to accomplish this so far in the playoffs.

After a little bit of a wait, the Steelhawks were matched up against the best team in the regular season, the Buffalo Stampede.  The two teams led the league for most of the season and now these two juggernauts were going toe to toe for a shot at a place in the Challenge Cup finals.  It was a hard fought battle that went the full seven games, and even then, overtime was needed to decide the winner.  Hamilton left Buffalo with a 2-1 OT win and the Western Conference title.

Looking at the New Orleans Specters, they also finished the season with the second highest point total in their conference, just two points behind the Western Conference leader, Los Angles Panthers.  During the season, the Specters scored 163 goals (second in the conference) while having 138 goals against (tied for third).  On the offensive side of things, Lil’ Manus scored 17 times and added 40 helpers for a team high 57 points.  He along with his teammate Olivier Cloutier (23 goals / 32 assists for 55 points were the only two players on the New Orleans squad represented in the top 25 on scoring for the league.  Nicolas Williams wasn’t too far behind with 47 points (16 goals / 31 assists).  On the blue line, Lyle Odelein III and Kaspars Claude were the top two point getters for NOLA, Odelein with 11 goals and 21 assits and Claude with 7 goals and 18 assits. On the physical side of things, top point scorer Lil’ Manius played the body 240 times and his teammate on the blue line was the only other player to surpass the 100 hit mark, Lyle Odelein finished the season with 179 hits.  Between the pipes, Aleister Cain started 40 games for the Specters, his record was 23-13-4.  He finished the season with a GAA of 2.78 and a save percentage of .903%.

NOLA’s playoffs started off with a match up against the Edmonton Blizzard.  The Blizzard finished third overall in the west but winning their division, the series started out in their arena.  It was a back and forth, very tight series, but the Specters came out on top after six games.

Round two, just like the Eastern Conference, had the two best teams during the regular season matched up against each other.  NOLA were facing the Los Angles Panthers who had the home ice advantage.  The previous season we saw this same match up in the first round, with LAP beating the Specters in seven games.  This time around, the Specters came out hot, winning the first two games on the road and then the first one in New Orleans.  With a 3-0 series lead, the Specters looked to close out the series at home, the Panthers had different ideas.  They won that game and the next two, forcing yet another game seven.  The Specters were victorious this time around and punched their ticket to their second finals appearance in their 8 seasons in the league.

So, we’ve got two teams who both had the second best records in their conference.  Both of these teams also had action packed seven game semi-final series, both knocking out the teams they finished behind in the regular season.  Looking at the regular season numbers, Hamilton takes the edge on the offensive side of things but NOLA leads the way on the physical side.  When we look at playoffs stats, it seems the roles have reversed slightly with NOLA having 5 players (Manius / Fox / Cloutier / Williams / Slothface) in the top ten of scoring to Hamilton’s one (Wilson) and the Steelhawks holding a very slight edge when it comes to team hits, 244 to 241. (NOLA has also played 2 more games then the Steelhawks)

What does all this mean?  I have no frickin clue.  I don’t have any great predictions on who is going to win and why, all I know is that this should be a great series.  Both teams are playing with intensity and are both riding high after their semi-final series.  The goalies for both clubs are coming into this playing some great hockey, so this will hopefully be a fun one to watch for everybody.

This is my first Challenge Cup final as an SHL player and I can not wait to get it started.  With the series not starting until tomorrow I just wanted to keep my nerves in check so I decided to write this media piece.  If you’re still reading, I hope you got some enjoyment out of it and for anyone who just scrolled through, the last thing I want to say is…

GO SPECTERS GO!!!
Specters Specters Specters

Word count: 1130

[Image: Ci4nm13.png]sig by @Bruins10 
Scarecrows   Specters   Canada 




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#2
(This post was last modified: 07-06-2020, 04:20 PM by golden_apricot.)

Great write up and best of luck to you guys

Go Birds!

(also we started the first series on the road since MAN won the Atlantic)
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#3

Good stuff Huck
Specters Specters Specters

[Image: 66818_s.gif]
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#4

07-06-2020, 04:19 PMgolden_apricot Wrote: Great write up and best of luck to you guys

Go Birds!

(also we started the first series on the road since MAN won the Atlantic)

Thanks, I totally missed that! And best of luck to you guys as well, let's make it a good one!

[Image: Ci4nm13.png]sig by @Bruins10 
Scarecrows   Specters   Canada 




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#5

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