The Anchorage Armada were always a successful franchise, at least in the S50s and early S60s when users Acsolap and Gwdjohnson ran the teams. Having just won a Four Star Cup in Season 51, one would think the team would be ready for a rebuild. This was not the case, however, as a new manager in Gabe had just taken over and was hungry for a Cup to call his own. Anchorage finished strong that year with a 42-16-8 record, good for second place only to the Quebec City Citadelles, who would come to be a rival in the finals for seasons to come.
The strong finish for the Armada was due to depth, rather than a few heavy hitters. Anchorage had five players with 40 or more points in Season 57, led by Slava Petrov. Petrov played 232 SMJHL games, and his 54 points in a season was by far the highest of his tenure on the Anchorage Armada. Carrying the brunt of the load during the season in goal was up and coming star Chimkin Tendy, who played in 53 of the 66 games that season, boasting a 2.02 goals against average and a .920 save percentage. Tendy would later disappear off the face of the earth soon after leaving the SMJHL.
Depth was again the story in the playoffs for the Armada, with seven players having at least 10 points in the 16 games it took them to win the cup. Led by Theo Kondos’s 18 points as well as Chimkin Tendy’s impressive 1.86 goals against average and .926 save percentage, Anchorage seemed destined to win the Four Star Cup and bring glory to the Gabe and his co GM wearingabear. Foregoing round 1 due to an earned by and going into round 2, Anchorage played the St. Louis Scarecrows who had just come from a chippy seven game series where they snuck past the Kelowna Knights. Seemingly still bumped and bruised from Kelowna, St. Louis was swept by Anchorage. The Armada were delighted, expecting an easy road to their second Four Star Cup in seven seasons. Quebec had other plans, however, and in round 3 they fought Anchorage to the bitter end, with the Armada barely squeaking out a series win after seven hard fought games. The finals, however, would prove to be quite a bit easier, with Anchorage defeating the Anaheim Outlaws 4 to 1 in the series. The Outlaws had equally impressive depth, with nine players having over 10 points in the playoffs.
At first glance, it appeared that the difference lied within the goaltending. While Chimkin Tendy had a 1.86 goals against average and a .926 save percentage, Anaheims goalie, Vincent Mietitore had a 2.82 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. This seems like one goalie clearly outclassing the other, at least until you look at some other numbers. If you look at the amount of shots each goalie faced, Mietitore faced over 200 more shots than Tendy did over the course of the playoffs, showing just how elite Anchorage’s defensive core was. Though Anchorage faced some fierce competition on their way to their Four Star Cup win, their elite defense made all the difference and was able to ensure they won it all.
Basically what I am saying is Chimkin Tendy was a fraud and rode on the coat tails of his elite defense that year.
Sigs by Me, Merica, High Stick King, Rum_Ham, Jess, vulfzilla, enigmatic, and Carpy
Ragnar
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