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LALLAREN_1 · 10-14-2024, 07:13 PM

Four Star Cup Winners
It is natural that the best teams will rise to the top of the league table over an entire season. I don’t think it’s a shock to anyone that since Season 53 to 78 (26 in total) a whopping 15 of the champions finished the regular season as the #1 team.

[Image: AD_4nXd-1zEvI7ZdpiafamdhlQXofAIw-P0pNtl0...PCaC2G8zFA]

[Image: AD_4nXd-1zEvI7ZdpiafamdhlQXofAIw-P0pNtl0...PCaC2G8zFA]

While playoffs are always exciting, what is even more exciting is when underdogs whom nobody expected to go far, make it all the way to the finals. While it’s to be expected that a few 2nd and 3rd place finishes manage to run the gauntlet and win the cup (even if more 3rd place finishes have done it than 2nd place for some reason). The lone 4th place finish sits there with two 6th place finishers as the biggest underdogs to win themselves a Four Star Cup, so let's take a look at them.

Season 67 Maine Timber
While Maine finished 4th in the league table, they arguably should have been 3rd and maybe even 2nd. The gap from Quebec who sat at the top to Maine at 4th was only 5 points. Maine finished with the 2nd best goal difference and was a single goal away from tying 1st place Regina. There was a sizeable gap from Regina and Maine to Quebec and Nevada in goal difference and it’s possible to conclude from this that Maine was likely unlucky (Or Quebec was lucky) and likely should have been higher in the standings. Maine had little issue waltzing through the 1st round and 2nd round until they got a challenger in Nevada. It took 7 games but Maine managed to pull through, then went up against the top regular-season finisher Quebec in the finals. This required 7 games to settle to but once the final buzzer sounded Maine had won and sits alone as the only team to finish the regular season as 4th and win the Four Star Cup the last 26 seasons.
Side note: The Quebec semifinals also went to game 7 so I’d imagine it must have been a fun time to be watching the SMJHL playoffs.

Season 77 Vancouver Whalers
Finishing 6th in the regular season, I doubt anybody would have expected Vancouver to do much. Unlike Maine in S67, no underlying stats hinted at a team being unlucky. 1 point away from 7th and 3 points away from 8th. The goal difference was just barely positive, even to end the regular season, Vancouver struggled, only going .500 in their last 10 games. Then come playoffs someone flipped a switch because Vancouver got through THREE ROUNDS in 13 games! The only loss they suffered on the way to the finals was in the 1st round against Yukon. Surprisingly, another underdog was waiting in the finals. Ottawa who finished 5th in the regular season had also with relative ease dispatched all in their way making the finals in 15 games. Vancouver went up 3-0 and by the time Ottowa woke up to challenge Vancouver the series had ended 4-2. This is certainly the biggest underdog finals where both teams who made it were not even top 4 to end the regular season. So how does a team that’s 6th in regular standings run over everyone on their way to the finals? In the playoffs, you play a small amount of games, which can lead to teams getting hot at just the right time, and that is exactly what happened here. The Forward core increased their total shooting from 11.9% to 14.9%. Leading scorer NoNo Jo was shooting a scorching 29% netting 28 points in 19 games. The goaltending was about the same as the regular season. This is a case of hot shooters forcing games to become high offense and when you’re shooting that good, ain’t nobody beating you.

Season 69 Quebec City Citadels
What is more fitting than the likely biggest upset in SMJHL history was during the funny number season. While just 1 point away from 5th, there was a sizable gap to 7th and 4th so Quebec was right about where they should have been at 6th. Even 6th in goal differential, there was nothing that told you this team was going to do anything in the playoffs. The team ended with .600 in their last 10 games including a final-day loss to a very mid Anchorage team. Unlike Vancouver so many seasons later, the journey to the finals was not easy or quick. Taking 6 games to get by Yukon in the 1st round, Quebec did get to play the easiest of the divisional winners in Great Falls. That series would require 7 games to finish and Quebec barely scraped onwards to face Newfoundland, who had just swept a much better Kelowna team to get there. Once again Quebec needed 7 games but somehow they pushed through once again to find the Cup favorites Detroit waiting for them in the finals. I guess Quebec had enough of game 7’s and this time dealt with the clearly better Detroit in only 5 games. Quebec didn’t just do it by scorching hot shooting. While their forwards went from a hot 13.3% to 14.9%, the goaltending contributed the biggest. Starter Walter Sobchak went from his regular season .881sv% to .908sv%. Needing to win two games 7s to just make the finals, Quebec managed to pull through with hot shooting and hotter goaltending. Not only is this the only other time a 6th place regular season finish has won the last 26 seasons. Unlike Vancouver, Quebec had to fight their way through the entire playoffs and play a dominant Detroit who had easily won the regular season. Detroit had 70 goals better goal differential than Quebec. This is a true underdog making it all the way despite the odds.

S68 Maine Timber - Honorable Mention
I have no clue what was going on in seasons 67, 68, and 69 cause in just those 3 seasons, a 4th place and a 6th place won while a 7th place barely lost out in game 7 of the finals. Maine at 7th place was only 3 points away from 4th and if they had won, I would still judge the S69 Quebec run a better underdog story. Either way, Maine was a single game away from the only 7th-place team to win the Four Star Cup.

(Words 1064)

chetib · 10-15-2024, 11:18 PM

Approved @LALLAREN_1 @Ara

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