Today we're gonna be looking at two teams, both of which are having strong seasons, but one that is excelling through a high powered offence, whereas the other is having success through a more balanced approach. Both these teams are very close to the standings, yet their stats are very different. Let's take a look.

Starting with the Maine Timber:

Maine has had an incredibly strong offensive season, leading the league in goals for with 174. Driven by their lead goal scorer Valtteri Pulkkinen who's leading the league with 47 goals. The supporting cast is also having incredible season's of their own, with Doug Weight leading the league in points with 96 and assists with 76. Following close behind him are teammates Valtteri Pulkkinen and May O'Nayse with 95 point and 93 points. Main is dominating the league when it comes to offense, having 3 of the top 5 point scores in the league on their team, yet they sit 5th in the league when it comes to their record, so what could be the cause of that?

Well they lead the league in scoring, but their goals against sits middle of the pack, sitting 10th in the league in that respect, with 204 goals against.


Lets compare that to the other team we're going to take a look at, The Newfoundland Berserkers:

currently sitting just ahead of the Maine Timber, 4th in the league. When we look at the Berserkers, their goals for is actually significantly less than main, sitting at 241 goals, a difference of 37 goals. That's quite a difference. So if they're scoring at a lesser rate then Maine, how are they so close together in the standings?

This is where the goals gain against comes into play. The Berserkers currently sit second in the league in goals against, with 177. That's a difference of 27 when comparing to Maine. You can also look at the difference in offensive output between the teams players.

The Berserkers top scorer, TheGreatOne currently has 72 points in 54 games. A very good season! But that would only put him 4th if he was on Maine. 

So what's the difference between these two teams? What do the berserkers have that Main is currently missing?

You might think it's defensive play of newfoundland, but in reality, there's an argument that maine's defensive play has been better


Jacppo Nummilavin on Maine had an outstanding offensive season for a defensemen with 60 points, enough to lead the league in points for defensemen. But also put up an impressive +/- of 17 while leading his team in icetime.
Boofa Benson on Maine also had a very impressive season, boasting a +/- of 24 while blocking 232 shots! Enough to lead the league

When looking at the Berserkers top Defensemen

Something interesting about them is there wasn't a ton of offense coming from their back end, with their lead point scoring defensemen scoring half the amount of point as Maine's leader with 35 points from Leo Finnegan

Another interesting thing about the Berserkers is the +/- of their leaders on ATOI for defensemen is both Weston Windsor and Leo Finnegan posted a +/- of under 10 and it was actually the Berserkers other 4 defensemen who posted better +/- numbers

So where are is the discrepancy coming from? Well the last place to check of course it goaltending

Maine's goaltending seems to be a tad weaker than what the Berserkers have to offer

Maine's goaltenders post GAA of 3.56 and 3.96. Both are decently high

Whereas the Berserkers Goaltending is a little better, with GAA of 3.11 and 3.37 which is much closer to what you want your Goaltenders numbers to be

It's also worth noting that both of the Berserkers goaltenders are rated higher than Maines


So in conclusion, High offense is always fun and can still provide your team a lot of success, but it isn't everything. Goaltending is an incredibly important position as well and it's important to have a steady goaltender tending the crease for your team to be the best it can be.

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