ATD #10, Jim Robson Quarterfinals. Seattle Metropolitans (6) vs. Victoria Secrets (3)

[MXD]

It's more than that, but it's a Gretz vs. Mario matchup.

Seattle Metropolitans​

GM: kruezer
Coach: Ivan Hlinka

Alexander Yakushev - Wayne Gretzky (C) - Helmut Balderis
Vsevolod Bobrov (A) - Gilbert Perreault - Terry O'Reilly
Paul Thompson - Bernie Federko - Joe Mullen
Ryan Walter - Ivan Hlinka - Floyd Curry
extras: Doru Tureanu, Milan Novy

King Clancy (A) - Red Horner
Jan Suchy - Frantisek Tikal
Lennart Svedberg - Jerry Korab
extra: Frank Goheen

Charlie Gardiner
Pelle Lindbergh

Power play units:
PP1: Yakushev - Gretzky - Balderis - Clancy - Horner
PP2: Bobrov - Perreault - Mullen - Suchy - Svedberg

Penalty killing units:
PK1: Walter - Curry - Clancy - Horner
PK2: Gretzky - Thompson - Suchy - Korab

VS​

Victoria Secrets​

GM: MXD & Jungosi
Coach: Pete Green

Bert Olmstead - Mario Lemieux (C) - Cam Neely
Kevin Stevens - Jacques Lemaire (A) - Jack Darragh
Bobby Holik - Phil Watson - Bobby Rousseau
Don Maloney - Tom Dunderdale - Odie Cleghorn
extras: Bernie Nicholls, Murray Murdoch

Sprague Cleghorn - Herb Gardiner
George Boucher (A) - Bill White
Bullet Joe Simpson - Taffy Abel
extra: Glen Harmon

Frank Brimsek
Vladimir Dzurilla

Power play units:
PP1: Olmstead - Lemieux - Neely - Cleghorn - Boucher
PP2: Stevens - Lemaire - Darragh - Simpson - Gardiner

Penalty killing units:
PK1: Rousseau - Watson - White - Abel
PK2: Holik - Maloney - Gardiner - Boucher

Click to read more...

 

[Jungosi]

Let the epic battle begin! I'll do some analysis tomorrow.

 

[kruezer]

You know, its ironic that I drew your team MXD & Jungosi, I had you first in the whole thing, I guess I should have given you a 7th place vote.

I am not surprised to be ranked low, I expected last actually, most people are not going to be big fans of my team, at least I didn't expect them to be.

But that said, I am going for a nap, I'll post more analysis later, here is a teaser of my thoughts....

I think I have a definite advantage in 7th defenseman, Glen Harmon is not from Minnesota therefore, fail.

I'd also take kruezer over MXD any day, its just a random assortment of letters, what good is that? and Jungosi? sounds like something I'd get at Booster Juice, no problems there.

 

[raleh]

You know, its ironic that I drew your team MXD & Jungosi, I had you first in the whole thing, I guess I should have given you a 7th place vote.

I am not surprised to be ranked low, I expected last actually, most people are not going to be big fans of my team, at least I didn't expect them to be.

But that said, I am going for a nap, I'll post more analysis later, here is a teaser of my thoughts....

I think I have a definite advantage in 7th defenseman, Glen Harmon is not from Minnesota therefore, fail.

I'd also take kruezer over MXD any day, its just a random assortment of letters, what good is that? and Jungosi? sounds like something I'd get at Booster Juice, no problems there.

haha, correct me if I'm wrong MXD, but based on our facebook group, I think it's his initials.

 

[seventieslord]

Kruezer's user ID analysis has been the highlight of the first round so far.

 

[Jungosi]

Well , kruezer sounds like you tried to type a German word but kind of failed. What is a kruezer? A better way of writing would have been Krüzer or Kreuzer.....

 

[God Bless Canada]

I've often wondered about the meaning of kruezer and Jungosi myself....

I thought that Victoria was built for playoff success, so I had them a little lower than this in the regular season. But they are the type of team I don't want to play in the playoffs.

The biggest question, to me, is how will Seattle stop Victoria's Bull Line? I think it's the best built line in the draft. Remember how awesome BM's first line was in ATD 8? Olmstead-Mario-Iginla. In this case, it's Olmstead-Mario-Neely. I wanted Olmstead as the complimentary guy for Le Rocket's In Laws. Didn't get him. I think Olmstead's just a fantastic complimentary player. He isn't a natural offensive type, but he's tough, he's physical, he's awesome in the corners and he's a good playmaker who will get the puck to his linemates after winning the battle along the boards. In this case, his linemates are two of the best clutch scorers of all-time.

There doesn't seem to be a line or a defence pairing well-suited to playing against this line. Can King Clancy hold up for seven games against that line? If you think he can, then he should be out there every single shift, and this series just got really interesting, because I think Horner can hang with the Bull Line. Is Korab good enough defensively to play against this line?

kruez, I said it in the review: Helmut doesn't belong with Wayne Gretzky. That should be Joey Mullen in that spot. Save Helmut for the second line and O'Reilly for the third.

You don't stop Wayne. And you don't stop Mario. You contain them. But I think Wayne will be even tougher to stop with seven-time 40-goal scorer Joey Mullen on his right side.

It will be interesting to watch the match-ups. Seattle has tremendous depth down the middle. Gretzky, Perreault and Federko are outstanding offensive centres. But Victoria has excellent defensive centres with the underrated Lemaire, plus Phil Watson, and a good fourth liner in Dunderdale.

How long will it take for King Clancy to drive Sprague Cleghorn nuts? Weren't these guys teammates at once? That'll be a fun match-up to watch. Clancy's just an awesome player, one of the best ever, and pound-for-pound, he's one of the toughest ever, too. Gretzky will love taking break-out passes from the King, and Gretz knows a thing or two about outstanding offensive defencemen.

I'd try to avoid having Buck Boucher out there against Gilbert Perreault as much as possible if I were Pete Green.

Goaltending is a dead heat. I think I had Brimsek slotted right after Gardiner on my goalie lists. Both are excellent No. 1 goalies, both are capable of stealing a game (including an elimination game). No edge in net for either team.

The edge behind the bench goes to Victoria. kruez knows Pete Green well - I think Green was kruez's coach when Seattle went to the ATD 7 final. I think Green's in that second tier of coaches with guys like Gorman, Hart, Johnson and Sather. I think Hlinka is in the next tier down.

 

[Jungosi]

Jungosi is just a nick , no meaning. Anyway :

Goaltending :

Basicly a tie. Not much to argue here. I prefer Dzurilla over Lindbergh but back-ups play a very small role here.

Defense :

I think we have the edge here. Cleghorn and Clancy are about equal but Gardiner has the edge above Horner here. Horner will spend a lot of time in the box especially with guys like Olmstead on the ice. Our biggest advantage is the second pairing. Both Boucher and White are better than their respective counterparts. Bottom pairings are about equal.

Offense :

The ultimate match-up between the Great One and the Magnificent One. Your strenght down the middle is riduculous but you lack power at wing while we have an unstoppable force here with Neely plus the 1920's version of Glen Anderson and Kevin Stevens. As much as I love O'Reilly he is not a top-6 winger by any means. I think your major weakness is your second line. Bobrov is often described as the Pavel Bure of his time which is both great and awefull. Perrault wasn't exactly known as a two-way force either and O'Reilly won't be able to make up for it alone. The speed of Lemaire and Darragh could deal major damage here. You got a great third line which could easily be a lower-tier second but who will be their opponent? Olmstead-Lemieux-Neely outscores them. Our second line and your third negate each other and our third line should be able to contain them. Your fourth line is your shut down line which can play defense of course but will be hardly able to contain Mario. Our third also won't be able to stop Wayne but I think they can limit him much more especially with his average wingers. Our fourth should be able do deal some physical punishment.

 

[nik jr]

i had victoria 1st in the division. great all around team. their only weakness, imo, is that many of their key players had trouble staying on the ice.

mario, stevens and neely all had a lot of injury problems.

cleghorn is an elite d-man, but was prone to losing his cool and doing something stupid. that might be exacerbated by having to face a great agitator like clancy, and by the presence of his brother odie. i read that sprague hated when opponents attacked his brother.

 

[MXD]

mario, stevens and neely all had a lot of injury problems.

cleghorn is an elite d-man, but was prone to losing his cool and doing something stupid. that might be exacerbated by having to face a great agitator like clancy, and by the presence of his brother odie. i read that sprague hated when opponents attacked his brother.

Well... We picked Bernie Nicholls especially because of that : a very solid C/RW, that could get in once in a while. Plus, Neely didn't had lots of injury problems prior to the Samuellson hit. Many guys would have retired in Neely's place, so I can't see how he could be punished by this.

Cleghorn... Well, he's the primary reason why we picked an excellent rusher in the later rounds - Bullet Joe Simpson - but he didn't got an awful lot of suspensions... And was pretty calm when coached by Pete Green. Harmon can also step in, if needed.

Clancy is a great agitator - and a great D-Men as well, but we have few threats of our own in that department. Our Top-9 is surprisingly calm (but tough), and Holik + Dunderdale will pull out some tricks of their own.

Another thing worth nothing is that we have three solid rushing D-Men, so the defensively-responsible Metropolitan forwards (Yakushev and Thompson, plus the fourth) might be concerned a little too much with defense for their own sake - considering they're potent offensive players (you'll never hear me say anything bad about those two).

 

[kruezer]

Well , kruezer sounds like you tried to type a German word but kind of failed. What is a kruezer? A better way of writing would have been Krüzer or Kreuzer.....

Haha, it is a bastardization of a German word. My last name is Krueger and kruezer is a nic I got from a misspelling of my last name in a newspaper covering a basketball tourny I participated in back in my youth.

As for this matchup, I like your team alot MXD and Jungosi, I don't really plan on stopping them (its not really possible) just outscoring.

I won't cover Gretzky vs. Lemieux, we all know the facts.

I think my first line is underrated though. I am keeping Mullen with Federko, I want Balderis and Yak with Gretzky. Balderis and Yakushev both led the Russian League in goal scoring 3 times (from non-CSKA teams, which is fairly impressive I'd say) only one other player has done it more (5 times) and he is actually undrafted (Bobrov, Makarov, Mikhailov and Krutov are the other players to lead the Russian League in goals 3 times, nice company).

Yakushev was the best Russian forward in the '72 series in my books as well, he can handle any defenseman thrown at him I think, no matter how Canadian they are . Also, I think he will mesh well with Gretz, not that thats hard. Gretzky was not a speed demon and I think Yakushev will be a great player in the slot for this line.

Balderis is really underrated I think. He clearly dominated Europe in '77 and then seemed to disappear, I don't think it was his play that faltered though, I think it was politics. He was very upset to be taken from Riga and put on CSKA. I don't blame him for reacting negatively to the Soviet system over this, he was proud to play in Latvia, I respect that. His international record is small, but stellar, he was only allowed back on the Soviet team once after he left CSKA in 1980 so it was artificially lowered I think, plus he was held off the national team for a little while longer at the beginning of his career because of being in Riga. I think he did solid while he was with CSKA as well (including 5th and 2nd place point seasons) despite being upset and admittedly intentionally not caring about the team, I think it is an entirely forgivable reaction, this isn't complaining about being dealt to Florida or something. Upon returning to Riga he led the league in points and goals in 83 and 85 not respectively. He still had it, he just didn't care for the treatment he got from the system. I think he can more then handle his own on a line with Gretzky and Yakushev, he was a devastating stick handler, and considering he won't be randomly moved to Team Iceland or something, I think it should be fine.

My second line is intriguing to me anyway. I like Perreault, he's another one of those players who's PPG raised ever so slightly in the playoffs, I think he was a solid playoff guy for an offensive type. He killed it in the 1980 playoffs with 10 goals in 14 games, though Buffalo never got the cup, I think he acquitted himself very well in the POs. He is a nice second line type. I like having O'Reilly with him, and Bobrov as well, its not anything like the French Connection, but I still think it can work, Bobrov is obviously the triggerman, O'Reilly will be playing a lowerclass Wayne Cashman role, which I think will open up some space for the other two.

As for Bobrov, I know a lot of people don't care for him on a second line, but he's got to be close to being as viable as Sologubov is for defensemen I think. He may not have dominated the Canadian Senior Teams, but he did lead the tourny in goals in the 56 Olympics, as a 34/35 year old. I think if the rest of the USSR was up to his speed quicker, he had the skills to just dominate in the WC and Olympics, but the USSR was not that viable as a hockey power while he would have been in his prime, he didn't play a single game against other countries until he was 32 after all.

I think my third line can hang offensively with anyone else's. Federko is an underrated playoff performer, even if it was against the Norris. Mullen was his partner in crime in these playoffs series for many years. Pairing them with Thompson (who put together some very nice years in Chicago, while surrounded by a lot of nothing) I think they are probably as viable offensively as my second line.

Ivan Hlinka is severly underrated, though he is listed with Walter and Curry, he will play get shifts with more offensive wingers, and will serve to keep the rest of the centers on the team honest and working well. When he came to the NHL he had 123 points in 137 games with Vancouver in his first two years, despite being over the age of thirty already.

I will defend the defense tomorrow, how long do I have to talk about my team? , I'll just keep going until they stop me.

 

[Nalyd Psycho]

Offence: Gretzky vs Lemieux. GLORIOUS! Seattle reminds me of the 80's Oilers, they won't be able to hold leads, but they will be able to keep building them. Victoria has a slight edge on the wings, but Seattle's 3rd line center is a better scorer than Victoria's 2nd. And Seattle's defence is just as balls to the wall. I respect the boldness of Seattle's offensive approach.

Defence: Conversely, when Paul Thompson and Red Horner are your best defensive players, Houston, we have a problem. Victoria is more of a build the offence around the big guy and make sure everyone else can hold the lead. Very strong team defence.

Goaltending: Gardiner had a great run, but 5 great years is not a great decade.

Coaching: Pete Green has results. Not sure about Hlinka, not sure if he's the right fit.

Intangibles: This will be one wild series, not sure what will be the deciding factor.

 

[kruezer]

Well, things have been hectic, but here is a defense of the defense/goalies of the Mets.

King Clancy is awesome, I don't have much else to say than that. Certainly one of the top ten offensive defensemen all time I would say, and a solid agitator. Horner gives him a bit of familiarity, and Horner was not inept offensively, but mostly he will provide size and a defensive presence for Clancy.

Suchy is also awesome, winner of the first two European Golden Sticks. He was not the same after his drunk driving accident, admittedly, but he was considered better than all the Russian defensemen that were around in the pre-summit series era, absolutely ridiculous offensively his 28 goal 54 point season in 68/69 in the Czech league blew the league apart. Tikal was more of a pioneer, but still won the top defenseman awards at the '64 and '65 WCs, which was during the rise of the Soviet era and quite impressive in my books. The Czech teams of the 60/70s are all underrated IMO. While both are talented offensively, they could both handle themselves in their own zone.

Svedberg was an early Swedish player, but also fantastic offensively, he (along with Suchy) were the all-star pairing of defensemen from 68-70 at the WCs (Suchy also made it in 71). Svedberg was much more of a passer than Suchy, but also extremely gifted at rushing the puck, though he lacked defensively of course, Korab (who could handle himself offensively) wil be his defensive conscience.

In net, I know both my goalies had high peaks and short careers, I knew people would be happier if I had have taken a goalie that had a longer career to balance out Gardiner, but I thought I would throw a curve.

Gardiner is fairly well known around here, I think he was the best goalie of his era, and he is pushing the top ten all time, though others don't like his shorter career.

Pelle is just a more extreme case really. I like having a player used to playing in the 80s though, the high flying attitude of the era goes well with the team I have, so I think he should be right at home, though he probably won't play.

 

[kruezer]

Also, here is a look at coaching/the matchups with the Secrets.

I am a big Czech Hockey fan lately (gee, can everyone tell yet? ). So I guess it sorta figures I would take Hlinka to coach this crew. Also, I would like to point out that he does actually have experience being a player-coach in the 86/87 Season with Litvinov. He coached the Czech National team to one gold and four bronzes, in (I believe) 7 times he coached them during the WCs. He had a bronze and a gold in the two times he coached the Czech Team in the Olympics.

“It's not that he was just a coach, but he was sort of like Herb Brooks was for America.” - Tomas Vokoun

I don't think he is out of place here at all, a Czech Icon, I think he will do well with the European flavour of this team.

As for matchups, things are going to stay simple. When I have home ice, I will match power on power. Gretzky vs. Lemieux, and match everyone else accordingly. Clancy-Horner will draw the Lemieux line and a bit of the second line and so on down. On the road, I will continue to attempt to do the same.

Hlinka will play himself with higher level wingers at times, as Walter and Curry will be around mostly to play the PK and draw in when key defensive stands need to be made. The second PK unit will try and score, enough with the defensive stuff.

Basically, I don't plan on worry about matching up to stop anyone, just approach the game top down and hope to outscore at all levels. The plan is to play an extremely creative and off-kilter game that will negate the advantage that the Secrets may have on the wing. Most of the Secrets wingers are north/south types, so I think my best bet is to let the creativity of players like Gretzky, Svedberg, Balderis, Perreault, Federko, Suchy, Clancy, etc. to make the game more of an east/west affair and take out any advantages that might exist there.

That is all, feel free to vote now .

 

[Hedberg]

Victoria Takes 1-0 Series Lead with 3-1 Victory

Victoria fans went home happy after seeing their Secrets beat Gretzky's Mets in the first game of the series. With Terry O'Reilly off for roughing, Cam Neely deposited a Mario Lemieux pass behind Charlie Gardiner less than 5 minutes into the game. Gardiner and Brimsek would then match each other with several key stops to keep the game close until late in the 2nd period. Tommy Dunderdale (The Australian Sensation) would bury the puck five hole off a Odie Cleghorn centering pass to make it 2-0. Early in the third, Yakushev would one-time a Gretzky pass to make the game interesting, but George Boucher would ice the game with an empty net goal late.

3-1 Victoria
VIC: Neely 1 (Lemiuex, Olmstead) 4:53 1st PP
VIC: Dunderdale 1 (O. Cleghorn, S. Cleghorn) 14:23 2nd
SEA: Yakushev 1 (Gretzky, Balderis) 2:34 3rd
VIC: Boucher 1 (White, Watson) 18:34 3rd EN

VIC: Brimsek 35 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 32 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Seattle Earns Split with 5-4 Victory

Wayne Gretzky would outduel Lemieux on this night, notching a hat trick (although Lemieux would respond with a goal and two assists). Before the game was 6 minutes old, Gretzky had his first of the series on a redirect of a Balderis shot on the PP and Bobrov would score on a breakaway to give Seattle the 2-0 lead. Victoria would counter around the 16 minute mark, with Kevin Stevens sneaking the puck between Gardiners' arm and side to bring the game with in 1. Gretzky would quickly counter, finishing off a nice give and go passing play with Yakushev late in the period. Lemieux would score his own beautiful goal to bring Victoria back to within one, roofing a backhand from the left faceoff circle over Gardiner's shoulder. Later in the period, Lemieux would set up a open Neely, who sent Victoria into the second intermission tied.
Gretzky would complete his had trick less than 2 minutes into the 3rd with a sneaky wristshot from the halfboards. A Paul Thompson high sticking minor gave the Secrets a chance to tie the game, but it would be Seattle capitalizing, with Floyd Curry notching the short handed goal. Victoria eventually would score on the PP, with Neely banging home a loose rebound, but it was too little, to late for the Secrets

5-4 Seattle
SEA: Gretzky 1 (Balderis, Clancy) 1:45 1st PP
SEA: Bobrov 1 (Perreault, O’Reilly) 5:34 1st
VIC: Stevens 1 (Lemaire, Gardiner) 16:13 1st
SEA Gretzky 2 (Yakushev, Suchy) 18:28 1st
VIC: Lemiuex 1 (Neely, Boucher) 2:38 2nd
VIC: Neely 2 (Lemieux) 17:34 2nd
SEA: Gretzky 3 (Suchy, Tikal) 1:53 3rd
SEA: Curry 1 (Walter) 7:23 3rd SH
VIC: Neely 3 (Lemieux, Olmstead) 19:12 3rd PP

VIC: Brimsek 31 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 35 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Charlie Gardiner Shines as Seattle Takes 2-1 Lead with 4-1 Win


Only a Bert Olmstead redirect on a 5-3 on PP would beat Gardiner on this night. Gardiner, who posted 32 saves in the victory stood on his head throughout the night, his dramatic robbing Cam Neely with with a glove save and sprawling left pad stop on Bernie Federko being his two finest efforts of the evening. Seattle scored two quick powerplay goals in the 2nd, both set up by Alexander Yakushev. Player/Coach Ivan Hlinka gave his team a two goal lead early in the third and adding an assist on Clancy's empty net effort to seal a victory for his team.

4-1 Seattle
VIC: Olmstead 1 (Lemiuex, Neely) 16:21 1st PP
SEA: Gretzky 4 (Yakushev, Balderis) 3:23 2nd PP
SEA: Balderis 1 (Yakushev, Gretzky) 5:32 2nd PP
SEA: Hlinka 1 (Curry, Svedberg) 3:21 3rd
SEA: Clancy 1 (Horner, Hlinka) 18:27 3rd EN

VIC: Brimsek 27 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 32 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Brimsek Dominates in 3-1 Victoria Win

The Mullen/Federko line would finally capitalize after having several key chances in the prior games, with Joey Mullen scoring late in the first. That would be all Brimsek would allow, and although Lemieux would have a quiet game, three other players would emerge as heroes. Jacques Lemaire notched his first late in a powerplay. Seattle pressed hard, but could not beat the man known as "Mr. Zero." The Secret third line would give the team the lead early in the third and then play a big role in shuting down the Mets. Bobby Holik made a brilliant defensive play, batting down a low sauce pass from Gretzky to Balderis in the third. The puck landed on Rousseau's stick, who broke out two on one with Watson. Watson would finish off the remarkable sequence of events to put Victoria up 3-1.

3-1 Victoria
SEA: Mullen 1 (Federko, Thompson) 19:12 1st
VIC: Lemaire 1 (Darragh, Stevens) 6:07 2nd PP
VIC: Rousseau 1 (Holik) 4:25 3rd
VIC: Watson 1 (Rousseau, Holik) 16:23 3rd

Saves:
VIC: Brimsek 33 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 27 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Victoria Takes Game 5 with a Dramatic Comeback

Joey Mullen and Gilbert Perreaul scored power play goals to give Seattle a 2-0 lead entering the first intermission. Cam Neely would bring Victoria to within a goal on a powerplay, but Gretzky would work his passing magic to restore the 2 goal lead. Early in the third Lemieux would bounce a puck between Gardiner's leg and the post to bring the difference to one. With Jerry Korab off for holding, Lemieux unleashed a rocket of a shot by Gardiner to tie the game. Each goalie would make a significant stop to preserve the game going into OT, with Gardiner robbing Neely and Brimsek stopping Bobrov on a breakaway.
After a defensive struggle for the first overtime and most of the second, Mario Lemieux would cut between Clancy and Horner and roof a snap shot to give Victoria the game and the 3-2 series lead.

4-3 Victoria
SEA: Mullen 2 (Perreault, Svedberg) 12:13 1st PP
SEA: Perreault 1 (Bobrov, Suchy) 17:12 1st PP
VIC: Neely 4 (Olmstead, Lemieux) 3:32 PP
SEA: Balderis 2 (Gretzky, Yakushev) 16:24 2nd
VIC: Lemieux 2 (Olmstead, Neely) 2:59 3rd
VIC: Lemieux 3 (Neely, Boucher) 15:35 3rd PP
VIC: Lemieux 4 (Boucher) 16:17 2ndOT

Saves:
VIC: Brimsek 41 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 37 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Overtime Thriller Keeps Seattle Alive

Early in the 1st, Frank Brimsek robbed Bobrov by sprawling on a breakaway chance. However, Terry O'Reilly driving to net behind Bobrov would chip the puck over the prone goaltender to give Seattle a 1-0 lead. Less than 10 minutes later, a Lennart Svedberg blast would give the Mets a 2-0 lead. The 2 goal cushion did not last however, as Cam Neely's wrist shot hit bulged the twine behind Gardiner. Seattle largely would shut the game down, playing safe and dumping the puck often. Lemieux would not be denied and would jam home a loose Olmstead rebound during a scramble in the crease with a little over 5 minutes left in the third. Many Seattle fans undoubtably experienced flashbacks to game 5, but it would be the Metropolitan's superstar centre scoring the winner, as a strong wrist shot by the Great One extended the series to Game 7

3-2 Seattle
SEA: O`Reilly 1 (Bobrov) 5:39 1st
SEA: Svedberg 1 (Perreault, Mullen) 14:24 1st PP
VIC: Neely 5 (Lemieux, Olmstead) 16:46 1st
VIC: Lemieux 5 (Olmstead, Neely) 14:16 3rd
SEA: Gretzky 5 (Yakushev) 14:24 OT

Saves:
VIC: Brimsek 45 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 43 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Victoria Wins Chippy Affair to Advance

This game would take a chippy tone early during an in-crease confrontation between Ryan Walter and Frank Brimsek. Walter reportedly told Brimsek "Frankie, you're a loser and you're going to lose again!" Brimsek responded with a light slash and Walter was tackled to the ice by Sprague Cleghorn. In the ensuing scrum, Walter, Brimsek, Cleghorn, Gardiner, Stevens, Horner, Curry, and Hlinka would be assessed penalties.
Continuing the scrappy trend, Terry O'Reilly and Cam Neely would engage in the only fight of the series late in the first. A Taffy Able elbowing minor gave Seattle a powerplay, which they converted on with a deft Gretzky backhand. However, Seattle was unable to hold this lead and Cam Neely knotted the score at 2 with under 5 to go in the second.
In the third, Lemieux would strip the puck from Red Horner and fire a slapshot off Clancy's shinpads and past a stunned Gardiner. Seattle would press, with Helmut Balderis fanning on a one time attempt on a wide open net. However, Don Maloney would seal the series with an empty net goal with slightly more than a minute to go in the game. Victoria would kill off the next minute to win the series.

3-1 Victoria
SEA: Gretzky 6 (Balderis, Horner) 1:35 2nd PP
VIC: Neely 6 (Lemieux) 15:42 2nd
VIC: Lemieux 6 (Unassisted) 5:34 3rd
VIC: Maloney 1 (Holik, Gardiner) 18:54 3rd EN

VIC: Brimsek 29 Saves
SEA: Gardiner 31 Saves

 

[Hedberg]

Three Stars:
1. Mario Lemieux
2. Wayn Gretzky
3. Charlie Gardiner/Frank Brimsek/Cam Neely (Tie)



Congratulations to MXD and Jungosi for advancing and good luck in the next round.

Congratulations to Kruezer for building a strong team as well. Good luck in the next draft!

I hope my writeups did a decent job of portraying this series.

 

[seventieslord]

Congratulations MXD and Jugo Juice.

Nice, fast writeup, Hedberg. Raisin' the bar for guys like me.

 

[Sturminator]

First one in the books is a good one. Nice job with the write-up, Hedberg. I suspect an awful lot of these first round serieses will go 7. Hard luck pulling an excellent Victoria team in the 1st round, kruezer, but Gretzky's teams never do seem to have much luck in this thing. I wonder who will break the curse.

 

[MXD]

Congrats Kruezer. I had a feeling our round would be damn close. There was indeed not much difference between our squads.

As for us... Bring on the next opponent!