Login

Urq660 · 08-03-2021, 05:02 AM

The Regular Season
Season 60 started with a real upbeat vibe in St Louis. This was a team on the up, they had a solid core of capped players on the offensive and defensive sides, some strong 2nd and 3rd year players, and a batch of rookies that looked pretty damn good! The opening of the season wasn’t spectacular, but their divisional rivals Detroit were struggling more than usual. Initially, the Scarecrows capitalised on this and were in the upper half of the entire SMJHL and towards the top end of the Eastern Conference for a while. A mid to late season slump saw them drift down the standings. In the South East Division, Carolina led the way, and we’re never really troubled. Detroit and St Louis tied on points, at 64, but Detroit finished ahead with a record of 30-32-4, with the ‘Crows bringing up the rear on 28-30-8. The curious thing about St Louis’ record is that 7 of the 8 OT losses came in shootouts, the bane of the teams season. They had 8 shootouts across season 60 and ended with a woeful 1-7 record. At least they won 1 though, unlike poor 0-5 Kelowna! The season was a marked improvement on Season 59, where St Louis recorded a 20-40-6 record. I think the most visual indication of their improvement is their points differential. For Season 60, they finished the regular season on -12, which doesn’t seem that impressive, sure. But compared to Season 59s -80, it is a remarkable improvement. They managed to get their Goals For up from 161 to 202, an approx 25% increase in just 1 season, and get the Goals Against down from 241 to 214. In the wider standings, the Scarecrows were kept off the foot of the Eastern Conference by a woeful Maine Timber side, and were actually 9th out of 12 in the whole league, with Nevada’s rookie-heavy team ‘boasting’ a pitiful 11-53-2 record. Watch out for this team in a couple of years though, they have a high percentage of rookies and if they continue to stick together and grow as a unit, they could be cup contenders in Season 62/63. The Season 59 Four Star Cup Champions were the third team below St Louis in the league, sandwiched between the Timber and the Battleborn. So far, so so-so. The final standing meant a juicy First Round matchup against bitter divisional rivals, the Detroit Falcons!

The False Start
Wow, so where to start with this! In my time with the Scarecrows, they’ve always been a bit of a meh team in the regular season, but really come alive in the Playoffs. And by gawd, did they come alive in these playoffs! Opening with back to back games in the Enterprise Centre, the ‘Crows exploded out of the blocks, putting up a 5-0 win over their fierce rivals. Has to be a fluke, right? Your honour, I present to you Exhibit B, a 7-0 dub, nothing short of an annihilation of the Falcons. Watching them skate off the ice, broken, demoralised, one could almost feel sad for them, if they weren’t the bloody Detroit Falcons! Talks turn to *whisper it* sweeping the first round and how sweet that would be, no terrifying Game 7 to destroy your fingernails and shred your nerves! Right, Game 3 guys, let’s get it, scarecrow noises, etc… wait. No. This can’t be true??
Per SMJHL HO: "I am sorry for the stoppage. I have found out that updates did not go through on Monday. Due to this we are going to invalidate the playoffs so far. I know this is not ideal, but it’s also not fair to keep things the same. I will have a site post coming soon to apologize and make this public. We will be up and running with games 1 no later than the 7pm sim tonight."
Alternate Captain Marcel Beck said it best: ‘’Well, we just have to win the series 6-0”

Game 1, Take 2
Right, let’s try this again shall we??
The cynical members in the locker room (me, it was me) were now starting to worry about a momentum swing towards Detroit, and how typical it would be to have a couple of results like that wiped from the board, to then go out and get swept by those damn Falcons!
Onto the game! A quiet first period, punctuated by an early Holding penalty for Hunter Sharpe, then a penalty against Detroit’s Albert Luck for Tripping. 10 seconds into the Power Play, Hunter Sharpe slotted the opener past Podanovic, ably assisted by Lebron Brady and St Louis’ own Captain Fantastic, Freidensreich Hundertwasser (and that is the only time I’m typing his full name). That was about it for the first period, ending with St Louis up 1-0.
The second goal of the game followed a similar trajectory to the opener, just going the other way. Just over 7 minutes into the second period, Sam Stone took a minor call for Hooking, and on the resulting Power Play, Kermit Murphy set up Clem Fandango for the equaliser. St Louis did not let it break them, however. They kept pushing, and were rewarded just before the 10 minute mark with a goal from Jonny Tsunami, Ethan Bouchard getting the apple. At the end of the second period, it’s 2-1 ‘Crows!
The third period starts in a depressingly familiar way. In under a minute, Detroit have caught us on the back foot and tied it up at 2, Barengrub grabbing the goal, Wet Jeans and Viktor Zukal bagging the assists. The Scarecrows use this as a wake up call, and half way through the period, find their rhythm. First, Robert Feltersnatch, a deadline day move from Maine, designed to give the bottom 6 a bit more physical edge, manages to slot it away, with assists from the 2 Alternate Captains, Dane von Gucci and Marcel Beck. It’s followed up, just after 17 minutes in, by a score from Victor Fedorov, with Tsunami and Brady on the assists. The lamp was lit one more time, less than a minute later, as rookie Steve Collins potted it, von Gucci picking up his second A of the game, another rookie in Stone getting his first. Final score: St Louis 5-2 Detroit

Game 2
The Scarecrows carried something of a swagger into Game 2, having thoroughly outscored, if not enormously outplayed, Detroit in the re-do of the opener. But they also had to be ready for the inevitable reaction from the Falcons.
The first period was another cagey affair, both teams feeling each other out and not wanting to go behind early on. Unfortunately for Detroit, that’s what happened, just under 6 minutes into the first, as Miguel Hefeweizen struck his first goal of the Playoffs, with Bouchard and Hundertwasser both picking up their second assist. Nothing else of note occurred and the first period ended 1-0 for St Louis.
The second period opened with a bang, with Scarecrows defenseman Daryl Urquhart opening his account for the playoffs inside 2 minutes, the assists coming from Ayerzov and Feltersnatch, both firsts for them. Detroit hauled themselves back into the game, late in the second, as Zukal and Barengrub combined again, this time the former getting his first goal of the playoffs and the latter picking up his first assist. But the scoring was not finished for the second period, oh no! St Louis extended the lead back to 2, with a buzzer beater from Ayerzov, assisted by Beck and Feltersnatch, 3 seconds before the period ended. The score after 2, 3-1 to St Louis.
The third period opened in spectacular fashion, Detroit came out all guns blazing and pulled the deficit back to a single goal. Pretty much bang on a minute into the period, Yan Dolff bagged a score with assists from Luck and Fandango. 2 minutes later, Bouchard nabbed his first goal of the playoffs, assisted by Tsunami and Brady. 3 minutes later, the Falcons set up a grandstand finish, by scoring again, through Wet Jeans, Zukal and Zak Wilson with the assists. Detroit tried to find a breakthrough, but the St Louis defense held fast. The only other thing of note to occur was a 2 minute Hooking penalty on Zak Wilson. St Louis had 10 more shots on goal than Detroit across the game, so you could possibly think that they should have won by more than 1 goal, but the important part is that the Scarecrows are 2-0 up, heading into their back to back in Detroit. And importantly, are no worse off thanks to the restart of the playoffs. Byrnison is missing a couple of career shutouts, aside from that, they have to be happy with 2-0.

Game 3
As is becoming tradition in this series, Game 3 starred with a cagey first period. This time, Detroit pounced first, on home ice. The tremendously named Salzberger Lillehammersson tucked it away, with help from Zak Wilson and Ty Murphy, on the Power Play, following Mars Stanton getting a 2 minute Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty. The first period also featured a fight, involving St Louis Centre Brent Ashe and his opposite number in red, Clifford Wilson. Score at the end of the first, 1-0 Detroit.
The second period featured no goals, just a pair of Hooking penalties on Detroit players, Fandango and Nutcluster to be precise. The Falcons successfully killed both penalties. Score after 2, still 1-0 to Detroit.
I believe the third was what you could term a ‘blowout period’, as St Louis recovered from the general malaise that seemed to be surrounding them, and came out swinging! 4 unanswered goals in the third period for the Scarecrows! Sharpe opened the scoring, Tsunami and Urquhart assisting him. This was followed by Fedorov’s second of the series, that man Taunami bagging his 4th assist of the playoffs, along with Stanton’s first. Ayerzov picked up his second goal of the series, with the D pair of Bouchard and Spicy McHaggis on the assists, rounded out by rookie Sam Stone knocking in an empty netter, assisted by Ashe. Final score St Louis 4-1 Detroit. 3-0 baby!

Game 4
Imagine getting swept on home ice? Detroit will obviously throw everything at this game to avoid it, as you would expect, so temper expectations, if they nick a win it’s not a huge deal, we take them back to our house and finish them off there! Or we could just put an end to it here and now?
The usual cagey first period was even cagier than usual! No goals, a minor penalty on Feltersnatch for Tripping the sole item of interest, StbLouis doing a good job killing off that penalty. After 1, it’s 0-0.
The second period is another quiet affair, both teams cancelling each other out in the main, until Wet Jeans breaks the deadlock late in the period, the assist coming from Zukal. Can they hold on for another period, or even stretch their lead? After 2, the score is 1-0 to Detroit.
No, no they couldn’t. St Louis are now no longer just playoff specialists, they’re playoff third period specialists, as another HUGE third period guides them to victory. After being 0-1 across the first 2 periods, they go 3-0 in the third. Before the goals though, Spicy McHaggis doles out the beating of a lifetime to Detroit’s Clem Fandango, and both men get a major for fighting. Then the scoring starts! Jonny Tsunami continues his outstanding playoff form since his move over from Maine, scoring a brace, the assists coming from Brady and von Gucci for the first and von Gucci and Sharpe for the second. The scoring is rounded off 22 seconds before the final buzzer, by Lebron Brady, with assists from Sharpe and Stanton. Final score, St Louis 3-1 Detroit.

The Scarecrows have done it! They have swept the Detroit Falcons 4-0, in fact 6-0 if you include the false start! That is a great result in anyone’s book!! They go on to face much stiffer competition in the next round, coming up against the Vancouver Whalers, one of the teams tipped to be challenging for the Four Star Cup. Can they keep the playoff magic going and send their GM Blitz into retirement with a cup??

2,050 words I believe

Asked Madden · 08-03-2021, 06:43 AM

**scarecrow noises** sweep sweep sweep

***Aleris*** · 08-05-2021, 12:21 AM

Can't wait for the 2nd round review if you win tomorrow!

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us