The completion of gameweek 26 brings the end to our semi-final ties. In the first tie it is “No Woman, No Krejci” who make it through to this years FHL UK Shield Cup Final. A low scoring week in general meant each and every point was valuable. Despite their goalies scoring 3.7 points and defence 33 points “No Woman, No Krejci” got some great point hauls from their forward group. Led by captain J.J. Piccinich with 72 points, he was supported by Mathieu Roy (47 points) and Cole Sanford (39 points).
For “Thunder Bay Bombers” a good cup run comes to an end with just league position left to fight for in the final few weeks of the season. Belfast Duo Tyler Beskorowany and Kevin Raine gave the team some solid point scores in goal and at the back but it was forward scoring that let them down. Good weeks from Piccinich and Sanford didn’t help them gain any points on their opponent as they were in both teams, and only captain Brodie Reid (28 points) and Robert Dowd (24 points) had good weeks from the remaining players.
In the second semi-final we still have chance of a cup double with “Oeppen” making it through to the final. We mentioned in our preview around Oeppen having groups of players from the same team and if this was a risk, on this occasion it wasn’t the case. The Cardiff trio of captain Coughler (54 points), Sanford (39 points) and Reid (14 points) brought over 100 points and offset poor weeks from the Dundee and Sheffield forwards who just scored 37 points between the four players. A good week in goal with wins for both Tyler Beskorowany and Brython Preece gave “Oeppen” a slight advantage over their opponent as predicted in our preview.
“Hard to Yandle” return to battle in the congested top 10 of the league standings with a poor scoring week meaning they will need to wait until next year for cup glory. We noted how CJ Motte could be a difference maker in the semi-final as he had 3 games against Manchester and Dundee across the week. However 3 losses in those games for a struggling Blaze team meant only 8.9 points were scored. A great week from Josh Batch ensured that scoring across both defences was about the same but Drew Williams’ team lost ground up front with only four players scoring more than 10 points across the gameweek.
So after 11 weeks of group and knockout fixtures we are left with “No Woman, No Krejci” against “Oeppen”, who have now won 19 straight games across the two cup competitions. Can they win just one more?
Lets have a look at both teams and see where the game could be won. In goal both teams have young standout Brython Preece who has come into the Dundee goal to replace the injured Adam Morrison and kept on winning games. In the other starting spot it’s Mac Carruth against Tyler Beskorowany. With Cardiff only having one game this week it is advantage “Oeppen” with Beskorowany possibly playing two games.
In defence it is a similar story with both teams having Matt Register, Evan Mosey, Jamal Watson and JC Brassard. That then leaves Michael Poirier and Jonas Emmerdahl for “No Woman, No Krejci” and Kyle Haas and Jake Bolton for “Oeppen”. We think this is too close to call for defensive scoring as the difference makers have the same amount of games. Jake Bolton is perhaps the most explosive scorer however both Poirier and Emmerdahl do have powerplay time for their respective teams.
Up front both teams have seven players in common with J.J. Piccinich as captain, Brodie Reid, Cole Sanford, Scott Conway, Charlie Combs, Marc-Olivier Vallerand and Martin Latal. For “No Woman, No Krejci” they are left with David Goodwin and Mathieu Roy, while “Oeppen” have Jake Coughler and Sebastian Bengtsson. Based on the number of games and recent form you would have to give a slight advantage to “No Woman, No Krejci” as Goodwin and Roy have five games between them and are both in good form. Coughler just has the one game against a tough Sheffield team while Bengtsson has two of his three games away from home.
Overall we have two top 10 teams with an incredible twelve players in common out of seventeen with the same captain pick as well. So we know this will be close all the way to final game finishes on Sunday. With our game updating the points as the goals fly in we will know our winner on Sunday night. Good luck to both teams!
No Woman, No Krejci
Oeppen
