With all the games complete in gameweek 11, the scores for the semi final of the FHL UK Cup are now complete, unless there are minor gamesheet changes by the Elite League before we move to gameweek 12 at midnight on Tuesday.
In our semi-final preview our pick “Hard to Yandle” comfortable made it through by 90 points after getting the seventh highest points score of the week. GM Drew Williams had scouted that the Coventry Blaze had more games than anyone else this week so got over 100 points from goalie Paavo Holsa and captain Nathanael Halbert. “Hard to Yandle” also picked up more points from the blueline that their opponent, and while “Chases Chasers” captains pick Scott Conway did get 52 points it wasn’t enough to make this a close tie.
For our final preview we have “Royals” who are third in the overall league against “Hard to Yandle” who are fourteenth, and first we will look at the fixtures for the week. We have two of the top scoring Elite League teams only playing once this week, with Sheffield hosting rivals Nottingham, and Guildford entertaining Belfast. As it stands “Royals” have a full compliment of six players from Guildford and Sheffield while “Hard to Yandle” has just five.
In goal it should be a slight advantage for “Royals” as they have Matt Greenfield and Shane Owen who we can expect to play three games between them, where as “Hard to Yandle” have Paavo Holsa and James Downie who will play just two.
“Royals” will struggle defensively though as they have Jordan Klimek, Sam Jones and Bradley Lalonde who will all play just once in the gameweek. However, with Nathanael Halbert and Gabe Bast they have the top two defenceman in the game. “Hard to Yandle” has Matt Petgrave and Lalonde playing just the one game but they also have Halbert, Bast and Crawford as common players. The difference maker here is Kris Inglis of Dundee although he has just 35 points across the season. We think a small advantage to “Hard to Yandle”.
Up front the common players across both teams are Scott Conway, Daniel Tedesco, Elijiah Barriga, Jesper Ohrvall and Brandon Whistle. Apart from these players “Royals” go to battle with Peyton Frantti, Kim Tallberg, Zack Phillips and Matt Myers. “Hard to Yandle” counter with Janne Kivilahti, David Goodwin, Daniel Ciampini and Ryan Barrow. If you look at the total points for these players across the season then it is advantage for “Hard to Yandle” again although Ciampini is playing just the one game. “Royals” have two Coventry players so are reliant upon two good results for the Blaze against Belfast and Cardiff.
With this being the cup final we may well see some trades for each team just for the final and as ever the captains pick will be vital. Scott Conway would seem to be the sensible pick but will one of our GM’s pick another player hoping to gain an advantage while Belfast has two away fixtures.
It’s no surprise that with two top 15 teams we think this will be close. “Royals” have the stronger goaltending duo but we give “Hard to Yandle” the slight advantage in defence and forward. The FHL UK team predict “Hard to Yandle” will just scrape through due to their more balanced forwards but if Coventry can pick up plenty of goals in their games with Frantti and Tallberg involved it could change things quickly.
Good luck to both teams!
