World Cup of Hockey 44 - Everything Thread

[Eshialand]

Slaughterhouse
Eshialand 12-2 Placely Placington
Taxonomic Kingdoms 1-3 Eshialand

"That was certainly... something else, wasn't it?"

"And Heperuda takes the puck, he passes it up to Mason Mentee, who dekes Test Subject 4 so hard that his ankles collapse like wet papier maché! Mentee passes it to St. John, and HE SCORES! 1-0 ESHIALAND!"

"I mean, I told you that you had to do better after that game against Poafmersia, but this?"

"And Jessica Lambeau skates past Test Subject 9, she gets all the way to the blue line, firing it straight through Test Subject 1, he's gonna catch fire from... friction? AND IT'S IN! 2-0 ESHIALAND!!"

"You made mincemeat of the Placely Placingtonians! It wasn't even fair!"

"Danica Joseph and Brayden Williams are passing it back and forth, and Danica misses the pass and it bounces off Test Subject 18's head, and it proceeds to bounce around the arena like a pinball..."
"The puck?"
"The head! Joseph gets the puck back, AND SHE BANGS IT DOWN TOP SHELF! 3-0 ESHIALAND!!!"

"3-1 at the first intermission was absolutely more than I could've asked for, props to you all, but the whole game was probably the most ridiculous thing that's ever happened in Eshialand, and that's sure as heck saying something."

"Raleigh takes the puck, and she skates past Test Subject 13, who proceeds to melt on the spot, she passes to Degle AND HE SCORES! 4-1!!

"What in the world was that? I mean, you've done wacky stuff before, but... what the heck??"

"Logan Barrow steals the puck from Test Subject 10, and he starts skating around the ice with the puck, not passing, just to show off!"
"He must be crazy!"
"The Owls are up 4-2, so he really can do whatever, and he's gonna shoot it from behind the red line!"
"Whaaa?"
"And all of the Test Subjects can't do a dang thing about it, IT'S IN, 5-2!!"

"That showboating was pretty stupid, but it worked, sure enough..."

"Test Subject 5 takes the puck from Degle, and he takes the puck right back, and Test Subject 5 loses his stick in the kerfuffle! And... his hand goes with the stick?? Degle shoots, and HE SCORES! 6-2 ESHIALAND!! And that's gonna mark the end of the game for Test Subject 1, as I see Test Subject 99 coming off of the bench."

"And was the game over after the goalie was pulled? Of course you made sure it wasn't. Of course."

"St. John has the puck, and he's gonna shoot it, blocked by Test Subject 2..."
"Wait, what's going on?"
"It seems to have triggered some sort of self-destruct mechanism! Test Subject 2 explodes, and the puck goes flying... INTO THE NET!! 7-2 OWLSSSSS!!!"

"7-2 after 40 minutes... at that point it could've been considered a crime against humanity, or... whatever the Placely Placingtonians are... but you weren't done, were you?"

"Lambeau skating up the ice again, and she fires it from THE BLUE LINE but it bounces off the crossbar, BUT BIANCA JEFFREY GETS THE REBOUND AND SCORES!!!! 8-2!!!"

"It doesn't even make much sense to define that game, I'm... lost for words as to what it was."

"Ridley takes the puck from Test Subject 6, I don't even remember if she did anything last year, but she's doing something now, firing a shot straight into Test Subject 99's eye! He falls down like a ragdoll, BACKWARDS INTO THE NET!! 9-2!!!"

"Maybe we shouldn't define your game in terms of goal count, but rather kill count, because heads sure did roll... and explode... and melt..."

"Johansson wins the faceoff and passes it back to Heperuda, he flicks it up high into the air and it goes to Degle, he's gonna shoot AND MAKE TEST SUBJECT 99 DISINTEGRATE ON CONTACT!! HAT TRICK FOR DEGLE! DOUBLE DIGITS FOR THE OWLS! TEN TO TWO, ESHIALAAAAAAND!!!!"

"That hat trick sure was a sight to behold, truly... but two in one game was not my expectation."

"And now St. John has the puck, he's gonna pass to Jason Mentee..."
"Look at the number, that one's Mason."
"Gosh, you're right! They switched wings just for the fun of it! It seems to have confused the Test Subjects too, as they're skating right into one another! Mason passes back to St. John, WHO GETS HIMSELF A HAT TRICK! 11-2, WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING?!?!"

"Denneman Gardens wasn't even an arena for that game, was it? You know what it was? A slaughterhouse, that's what it was."

"Here we are in the dying seconds, the score at 11-2, by all accounts the Placely Placington team should just give up the sport of hockey at this point... and Xavier Grant has the puck, and with 3 seconds to go, he flicks it harmlessly into the air... and EVEN THAT MANAGES TO GO IN! 12-2 WILL BE THE FINAL SCORE IN THIS GAME!!!"

"So, I only have one question... how did you pull that one off?"
"I dunno Coach..." Devon St. John replied. "We were just on a hot streak, I suppose."

[Trolleborg]

Greetings, compatriots!
It’s TTV from Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland, where our national hockey team play another game of World Cup. Game will be played in Braubrunn am Ruhntuhnkuhn – as you see, both names is very difficult to pronounce. Many thinks, that say all this will be the most difficult task before the team, since Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland altought much nearer to the top of the world hockey ranks than we are, difference in skill looked not so great and most of the pundits agreed, that it was not impossible to overcome home team. Stadium packed almost to the brim, partly due to the less-than-average capacity, if we take Trolleborgian norms for hockey high-level games, partly due to influx of our fans, who made themselves very visible and highly audible.

***

The team entered the rink, as it was looked like from the stands, in great shape and in good spirits, and soon opened the score. After the melee in the middle zone, experienced Drakesson deftly pushed the puck forward, and the pre-overclocked Riseth slipped behind the backs of the lined defenders, one on one with the goalkeeper and skillfully sent the puck into the goal. And after a little over a minute, the team got the two minutes of powerplay. A great opportunity to bring the advantage to two goals and make a claim for the long-awaited second victory in history – thinks many. But then the puck was lost in a hosts zone, the opponent's forward is rapidly running away, and Heg, succumbing to a deceptive fint, is powerless - 1:1. And on this any team game performed by the Trolleborg hockey players is over. The team, that two minutes ago looked like concentrated and ready to get points, turned out to be a set of people on the field, masterly writing meaningless circles and beautifully and accurately sending the puck to no one knows where, and, despite the serious efforts made, they could not get together for a real battle for the result. The roar of the fans is in vain, the shouts and gestures of the coaches are don’t make difference, the shuffling of the players in pairs and lines does nothing - the team does not come to its senses, conceded another goal in the second period and two in the third, and again leaves the field defeated, and quite deservedly defeated and an enemy quite comparable in strength. Not even deserving of defeat with a less serious score. No one want to look at the head coach, his position the worst of all. The country entrusted him to save - let's be honest in words - a team in a sport that ranks second in popularity, and the result is this. Vladimir Finn from his place perfectly see his own misdoings - for many years of leading the country, he don’t managed to instill in his subjects the ability to get up and continue the game after sudden failures. When he made this mistake, what he miss when the education system was being built, it is not clear, but it was necessary to understand. Well, let's figure it out.

[The Cordian Isles]

The Cordasfjord Post

---

World Cup of Hockey Update

---

Cordasfjord, Cordia- Cordia has played surprisingly well thus far in the World Cup of Hockey. After a terrible opener against defending champions Elejamie, the Cordians upset Fluvannia to stick to a 50% points percentage. Though going into the away game at Chromatika, winning was unlikely from the time the schedule was set, and it seemed unlikely for lightning to strike twice against two top-25 teams.

It didn’t, though the game was quite competitive. Bérangère Levett delivered the first goal for Chromatika off of a netfront battle. Freydis Svensen attempted to clear the puck with her skate from the battle's center, only to see it go right to a hovering Levett. Chris Ericsson, in his first international start, never saw the resulting shot. A tip from Harald Ericsen (not to be confused with Ericsson) on a Halfdan Leifssen shot provided the tying goal for Cordia, as the period ended one-all.

Then came the second period. Long changes due to the teams switching sides means more tired players, and more goals for those who can take advantage. Chromatika took advantage. It started with a bad line change; the defensemen went back to the bench from the offensive zone, with the Chromatika team quickly getting possession and going on a rush. Coming off the bench, Haakon Haraldsen couldn't reach a speeding Ludovic Blanc, who went in 1-on-1 against Ericsson, roofing it for the goal. The home crowd went absolutely wild after that play. A few minutes later, the Cordians found themselves on the penalty kill with Will Egilsen in the box. The second kill line was used instead, but after a play stoppage halfway through the kill, Jennifer Vosun went out with Rurik Dirsson, who hasn't had any time killing penalties at this level so far. He probably won't get any more, as he found himself running around and far out of position, leaving Rowena Hauptman open for a cross-ice pass from Blanc, which she crushed into the open net. The next few minutes were back-and-forth hockey before Chromatika trapped the "youth line" of Bjornsen, Kordsen, and MacLeod with Haraldsen and Svensson in the defensive zone, tiring them out with passing around the outside before Ségolène De Villiers sent a pass from the corner to Loren Basalter in the slot, who went far-side for the goal. The second period ended with Cordia down 4-1.

It's impressive that a group new to international sport didn't just give up and let Chromatika score another three. Instead, the Cordians fought back in the third period. The first goal came on an incredible forecheck from the Cordian fourth line which caused a turnover in the corner. A pass went out to Eric Walker at the point. Walker managed the luckiest shot of his life, the puck going untouched through traffic in front and staight into the net. The next time Dorothy Belmont saw the puck, it was in the back of the net. Chromatika shut down the Cordian offense for most of the rest of the game, but with four to go Justin Perreau found himself on a 2-on-1 with Eric Eaton, bearing down on Josephine Galmont. The Cordians crossed, and Perreau dropped the puck to Eaton. Belmont kept tracking Perreau, thinking he had the puck, and a quick shot from Eation made the game 4-3. Despite a massive attack in the last few minutes, Chromatika kept its cool, not allowing any high-quality chances and blocking shots left and right to seal the 4-3 home win.

In the home game against Mapletish, Olaf Smith stopped all 25 shots to take Cordia's first-ever shutout. The first line scored twice, Justin Perreau and Eric Eaton each putting the puck in the net to give Cordia the 2-0 victory. This leaves Cordia in fourth in Group D, four games in. Next up is Pius Desurongcrandis, a balanced team currently at sixth in the group, having tied Fluvannia and beaten Mapletish. It's certainly a winnable game, and a win is needed if Cordia wants to maintain their position at fourth. Elsewhere in the group, Mapletish has lost all three of their games, scoring just twice and allowing twelve goals - a very high number for a very defensive team, though to be fair, Chromatika scored seven on them in one game which . Fluvannia, ranked 20th in the world, are having a terrible tournament, with three draws and a loss, the loss coming against the only unranked team in the group - Cordia! On the upper side of the standings, Cassadaigua are playing alright but below what might be expected of them, with a win over current frontrunner Chromatika and ties with defending champions Elejamie and struggling Fluvannia. Elejamie, too, tied Fluvannia, showing that things may not be as hopeless as they seem for the pot 4 team if they can keep stealing points from the world's best. In first, there's Chromatika, who are playing pretty well but lost big in their only real test so far, against the Dagans.

SCORELINES
MD 3                1   2   3   F
Chromatika          1   3   0   4   Levett, Blanc, Hauptman, Basalter
The Cordian Isles   1   0   2   3   Ericsen, Walker, Eaton

MD 4                1   2   3   F
The Cordian Isles   1   0   1   2   Perreau, Eaton
Mapletish           0   0   0   0

[Ko-oren]

Pythagoras (or rather, people borrowing heavily from Pythagoras' work) say that we're in for a tight three-way race for the top. Banija's three wins in four games to start the group stage gives them first place for now but over the course of their bye weeks, they might drop below Ko-oren, who in turn have already had their bye week, with Graintfjall currently cruising for third, with their slightly worse rates of scoring. It has to be said that while Banija has only beaten Rocky Canada, Vilita & Turori, and Kaldtfjell (4th, 5th, 7th, respectively) and their only loss came to the Dragonflies (3-2 loss), Ko-oren has beaten number one Banija, tied number two Graintfjall, and enjoyed a huge win over 6th placed HUElavia. Graintfjall, to complete the picture, tied both us and HUElavia, and comfortably beat Kaldtfjell and Rocky Canada. Those are a mixed bag of results, alright. It's safe to say that our schedule clears up (with the exception of that Vilita/Turori game that we know is going to give us a lot of trouble) while the other two have some tough fights ahead of them. Or rather, they still have to play one another, which guarantees a dropping of points.

The Dragonflies were lucky to come away with a draw versus Graintfjall, losing the faceoff, total shots, and time spent in opposition zone battles, though there's something to be said for that whenever one of our wingers broke into the offensive zone, they were allowed a clear path at goal a few times. The number of chances we produced wasn't anything special, but the quality of chances suggests that we should have really scored more than once. Versus Banija, there were a lot of lessons learned. The upstart Atlantian Oceanians have a window into Ko-orenite ice hockey through the Schemerdrecht Caribou - famously the team that the GBHL placed there months before our own league decided to expand into, well, cities such as Schemerdrecht. Local fans have embraced the team almost immediately - long time fans of the sport all over the northeast denounced the Caribou and still lament over the lost chance of putting a team in a metropolis like Schemerdrecht. It's more or less water under the bridge for most at this point, as the Caribou have only further popularised the sport and it led to a lot more talent going to local clubs - that feed into the Ko-orenite ice hockey league more than into the Caribou or the GBHL.

None of that 'window' seemed to matter, as the Banijans failed to choose a 'line' for this game: there was a lot of space between the lines, and the defencemen and forwards rarely saw eye to eye whether it was time to put pressure on the puck or sit back. This led to two quick goals by Acilea and later Asheim. Down 2-0, Misiani scored the first Banijan goal, potentially setting up a tight finish. Things got worse as the second period continued their dominance with an equaliser (2-2) through Suso. Early in the third quarter, things looked more like the first 20 minutes of the game and Enibel scored the winning goal, one on one with Olefile.

[Graintfjall]

Chapter 1 of a new story arc.

The emblem of the Háttmark Constabulary showed a knight on dragonback, proudly defending the realm. The reality of the dragonriders was slightly more prosaic: they rode swamp dragons, which – far from the proud scaled beasts of heraldry – were short, squat, and fantastically ugly. The creatures were considered slightly less intelligent than sheep and posed little in the way of offensive threat: rather than a jet of magical fire, the best they could cough up was a putrid barf of swamp gas. They were, however, living tanks thanks to their natural armor plating, and unlike horses, whose hooves struggled with icy streets, their claws gave them excellent leverage on even the cobbled alleyways of medieval Háttmark. Their jaws, meanwhile, were strong enough to twist through metal. They were ugly things with poor eyesight and a noxious smell; still, the dragons, might object, those riding them were hardly the gallant knights depicted on the heraldic badge, either.

Ásvarður Hagbertsson was a veteran of the Constabulary, his uniform perennially taut with his pot-belly. Frár Jarlsson was as tall as he was stupid, and he was incredibly tall, currently exploring the contents of a narrow nostril with a long finger. Dagfinnur Kristbjörnsson was the youngest of the three. Sandy haired and with a mean cast to his face, a broken tooth gave him an evil smile. The three were not dressed in glittering plate armor, but tactical black bulletproof vests; they carried not mighty broadswords and graceful lances, but truncheons, pepper spray, and handcuffs; and on their breasts, they had pinned not the token of some fair maiden, but standard issue body cameras. It was the body cameras that were the root of the two biggest problems that night. The second biggest problem was that, at a certain point, and in violation of all departmental regulations, Dagfinnur and Ásvarður switched off their body cameras.

That point was the moment when the tall, slender youth spat in Ásvarður’s face. The Kijani lad – he claimed to be a teenager but looked a bit older, though Græntfjallers sometimes had trouble guessing the ages of other races – had taken understandable objection to the rotund individual – or “fat fuck” as he put it – slamming him against the wall. Ásvarður’s frustrations boiled over. It had been a long, cold bitter night on patrol. Instead of a warm squad car, he’d been on dragonback, loping around outside dragging the two rookies with him. Policing the immigrant-dominated neighborhood of central Háttmark was like being in another country: strange faces at every window, women cowelled head-to-toe, calls to prayer bleating out, weird food smells, unrecognizable writing scrawled on every shopfront. Ásvarður hated every minute he spent in a place like this. And being spat at by some dope pusher who’d just been caught dead to rights with a package of some powdered substance – probably heroin, powdered cocaine was a little upmarket for a shithole like this – pushed him over the edge.

He drove a gloved fist into the lad’s gut and was readying a second when a heavy hand cuffed his shoulder. It was Dagfinnur, who shook his head silently and pointed at the body camera. Then the kid’s evil little smile came out. Ásvarður replied in kind. And together, they reached up and switched off their cameras. These kind of equipment failures were semi-regular, of course, though they seemed to happen strangely with more frequency when policing immigrant neighborhoods. The winded lad didn’t really understand what was happening, but a strange shooop noise made him look up. Just in time to see the telescopic baton – illegal for police officers – shoot out of Dagfinnur’s hand. He grimaced and twisted his handcuffed body to one side, trying in vain to shield his face from the blow.

Down the street, the dragons were grazing on trash. One of them was picking at the bones of some fried chicken that had been dumped in the gutter, while another was nibbling an empty soda can. They were undiscerning eaters. Small, dark eyes looked up, surveying without interest the scene as two black-clad men they recognized as their riders punched and kicked and swung at a figure lying on the ground. Then one of the dragons discovered a trash bag that had been torn open, spilling out a slurry of food waste. It brayed in excitement and the dragons turned from the beating to more interesting matters: mouldy apples and cold fried rice. A rare delicacy. The owner of the shopfront came out, swearing at the creatures in Kijani-accented Commonspeak. The messy beasts were spraying food waste across the street in front of his business, the Kut Boyz barbershop. They ignored his protests and he was wise enough not to come within reach of their blade-like talons or awesome jaws.

A noise down the street – a wail of pain, a desperate sob for help – drew his attention away from the dragons. There was some kind of scuffle going on. He called into the shop and men came out to join him. Most were immigrants, some Kijani, some Montvertanesque. Barbershops like this were the only place such men could get a decent cut. They watched as a third figure, Frár, joined in the assault. And, following on from the second biggest problem of the night, it was Frár’s involvement that turned into the biggest problem of all. Because the only thing worse than Ásvarður and Dagfinnur switching off their body cameras, was Frár, bless his little troll-brain, forgetting to switch off his.

It was meant to be a morning that Græntfjall would awake to exciting news of the Rainbow Wolves representing the new, modern, cosmopolitan nation. A few days after the first Muslim player in national history had scored a goal to tie Ko-oren, Karim Raknarsson Zain with a sharp interception of a bobbling puck and put-back into goal as the Ice Wolves held the world #6 Dragonflies to a 1–1 draw at the WMM Arena, came a game which saw the team’s first ever black player, Ríó Ferdinandsson, with a crucial block, turnover, and pass in the closing seconds of a game with Græntfjall’s fiercest hockey rival, HUElavia, to secure an astonishing comeback and another valuable draw. The celebration of these players’, going from history-makers just through their inclusion, to proving their worth on the ice with big game plays, should have been headline news.

Instead, the stories were shunted to the back pages. The headlines, from the Western leftist papers to the capital’s right-wing tabloids, instead united around a single word: “SHAME”. Virtually every newspaper carried the same image, a still from the body camera footage recorded by Frár: Dagfinnur, telescopic baton raised above his head, the bruised and swollen face of the beaten lad – who, was, in fact, a teenager – at his feet. The snarl on Ásvarður’s face capturing the very moment he uttered the vulgar racial obscenity that Frár’s camera’s on-board mic picked up. Even ND, that had spent the last year whipping up fears that a tide of immigrants was going to overwhelm the country, wasn’t going to defend this one. Gallant knights on dragonback? That one had definitely gone the way of the myths.

1st period
11:39 Aelise (Buck, Aeretina)
2nd period
10:49 Karim

1st period
7:08 Bjarnleifur (Ben, Kristoffer)
2nd period
7:17 Castilho (Gachev, Ilchenko)
3rd period
6:53 Gachev (Castilho, Meghni)
19:25 Þórlaugur (Ríó, Bjarni)

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

Cutoff, Matchday 5-6

---

Group A

Matchday 5 BYE - TJUN-ia (19)
Nova Anglicana (21) 3–1 Kelssek (09)
Nephara (33) 2–3 Quebec & Shingoryeo (14-HOST)
Adyatin (82) 5–5 Huayramarca (UR)

P Group A                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Quebec & Shingoryeo                              4    4   0   0    22    7  +15     8         —   9–2   —    —    —    —   6–2
2 Nova Anglicana                                   5    4   0   1    22   16   +6     8         —    —    —   3–2  8–2   —   3–1
3 TJUN-ia                                          4    3   0   1    19   11   +8     6        1–4   —    —    —    —   5–1   — 
4 Huayramarca                                      5    2   1   2    20   21   −1     5         —    —   4–9   —   4–1   —    — 
5 Nephara                                          4    1   0   3     8   16   −8     2        2–3   —    —    —    —   3–1   — 
6 Adyatin                                          4    0   1   3     9   19  −10     1         —   2–6   —   5–5   —    —    — 
7 Kelssek                                          4    0   0   4     8   18  −10     0         —    —   2–4  3–5   —    —    —

Matchday 6 BYE - Huayramarca (UR)
Quebec & Shingoryeo (14-HOST) 5–1 Adyatin (82)
Kelssek (09) 2–1 Nephara (33)
TJUN-ia (19) 2–5 Nova Anglicana (21)

P Group A                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Quebec & Shingoryeo                              5    5   0   0    27    8  +19    10         —   9–2   —    —   6–2   —   5–1
2 Nova Anglicana                                   6    5   0   1    27   18   +9    10         —    —    —   3–2  3–1  8–2   — 
3 TJUN-ia                                          5    3   0   2    21   16   +5     6        1–4  2–5   —    —    —    —   5–1
4 Huayramarca                                      5    2   1   2    20   21   −1     5         —    —   4–9   —    —   4–1   — 
5 Kelssek                                          5    1   0   4    10   19   −9     2         —    —   2–4  3–5   —   2–1   — 
6 Nephara                                          5    1   0   4     9   18   −9     2        2–3   —    —    —    —    —   3–1
7 Adyatin                                          5    0   1   4    10   24  −14     1         —   2–6   —   5–5   —    —    —

Group B

Matchday 5 BYE - Graintfjall (13)
Banija (24) 2–3 HUElavia (07)
Vilita & Turori (36) 3–6 Ko-oren (05)
Kaldtfjell (UR) 5–1 Rocky Canada (UR)

P Group B                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Ko-oren                                          4    3   1   0    15    6   +9     7         —   3–2   —   5–0   —    —    — 
2 Banija                                           5    3   0   2    19   10   +9     6         —    —    —   2–3  4–0   —   6–1
3 Graintfjall                                      4    2   2   0    11    6   +5     6        1–1   —    —    —    —   6–3   — 
4 HUElavia                                         4    1   2   1     6   10   −4     4         —    —   2–2   —   1–1   —    — 
5 Rocky Canada                                     5    1   1   3     7   16   −9     3         —    —   0–2   —    —    —   5–4
6 Kaldtfjell                                       4    1   0   3    11   15   −4     2         —   3–5   —    —   5–1   —    — 
7 Vilita & Turori                                  4    1   0   3    11   17   −6     2        3–6   —    —    —    —   3–0   —

Matchday 6 BYE - Rocky Canada (UR)
Ko-oren (05) 5–2 Kaldtfjell (UR)
HUElavia (07) 6–1 Vilita & Turori (36)
Graintfjall (13) 4–2 Banija (24)

P Group B                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Ko-oren                                          5    4   1   0    20    8  +12     9         —    —   3–2  5–0   —   5–2   — 
2 Graintfjall                                      5    3   2   0    15    8   +7     8        1–1   —   4–2   —    —   6–3   — 
3 Banija                                           6    3   0   3    21   14   +7     6         —    —    —   2–3  4–0   —   6–1
4 HUElavia                                         5    2   2   1    12   11   +1     6         —   2–2   —    —   1–1   —   6–1
5 Rocky Canada                                     5    1   1   3     7   16   −9     3         —   0–2   —    —    —    —   5–4
6 Kaldtfjell                                       5    1   0   4    13   20   −7     2         —    —   3–5   —   5–1   —    — 
7 Vilita & Turori                                  5    1   0   4    12   23  −11     2        3–6   —    —    —    —   3–0   —

Group C

Matchday 5 BYE - Fluvannia (20)
Chromatika (22) 4–2 Elejamie (08)
Mapletish (48) 0–1 Cassadaigua (04)
Pius Desurongcrandis (53) 3–5 The Cordian Isles (UR)

P Group C                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Chromatika                                       5    4   0   1    21   12   +9     8         —    —   4–3  4–2   —    —   7–0
2 Cassadaigua                                      4    2   2   0     8    4   +4     6        5–2   —    —   2–2   —    —    — 
3 The Cordian Isles                                5    3   0   2    17   17    0     6         —    —    —    —   6–5   —   2–0
4 Elejamie                                         4    1   2   1    11    9   +2     4         —    —   5–1   —   2–2   —    — 
5 Fluvannia                                        4    0   3   1    11   12   −1     3         —   0–0   —    —    —   4–4   — 
6 Pius Desurongcrandis                             4    1   1   2    12   15   −3     3        2–4   —   3–5   —    —    —    — 
7 Mapletish                                        4    0   0   4     2   13  −11     0         —   0–1   —    —    —   2–3   —

Matchday 6 BYE - The Cordian Isles (UR)
Cassadaigua (04) 7–6 Pius Desurongcrandis (53)
Elejamie (08) 5–0 Mapletish (48)
Fluvannia (20) 0–1 Chromatika (22)

P Group C                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Chromatika                                       6    5   0   1    22   12  +10    10         —    —   4–2  4–3   —    —   7–0
2 Cassadaigua                                      5    3   2   0    15   10   +5     8        5–2   —   2–2   —    —   7–6   — 
3 Elejamie                                         5    2   2   1    16    9   +7     6         —    —    —   5–1  2–2   —   5–0
4 The Cordian Isles                                5    3   0   2    17   17    0     6         —    —    —    —   6–5   —   2–0
5 Fluvannia                                        5    0   3   2    11   13   −2     3        0–1  0–0   —    —    —   4–4   — 
6 Pius Desurongcrandis                             5    1   1   3    18   22   −4     3        2–4   —    —   3–5   —    —    — 
7 Mapletish                                        5    0   0   5     2   18  −16     0         —   0–1   —    —    —   2–3   —

Group D

MATCHDAY 5 BYE - Delaclava (17)
Poafmersia (23) 3–3 Gyatso-Kai (06)
Eshialand (31) 8–3 Siovanija and Teusland (02)
Placely Placington (50) 2–2 Taxonomic Kingdoms (UR)

P Group D                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Eshialand                                        4    3   0   1    25   11  +14     6        —    —    —    —   8–3   —   12–2
2 Gyatso-Kai                                       4    2   2   0    18   10   +8     6         —    —    —   7–2   —   3–3   — 
3 Poafmersia                                       5    1   3   1    18   18    0     5        5–2  3–3   —    —    —   1–1   — 
4 Delaclava                                        4    2   0   2    20   17   +3     4        —    —    —    —   3–4   —   11–4
5 Siovanija and Teusland                           4    2   0   2    16   20   −4     4         —   2–5  7–4   —    —    —    — 
6 Taxonomic Kingdoms                               5    0   3   2     9   13   −4     3        1–3   —    —   2–4   —    —    — 
7 Placely Placington                               4    0   2   2    13   30  −17     2         —    —   5–5   —    —   2–2   —

MATCHDAY 6 BYE - Taxonomic Kingdoms (UR)
Siovanija and Teusland (02) 2–1 Placely Placington (50)
Gyatso-Kai (06) 6–3 Eshialand (31)
Delaclava (17) 5–1 Poafmersia (23)

P Group D                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Gyatso-Kai                                       5    3   2   0    24   13  +11     8         —   6–3  7–2   —    —   3–3   — 
2 Eshialand                                        5    3   0   2    28   17  +11     6        —    —    —   8–3   —    —   12–2
3 Delaclava                                        5    3   0   2    25   18   +7     6        —    —    —   3–4  5–1   —   11–4
4 Siovanija and Teusland                           5    3   0   2    18   21   −3     6        2–5   —    —    —   7–4   —   2–1
5 Poafmersia                                       6    1   3   2    19   23   −4     5        3–3  5–2   —    —    —   1–1   — 
6 Taxonomic Kingdoms                               5    0   3   2     9   13   −4     3         —   1–3  2–4   —    —    —    — 
7 Placely Placington                               5    0   2   3    14   32  −18     2         —    —    —    —   5–5  2–2   —

Group E

Matchday 5 BYE - Le Choix (16)
Equestria (26) 2–4 Abanhfleft (10)
Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland (39) 2–1 Valanora (01)
Trolleborg (89) 3–0 Patriotlandia (UR)

P Group E                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Abanhfleft                                       4    3   0   1    11    5   +6     6         —   1–0   —    —    —   6–0   — 
2 Le Choix                                         4    2   1   1     9    1   +8     5         —    —   5–0   —    —    —   4–0
3 Valanora                                         4    2   0   2    12    9   +3     4        3–0   —    —    —   8–2   —    — 
4 Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland         4    2   0   2     6    5   +1     4         —    —   2–1   —    —    —   4–1
5 Equestria                                        5    1   2   2    10   17   −7     4        2–4   —    —   1–0   —   2–2   — 
6 Patriotlandia                                    5    1   2   2     4   11   −7     4         —   0–0   —   2–0   —    —    — 
7 Trolleborg                                       4    1   1   2     7   11   −4     3         —    —    —    —   3–3  3–0   —

Matchday 6 - BYE Patriotlandia (UR)
Valanora (01) 1–0 Trolleborg (89)
Abanhfleft (10) 4–0 Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland (39)
Le Choix (16) 3–0 Equestria (26)

  Group E                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Abanhfleft                                       5    4   0   1    15    5  +10     8         —   1–0   —   4–0  6–0   —    — 
2 Le Choix                                         5    3   1   1    12    1  +11     7         —    —   5–0   —    —   3–0  4–0
3 Valanora                                         5    3   0   2    13    9   +4     6        3–0   —    —    —    —   8–2  1–0
4 Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland         5    2   0   3     6    9   −3     4         —    —   2–1   —    —    —   4–1
5 Patriotlandia                                    5    1   2   2     4   11   −7     4         —   0–0   —   2–0   —    —    — 
6 Equestria                                        6    1   2   3    10   20  −10     4        2–4   —    —   1–0  2–2   —    — 
7 Trolleborg                                       5    1   1   3     7   12   −5     3         —    —    —    —   3–0  3–3   —

Group F

Matchday 5 BYE - Savojarna (12)
Gergary (25) 2–9 Sarzonia (11)
Sannyamathland (30) 3–6 Mercedini (03)
Atheara (55) 10–0 StrayaRoos (UR)

P Group F                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Sarzonia                                         4    4   0   0    23    8  +15     8         —   6–1   —    —    —    —   4–3
2 Savojarna                                        4    3   0   1    14    8   +6     6         —    —    —    —   6–0  4–2   — 
3 Gergary                                          5    3   0   2    20   18   +2     6        2–9   —    —   6–3   —    —   7–0
4 Sannyamathland                                   4    2   0   2    17   12   +5     4         —    —    —    —   5–0  3–6   — 
5 Atheara                                          4    2   0   2    13   11   +2     4        —    —   3–0   —    —    —   10–0
6 Mercedini                                        4    1   0   3    13   16   −3     2        2–4   —   3–5   —    —    —    — 
7 StrayaRoos                                       5    0   0   5     3   30  −27     0         —   0–3   —   0–6   —    —    —

Group F
Mercedini (03) 5–1 Atheara (55)
Sarzonia (11) 6–1 Sannyamathland (30)
Savojarna (12) 7–1 Gergary (25)

P Group F                                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts                                          
1 Sarzonia                                         5    5   0   0    29    9  +20    10         —   6–1   —    —   6–1   —   4–3
2 Savojarna                                        5    4   0   1    21    9  +12     8         —    —   7–1  4–2   —   6–0   — 
3 Gergary                                          6    3   0   3    21   25   −4     6        2–9   —    —    —   6–3   —   7–0
4 Mercedini                                        5    2   0   3    18   17   +1     4        2–4   —   3–5   —    —   5–1   — 
5 Sannyamathland                                   5    2   0   3    18   18    0     4         —    —    —   3–6   —   5–0   — 
6 Atheara                                          5    2   0   3    14   16   −2     4        —    —   3–0   —    —    —   10–0
7 StrayaRoos                                       5    0   0   5     3   30  −27     0         —   0–3   —    —   0–6   —    —

[HUElavia]

Time to Panic?

HUElavia draws to Graintfjall, raising questions and alarms on the state of the team and the future for it.

HUElavia 2-2 Graintfjall
(HUElines Arena, Sao Salvador, HUElavia)

After a 2-2 draw against Graintfjall, there are questions coming along for the team. HUElavia's most famous Hockey reporter, Ivan Romanovski, had this to say: "This team is struggling up to now and this is very concerning for a team that should be doing more than what they've been doing. For a team ranked 7th in the multiverse, they're really not playing to their level and they need to wake up to salvage the Group Stage and strive to return to Quebec and Shingoryeo. If they don't do this, we're facing a very hard rebuild for the next World Cup of Hockey."

Fans around the country have been partaking in polls, and well over 63% have responded that the matches have felt "Dreadful, concerning." Some feel that the team is going to pick up pace, but given that the team is in their mid 20s at the lowest to mid 30s, one has to question if the team's talents have had a drop off from four years ago. Some even question whether the surprise Round-of-16 elimination to Sarzonia four years ago served as a psychological effect to the players who had grown so accustomed to making the Quarter-Finals routinely.

The next two games are against Banija and Vilitia & Turori, which are must win games for the team. Only time will tell where the team will be standing prior to the mid-way point of the group stage. Here's to better games.

FORCA HUELAVIA! VAMOS HUELAVIA! GO HUELAVIA!

[Patriotlandia]

Back to square one

By Roland Leduc

The team was back in action this weekend with a light work schedule. The Mountaineers had to travel to Trolleborg in their single game of the match window. Renée Latraverse was set to start in net to give starting netminder Hervé Terellien a well earned rest after the team's win last time out. The Patriotlandians seemed to have forgotten how to score once again. They failed to gain any meaningful net presence in their 3-0 defeat. Meanwhile their few lapses in judgement were expertly exploited by the Trolleborg offense. The Moutaineers are now 0-1-2 on the road this tournament, it is unsure what could be the cause for this. Maybe the head coach François Saumure just can't get the right line matchup or the crowd distract the defense, but one thing is certain, you cannot win a game if you don't score.

A quick geography lesson
To make up for the lackluster content this time, we will continue our Patriotlandian lessons. This time, we will look at the country's geography. At a basic level, Patriotlandia is an island nation situated in the northern reaches of REGION. Yearly average temperatures are fairly low. Thus it's citizens are often seen enjoying winter sports and activities. The biggest of the the three islands, often refered to as the "mainland", is divided in three provinces the biggest of which is the Province of Foubrac. Spanning almost half the island, the province is home to a lot of historically important cities. The smallest province on the island is Sourterre which specialises mostly on agriculture. The final province on the mainland is Abelanne, there you can find the biggest city in the country Port-la-Ville and the nation's capital Jolicoeur. The former as always been an important trade hub for the Patriotlandian economy. Finally, we can now talk about the District of the Griffin Isles. This insular province is mostly English in culture compared to the French majority in the rest of the nation. Composed of Griffin Major and Minor, the district's main economy is shipbuilding and fishing. These provinces are all represented on the country's coat of are

Thank you for reading our compatriots' exploits this tournament. The team is back in action soon with a two game homestand against #1 ranked Valanora and #10 Abanhfleft. The Mountaineers are hoping the home crowd can be the decisive factor to avoid repeating the stomping they received in their first game. Hervé Terellien will hopefully be back in net and ready to face a barrage of shots from two great teams.

[Sarzonia]

It's possible that the biggest cheerleader for Sarzonian national ice hockey team goaltender Jacob Parsons is the man who temporarily replaced him as the starter.

Reserve goalie Owen Franks was the first player off the bench rushing onto the ice to congratulate Parsons after he backstopped the Stars in a 6-1 victory over Savorjarna when Parsons started for the first time after his attempted suicide. Franks said after the match that he was thrilled at the prolonged standing ovations Parsons would receive from the crowd at Bank of Sarzonia Arena after that result and after their 6-1 victory over Sannyamathland that gave the Stars a 5-0-0 record and a plus-20 goal differential that would give them the No. 1 overall seeds if the knockout rounds began today. Parsons also started the away match to No. 25 Gregary in a 9-2 rout.

Sarzonia's run has seen Parsons earn a record of 3-0-0 with a goals against average of 1.33, whilst Franks is 2-0-0 with a 2.50 GAA. It gives manger Brett Tanguay, Sr. a pleasant problem, as both goalies are playing at a very high level.

"I'm very pleased with the play of both guys," he said. "Jake has been lights out ever since he got back on the ice, and Owen played great, in particular against Mercedini in an away match in a hostile environment. I can't say enough about how well he's played in a high leverage situation." Tanguay said any match against the third ranked team in the hockey multiverse was high leverage, even though it was only the second match Sarzonia played in the current World Cup of Hockey.

As for the team's adjustment to the more attack-oriented system Tanguay wanted, one that has seen his son score three times against Gregary and twice against Sannyamathland, Senior said the team have "definitely adapted well" after a few hiccups.

"It took a couple of matches for us to find our footing," he said. "But we definitely seemed to turn a corner against a tough Savorjarna side." Savorjarna crushed Gregary 7-1 after their Matchday 5 bye and currently are in runner up position in the Group F table with a 4-0-1 record and eight points. Gregary are 3-0-3 after consecutive defeats to Sarzonia and Savorjarna after they defeated Mercedini, who are in fourth place after winning back-to-back matches to climb out of an 0-0-3 hole.

Following the victory over Sannyamathland, Franks shouted, "THREE CHEERS FOR JAKE!" as Parsons finally walked into the team's dressing room after being interviewed by reporters. "Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOORAY!" Franks chanted, with the team gleefully joining in. He then walked up to Parsons and gave him a hug. The two men were quickly followed by the rest of the team crowding in trying to join the hug. Senior looked at the proceedings with a huge smile on his face. This wasn't just a hockey team that was jelling to an unbeaten run that made them appear to be an early favourite for their first-ever World Cup of Hockey championship. This wasn't just a team that was playing well and riding a high of 21 goals scored in their last three matches. This was a family. This was a team that loved their goalie, their friend, their brother. This was a family that wanted to make clear they had Jake's back no matter what he was feeling.

He watched as Junior hugged both Parsons and Franks and kept one arm around each with a smile on his face. Even though Junior was an offensive player, he was more than happy to be part of the support system for Parsons whenever he needed it. He also wanted Franks to know he was supported, too. Junior didn't care about labels like "superstar." He wanted to win games. He wanted to hoist the championship trophy at the end, and he didn't care if he scored a bunch of goals to make that happen or if he was a healthy scratch the rest of the way. Winning a championship would go a long way toward curing a lot of things that happened over the years. But even more than winning, having his teammate, his friend, his brother alive and well and still a key player in the team's success was even more important than whether or not they won a trophy.

The Stars would play two consecutive away matches; to No. 55 Atheara and to unranked StrayaRoos before returning to Bank of Sarzonia Arena against Mercedini. But for right now, there were more important things to think about, and more feelings to feel. And a journey to enjoy no matter what the destination it would lead to.

[TJUN-ia]

After we lost to the hosts by 3 and then beat a struggling top seed on the road by 2, the Ice Jaguars could enjoy their bye at 3-1 and in a good position to reach the Top 3 in the group. For Ølson Rasmussen, the bye was always a perfect opportunity to try and scout the opposition and with Nova Anglicana coming to town on MD6, any data that could be collected would be important in trying to fight them on the ice. The team watched as Sherm Willis' side beat the now 1-4 Kelssek by 3-1 at home and we all understood how attacking they could be. Trying to stop the relentless attack would be critical to the team's success back on home ice.

The game arrived at The Rink in The Gardens and hosting a Top 2 team is always going to produce a crowd who want to see all the drama if possible. Unfortunately for them, it just wasn't to be, but that didn't mean nothing happened for the Jags tonight. We managed to score twice against the great outfit, both goals coming through Viktor Orban of all people in the 1st and 3rd Periods, but that wasn't going to be enough against a unit such as this one. Both Glen Gray and Julian Stephens managed braces in this contest while Brady Dowell got the final goal while the net was empty. 5-2 is the final score in New Washington as the Top 2 pull away and TJUN-ia tries to not get left behind.

We're almost halfway through this group stage, but we shall cross over that line soon enough. Back-to-back road games await against the current bottom 2 in Nephara and Adyatin so hopefully, with our team rearing to go, these Ice Jaguars can pull the gap back come what may. GO JAGS!

---

SCHEDULE (Group B, all matches in Kelssek)
MD1: vs Adyatin (82) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington W 5-1 (2nd)
MD2: @Huaryamarca (UR) - Domo del Altiplano, Huayramarca D.M. W 9-4 (2nd)
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD3: vs Quebec and Shingoryeo (14) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington L 1-4 (3rd)
MD4: @Kelssek (9) W 4-2 (2nd)
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD5: BYE (3rd)
MD6: vs Nova Anglicana (21) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington L 2-5 (3rd)
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD7: @Nephara (33)
MD8: @Adyatin (82)
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD9: vs Huaryamarca (UR) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington
MD10: @Quebec and Shingoryeo (14) - The Marijuana Island Gaol, Marijuana Island, Nunavut
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD11: vs Kelssek (9) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington
MD12: BYE
-----------------Puck Watch!-----------------
MD13: @Nova Anglicana (21)
MD14 vs Nephara (33) - The Rink in The Gardens, New Washington

[Pius Desurongcrandis]

Assistant Coaches Brian Grainer and Hayden Pachuco walk into Head Coach Bob Rosset's office. "Hey, Bob we need to talk to you about the Defense and the Goaltending." says Brian Grainer as they walk into Bob Rosset's Office.

"The Defense needs a shakeup in the pairings, I have come up with new pairings to try in our next game. I want to move Victor Top Jr. to the 1st line with Bruce Cotter and send down Jimmy with Dahlst. I would also like to see Matt on the third line with Mike and Raesh going down to the fourth line. I'm hoping these defensive pairings will help alleviate pressure on our goal and get the puck out of our zone quicker so our offense can do i's job." chirps Hayden Pachuco

"Now the defense isn't the only thing failing at our goal, we really need to think about Earl Robertson right now, I know you like the kid but he hasn't been great so far in the tournament." says Brian Grainer

"We know Robertson has to play though, he is the best goalie in the entire country right now, he can't be benched." replies Bob Rossett

"Well, we got to do something! Robertson isn't playing like he is the best goalie in the entire country, HE LET 7 GOALS IN THE LAST GAME 7!"

"Well since you are adamant about benching our star goalie who do you propose we but in?"

"Well there is something to be said about starting veteran goalie Dom Hassen, the man has years of experience in the PIHL. I remember my last year in the league I was Dom's Backup in Nolansville during the height of his career, I have seen him do amazing things as a goalie but I don't think he is a good option right now. I think we need to look at Davey for starting in goal."

"TOM CROCKET! The kid doesn't have much experience if Robertson can't handle this how the F%#k do you think Tom "Davey" Crocket will do."

"Well Davey has been doing great in practice while I still see that Dom's old shoulder injury is limiting what he can do in net. I think Davey can handle the pressure for at least a little bit and it might be a wake-up call to Earl. Earl is up in his head because of his last season."

"What do you got to lose if you make these changes, we are already are down 3 losses with only a tie and a single win. If it doesn't work out it looks like you at least tried to do something to account for the mediocrity and obviously if you make these changes you look like a genius," replied Hayden Pachuco

"Very well then, I'm calling the team in for a meeting" says Bob Rosset

30 mins Later

"Team, we have struggled so far in the competition, we are currently ranked 6th/7 in Group C and have only gotten 1 win in 5 games, we have to make some changes, these changes won't affect the forwards as much as it will Defense, here are your new lines:
Line 1:
Green
Arma
Bordun
Cotter
Top Jr.

Line 2:
Goulette
MacDonald
Potts
Dahlst
Karts

Line 3:
Hullin
Alto
Jackson
Doug-White
Hines

Line 4:
Pavilcheck
Tsjuimoto
Geralt
Raesh
Hutooka

We are also making a change at goal and starting Crocket in net-next game."

[Atheara]

The Ridiculous
Atheara smashes StrayaRoos 10 - 0, how is everyone reacting?

MD  Teams        P1  P2  P3  FTR
1   Savojarna    3   1   2    6
    Atheara      0   0   0    0 

2   Atheara      1   1   1    3
    Gergary      0   0   0    0

3   Sannyamath.  3   1   1    5
    Atheara      0   0   0    0
--------------------------------
5   Atheara      3   5   2    10
    StrayaRoos   0   0   0    0

6   Mercedini    3   2   0    5
    Atheara      1   0   0    1

Kevin Laycent - Nuzel, the man who is currently arranging the final details for the new Athearan Baseball League which is to be hosted after the World Baseball Classic, is being visited by National Hockey team head coach, Midervon Lesinkch. The 52 year old Athearan head coach wanted Kevin to look at the current results Atheara have so far in the World Cup of Hockey. Now, Kevin hasn't checked the newer results against StrayaRoos and Mercedini, and he was still busy. But, he couldn't deny the offer to look at it. He was the Minister of Sports, afterall.

"Alright, what in the fuck happened?" Was Kevin's first words when he saw Atheara 10 - 0 StrayaRoos. Sure, StrayaRoos was an unranked nation still new into the sporting universe, but for the third line to score 10 goals in a single match was just ridiculous, considering that Atheara was a defensive team. He also saw the scoreline where Atheara had gotten trashed by Mercedini, but Kevin couldn't care less about it. "So, uh, what is it about the result you want me to care about?" Kevin asked Midervon, who was looking a bit bored as of this conversation right now.

"It's about bringing more younger players. Some of the first and second line needs younger replacements, and i need you to issue a good generational line for the possible next World Junior Hockey Championships." Midervon simply stated. 'So he wants a guaranteed future for Athearan hockey? I don't see why not.' Kevin thought before finally saying, "Alright. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the visit as well. I was getting bored with my paperwork anyways." Kevin said to Midervon, whom simply nodded and left his office. 'No manners, huh?' Kevin thought.

"Also, how are the fans reacting to this?" Kevin thought outloud.

---

"Alright John, how are the fans reacting?" Midervon asked assistant coach John Ademont, whom was more tasked of managing the more technical side of the hockey team. He was never the best in being a coach, so being a more behind of the scenes kind of person was best suited for him. "The fans are quite jubilant with the young third line scoring ten goals and banging at least one against Mercedini, but they are hoping for more points." John simply said. Midervon just simply stated "Alright then. Keep up the work." Before leaving the room.

'We have Sarzonia next, then the second round robin. Maybe we can get more points...' Midervon thought before walking out of sight.

[HUElavia]

Wins Galore!

HUElavia knocks off Banija and Vilita & Turori to claim their first victories in the Group Stage and take charge!

Banija 2-3 HUElavia

HUElavia 6-1 Vilita & Turori
(Banco da HUElavia Arena, HUEsilia, HUElavia)

Entering Matchdays 5 and 6, HUElavia was coming in needing victories desperately, after an abysmal 0-2-1 start, having them sit in 6th place with 2 Points. Getting plenty of critics for failing to get a win in their opening 3 matches, plus a blistering loss to Ko-oren had the team staring at a possible early elimination. They had easier opponents in two historically strong teams in various sports, Banija and Vilita & Turori, but the team knew that they had to give it their best to get those victories and put themselves back in the hunt for the knockouts.

The first game was one with a dreadful start at Banija. Banija scored two goals during the 1st period on powerplays, when the first goal saw a slapshot from Misiani take a hit on the post to go in the goal past Mayhuasca to make it 0-1. Late in the period, another powerplay was going, when a pass from Oduol got to Chee, who gave a one-time shot to blast past the reach of Mayhuasca into the goal, making it 2-0, giving the Banijans plenty of support for the goal and lead. Mayhuasca was pulled, and Coach Beaton brought in Petrovich to start in goal. HUElavia would attack, eventually getting their chance in the 3rd period, where a counter attack started in one end, with a pass from Brousseau to Castilho, who sped past the Banijan defense and blasted the puck past Olefile into the goal to make it 2-1. Minutes later, Kim dispossessed Madue and passed it to Dubois, who gave a one-timer to the puck past Olefille into the goal, making it 2-2. In the final seconds of the game, Sene lost the puck from Bourgeois, who passed it to Gachev, where he gave a one-time shot to slide it in between the legs of Olefille into the goal to make it the definitive 2-3, taking the first victory of the Group Stage for the team.

The second game against Vilita & Turori was a slaughter for Los Amarillos/Os Amarelos in front of the home crowd at Banco da HUElavia Arena (21,500), in HUEsilia. Castilho, Gachev, and Sato got two goals each, as the crowd erupted and jumped around in cheers for the goals, while Kernkraft 400 blared throughout the arena. Finn and Avalski were no match for the HUElavian offense, as they conceded all those goals. Fike got the lone goal for the Vilitans and Turoris, as the match ended at a blistering 6-1, with HUElavia finally erasing the massive -5 goal differential they had in a single game. Finally, HUElavia had another victory and was sitting within striking distance of a direct spot into the Knockout stages.

HUElavia will now play two road games, the first at Kaldtfjell and the second at Rocky Canada. Petrovich has been given the nod for the two games and is likely to be the starting goalie for the remaining games in the Group Stage. Regardless, HUElavia seeks to get these victories desperately before their return to home against Ko-oren for Matchday 9. Here's to hoping for another victory with the team.

FORCA HUELAVIA! VAMOS HUELAVIA! GO HUELAVIA!

[Ko-oren]

Parity in the league

The 12 teams have constructed their rosters mainly using local talent. Until a few years ago, players grew up somewhere, found a job there, and had a 'career' in ice hockey on the side. Now that all starters are paid a competitive living wage, with the backups also able to play full-time, we might see a bit more wheeling and dealing and players moving along the north coast to land a roster spot, though. That doesn't change the fact that some teams have been able to fish in a larger pond for decades. Or even that merger teams could hold on to the best players from both ex-clubs, naturally giving them an edge.

Looking at the rosters as they are now, there are four clear tiers. Title favourite(s), then the playoff hopefuls, followed by the (re)builders, and then the rebooters. One team is clearly a few notches above the rest: the Egevea Islanders. They have the league's best defence (arguably, of course, better than the Lamau-Dartha Hunters' duo, but then again the Islanders manage to help out their defencemen a lot better) and the star of the league at centre: Aorale Enibel. The league is in a lull in terms of goaltending talent (much like the gridiron league is in a lull of receiving talent and therefore is looking very strong both in the running game and in defence), so quality defencemen makes up for that - which are in much larger supply.

Hoping to beat the Islanders a few times over the season, and, maybe, also beating them in the playoffs, are the Launott Polar Bears, Aevanna Scouts, West Coast Blizzards, South Aevanna Storm, and Serevne Northerners. There's two groups to be made. The large support, large talent pool teams (Scouts, Polar Bears, Blizzards) on one hand, and the clever front offices in another (Storm, Northerners). The latter have relocated from Aevanna to Serevne, making them the first (and only) pro team on that island, which has given them slightly higher support, but still relying on the talent they took with them from Aevanna. The Storm are the textbook moneypuck team, characterised by them having no weak spots but no real stars or individual game-breakers either, snatching Nyan from the West Coast, Engdal as an above-average goalie from the minors, etcetera.

Going back to the other set of teams: the Scouts are the biggest name in the league. That's the team to beat, but it's also the team that attracts most talent. A lot of players from that part of the country can choose between a few Aevannan teams, and the Scouts are often at the top of the list (for a reason). And therefore they can hold on to a few fan-favourites, a bunch of big names, that honestly can play pretty well. The Polar Bears have a claim on the northeastern coast, which houses few people but there's nothing else around to do (until the pro gridiron team rolled around). The Blizzards have the entire northwest to themselves, and are also the most likely place for an Intermarean player to land - and Intermare alone has the same number of people as the entire rest of the northeast combined. That said, ice hockey isn't an Intermarean's first choice for sport, but it helps to have that massive province in your backyard. The Wset Coast's best players are Intermare's Nedergard in defence and local hero Werree on the wing, and they're the biggest producers of dominating centres as well.

Going down the ladder, the (re)builders are Noordrug, the Vortex (a new expansion team in the place of a merger team), the Explorers-Mariners (said merger team), and the Wanderers. Noordrug is a club that likens itself to Launott except with little history, tradition, and star power. The Explorers-Mariners have fallen in disarray after merging the rosters: there's quite a bit there on paper, but what used to be rivals are now teammates and that's not something that gels together automatically. The Wanderers wanted to be the textbook moneypuck team, but they lag behind in resources.

At the bottom are the Lamau-Dartha Hunters and Straudum Ice. The former is a new-ish expansion team. The latter are a huge surprise: they had the southern part of the peninsula to themselves and had a terrifyingly good roster for years on end - where did it go? There need to be answers, and there need to be firings. The team relies on winger Groenbloem, but he can't do it all by himself.

[Cassadaigua]

Two very different games,
By Chelsea Dufresne, Concord Heights Times

The only thing that the last two games have in common for Cassadaigua in the 44th World Cup of Hockey is that they won each of them by a single goal. That is the important thing, above all else, and the victories put the Fillies at 3-2-0 and in sole possession of second place in Group C. They trail only Chromatika in the group, but do have the tiebreaker on them at the present time due to the 5-2 win earlier in the campaign. That is the only blemish thus far on Chromatika’s campaign. Things are close behind us, so there is no room for a let up, but getting these two wins were obviously very important. The results, a 1-0 win in Mapletish and a 7-6 win over Pius Desurongcrandis, couldn’t have been any more different in how the games played out but the silver lining in the scores will show that the Fillies are capable of winning a defensive struggle and a wide open affair.

Starting with the game against Mapletish, Team Cassadaigua got on the board quickly, scoring on their second shot of the game when Kelsey Carver deflected in a shot from the point from Kaylee Blake (Katie Quigley also assisting) to make it 1-0 at the 1:15 mark of the first period. Little did anyone know that we would not see another goal for the entire game. After scoring the early goal, it seemed as though the Fillies sat back a little too much, and the better chances went to The Dragons for the reminder of the period. Mapletish held a 10-5 shot advantage for the first period, but it did seem as though Travis Anderson saw everything well that was put on net. His saves were routine in nature, but certainly he showed that he was on his game.

In the middle stanza, the pink and black seemed to shift the momentum, and got the majority of the chances as they would not be content with the one goal lead. However, Robert Armstrong was strong more then just in name, and made a particularly nice glove save on Brittany Gomes towards the end of the period on the first of two Cassadaigua power plays. Cassadaigua outshit Mapletish 14-6 in the second period, and seemed to go into lockdown mode in the third period. The Dragons only got three shots on net in the third, though Cassadaigua did not get many more (just five). “We executed a great trap system on the blue line, not allowing them to enter the zone in the third period. We did not do that much in the first two periods here, but I wanted to see how we can lock a game down. We could have had a few more shots on net, but Mapletish was also strong in the back after our strong second,” head coach Maddie Tiriano said after the game.

Up next, the Fillies welcomed the Phoenixes of Pius Desurongcrandis to Concord Heights in an important game, and once again the pink and black lit the lamp early. At the 1:58 mark, Crystal Shadrick beat Earl Robertson five hole (assisted by Brittany Gomes and Samantha Dryden), but in this game there would be many more goals to come. Unfortunately for Team Cassadaigua, the next three would be scored by the Phoenixes (Michel Goulette at 3:52, Guy Bordun at 7:22, and Bruce Cotter at 14:01). While Cassadaigua was falling behind, they were not necessarily playing badly. The Phoenixes simply executed a lot better, and seemed to have all of the momentum going into the first intermission. That is, until a goal at 19:57 of the period by Ashley LaPointe, an unassisted tally. Pius Desurongcrandis seemed to get a little lax towards the end, and while defensemen Ray Dahlst was behind the net with not much forecheck pressure, he threw the puck along the boards kinda quickly when he probably could have held on to it a couple more seconds longer and made an more emphatic clear. Instead, Natalie Edmonds was able to get the puck along the boards, keeping it in the zone, and throwing it into the slot for unchecked Ashley Lapointe, who placed the slapper perfectly. It would be a big goal to cut the lead to 3-2 after one.

Cassadaigua kept the momentum going into the second period, and it would get goals at 2:08 (Brittany Gomes, from Crystal Shadrick and Samantha Dailey), and then at 5:46 (Kristina Petit, from Jessica Hoover and Katie Quigley), to make it 4-3, but just a minute later, the 35-year old veteran George McDonald got the equalizer for the visitors. With the score tied at four, the two sides locked it down from there, and that would be our score into the third period.

In the first ten minutes of the game, the teams exchanged goals, with McDonald getting his second of the game at 7:30, and then Brittany Gomes getting her second (from Crystal Shadrick and Samantha Dryden) at 9:48, to make it all level at five. The tough day for netminders would continue, with Anderson letting in a bit of a softy from Linden Geralt at 15:20, leading to many groans throughout the arena. In many games, you would have feared that would have been the game winner, but with the way this game was going, you had the feeling that the Fillies were not done yet. And sure enough, they were not with Shannon Eckstrom snapping the tying goal home at 17:59, assisted by Hannah Regan and Julie Robinson. Perhaps, we were heading for a tie, but just after the public address announcer informed everyone how much time was left in the period, the captain Samantha Dryden picked up the huge goal that would prove to be the game winner, coming at 19:03, assisted by fellow Samantha, Dailey, and Crystal Shadrick.

“That’s not really the type of game you want to get involved in, but I like the way we battled back,” Dryden said afterward, “we showed a good compete level, and we never thought that we were down and out in this game.” Perhaps that is the type of response that can carry this team going forward. We can see the chemistry with them developing pretty well, and with one game left in the first half before we have our next bye day, this World Cup of Hockey is starting to become what we thought it would be.

[Valanora]

Sometimes the tide of fortune are just against you and the more that you attempt to struggle against them, the more you are pulled under until all your resistance is beaten out of you and you are left floating into the deep, come whatever may. The fans of the Calcuttas will definitely be feeling a bit like that person struggling against the tide, trying to get back to the comfort of those pearly shores and not take deep into the unknown of the wild blue yonder that is the deep sea. It is a sea that is full of uncertainty and one that leaves you full of anxiety and wondering if the choices that you are making are the right ones, if you are fighting the very fabric of fate. While defeat is always a bitter pill to have to swallow, especially when it comes on the heels of some success and you are left feeling completely helpless in the defeat, a team is able to usually collectively take it on the chin and move on the the next. The not being able to move on to the next game and finality of losing in a knockout/playoff situation is what makes those defeats the sort that stays with a player or team and why they are so emotionally hard to get over.

However while players and staff are able to get over the group stage or regular season losses with relative ease, fans and media are always prone the the panic and overreaction to any one result. That is the mindset of the fans of the Calcuttas who have seen their team produce some very contrasting performances in the first half of the group stage in this World Cup of Hockey. Despite playing the second seed in the first game of the group, the team was able to pack a punch and knock off the very talented Abanhfleft side in a victory that had a lot of fans thinking that they might be getting a third straight chance to add a seventh star to their sweater this tournament after having lost to Elejamie and Siovanija and Teusland in the last two championship games of the tournament. Those runs had allowed the Calcuttas to cut their way to the top of the rankings, ahead of their regional rivals who had gone a long way towards establishing a dynasty of their own and affirming the Atlantian Oceania excellence in yet another sport.

Yet games in Le Choix and Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland have seen the overwhelming power of the Calcuttas scoring lines become completely negated and in the game against Le Choix, the defense was completely unable to stop the hosts attack with any regularity. The result was one of the worst losses in the history of the national team, while they were only edged out in Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland, but it was another defeat and one that severely crippled the morale of the team, as they were barely able to get a victory against a Trolleborg side that was last in the group coming into the game. The magnificent attack that the Calcuttas are known around the sport for has completely been absent in these three games, despite having looked like one of the best attacking teams in that opening game against the second seed of the group, who also happens to be a fellow member of the top ten ranked teams in the sport, as well as against Equestria. Those tides of fortune definitely seem to have pulled the Calcuttas offense into the deepest reaches of the unknown and there are plenty of questions to be had.

The side has a game against the unranked Patriotlandia coming up before having their second bye in the group stage, which then the side will follow up with a trip to Abahnfleft, who are sitting pretty at the top of the group, who have only lost to the Calcuttas in that first game for our team. It is a mystery to be sure and one that has fans and media in the Empire completely aghast with themselves, some even calling for the sacking of the head coach. Thankfully the cooler heads at the VSC are not listening to such extreme viewpoints but there is definitely a cause for concern, particularly if the side is unable to find its scoring ways against their unranked opposition in the upcoming game. If the group finished now, the team would be outside the top two, which was something that looked to have very slim odds of happening when the draw was initially made. While the hole that has been dug is not a particularly deep one for the Calcuttas, the second half of the campaign is going to need massive improvement from the team, particularly when they travel away from the Empire. Right now this team would be hard pressed to even make the knockouts, much less dream of another Final appearance, and it will need to focus on the immediate and obtainable short term goals to dig their way out of this mess.

[Huayramarca]

Leave it on the Ice
Part 1: Let the adventure begin.

Huayramarca D.M. - 10/15/1984 - 8:15 p.m.

Sebastián Ferrer sat on the bench of the newly refurbished Domo del Altiplano, a humble dome made to accommodate 17,500 fans for concerts and now, surprisingly, ice hockey. A long road he had drove with the help of his friends, people who did web browsing for Huayramarcan hockey players in the Québécois Hockey League (QHL) and, of course, the incredibly useful help of the indigenous Tsáchila nation, the core of Huayramarcan immigration in the northern neighbour that propelled to the creation of a “salt flats hockey league”.

As Ferrer was travelling mentally while doing retrospection, the patriarch of the Tsáchilas patted him and said “Are we ready for this?” Ferrer replied “More than ever!”. The Tsáchila patriarch replied “It’s good to hear.” He remembered a traditional idiom and continued “Building the foundations it’s a complicated task, putting those to work is a joyful process.” Ferrer eyes turned back to the patriarch and said “It’s time to enjoy the fruits of this plan. It won’t be immediately successful but will provide some interesting output someday.” The patriarch replied “Slow but steady” then drank water and opened a gap between him and Ferrer to let the players hit the ice of the Domo del Altiplano.

For newcomers, trying to ice in a dome located at 4,000 meters above sea level was quite a difficult task, but provisions were taken by Ferrer, who called the players a month prior to the WCoH in order to get used to the environment and height of the city. Many of the players were already used to the conditions and were skating like if they were doing it at sea level; a curious effect is that the puck didn’t needed too much of a strong contact in order to get a high speed, lack of air resistance was producing said effect, this had some cons such as a slighter increased probability of doing an involuntary icing.

The practice was about to start, the players formed into the rink and saluted each other, Ferrer went to the ice and told them “Guys, you’re already in the history of Huayramarca by the mere fact of using that uniform and being here. First step is done, now it’s time to make that history bigger by defeating those rivals that will come: Québec, Kelssek, TJUN-ia, Nephara, etc. Take this as a chance to carve your name among the stars of this sport, starting from the bottom and, with hard work, someday we will rise and compete against the crème de la crème.” The players were clapping the ice with their sticks as a sign of approval.

Ho Man-Young, the captain, decided to speak to the team with a bit of broken Spanish, still understandable for everybody in the team. “Guys, this is a golden opportunity for us to grow as a person, as a team and as professionals in this wonderful sport of hockey. From the ones who are used to skate on salt flats to those, like me, who avoided police in Québec in order to remain with our parents and seek for a better life, want to demonstrate our quality in the rink. For sure, we are able to do, take this chance as one in a lifetime one, I know that many of you will, eventually, make it into the ranks of great hockey leagues such as the QHL and others, I can see your potential, so exploit it!”

The team clapped and screamed “One… Two… Three… Fugitives!” while skating around the ice of the Domo del Altiplano. The team prepared for a session and then went to the airport in order to flight to Kelssek for their first ever match in WCoH. While in the plane, Kevin Mamani was talking with his long-standing friend and line mate Dante Gallardo “Dude, are we ready for this?” Gallardo replied “Don’t doubt about it, we are already in this, so it’s matter to enjoy and demonstrate what we have” Mamani answered “Well, that’s right; it’s matter of insecurity what I’m feeling now.” Zayden McCrae listened and pat Mamani “Kevin, I understand your situation, I was through this while I was about to debut in the QHL. I didn’t consider myself enough prepared to play at the bigger leagues but here I am. You can do it!” Mamani sighed “Zayden, you might be right, perhaps it’s matter of time to feel comfortable” McCrae replied “You’ll do, for sure.”

The pilot said “Welcome to Kirkenes, Kelssek. Right now, it’s 8:55 p.m. and the temperature it’s -5°C.” As the pilot finished, the players rushed to get some gear in order to be comfortable enough for said temperature, just in case. The match was scheduled to be at the next day, so being comfortable was needed prior the clash against one of the heavy hitters of multiversal hockey. While being at some random hotel of Kirkenes, Ferrer gathered the team for a meeting “Well, it’s time to sleep and enjoy. Tomorrow it’s our big day and I need you to promise me and yourselves something. Leave everything on the ice, until your last gasp. Leave it on the ice!” the players promised and went to sleep without imagining the outcome they were about to get in the next day’s match.

[Eshialand]

Something's Strange in Denneman Gardens...
Eshialand 8-3 Siovanija and Teusland
Gyatso-Kai 6-3 Eshialand

7-1.

Seven and one. That was the Owlets' record in the most recent World Junior Hockey Championship. 7 wins, one loss to Siovanija and Teusland.

When Jonas Degle found out that two of the Owls' games in this World Cup of Hockey would be against the Goldhorns, a part of him knew, just knew that this had to be corrected. Eshialand had to beat Siovanija and Teusland, regardless of whether S&T was the home of the second-strongest team in the multiverse. In his eyes, it had to be done.

"Now, maybe a draw could be possible," you might be thinking. Maybe, if Maggie dumps a lot of luck on this team, they could win by one. Maybe.

So how in the world did they win eight to three?

Some theories have abounded as to why this happened. One is that Jonas was just fired up: after all, he scored four goals. But then again, you have to remember that the Owls won by 5. Even if every single shot Jonas took flew high over the glass and into some random fan's beer, Eshialand still would've won. There has to be another explanation. But... what?

After all, the Owls had a combined score of 20-5 in their first two games at Denneman Gardens. Something, something had to be funky on that home ice. But there were no real explanations... but do there need to be? Does everything need an explanation? I'd argue that, no, they don't need an explanation. Some things are best left unexplained. Some things are just ruined when you try to explain them.

As for that 6-3 loss away to Gyatso-kai... just pretend that didn't happen. But when it comes down that 20-5 goal total at home, it'll receive its next test on Matchday 7... against Delaclava. Let's hope the Owls can make their country proud, ideally by putting up 10 goals against the dreaded Phoenixes.

[Gyatso-kai]

An ASPN Production, Brought to you on ASPN.co.gki

Eshialand City, ESHIALAND --- Aaron Yitsune

The Gremlin Scores The Hat-Trick! Bisons Over Eshialand 6-3 To Take Command of Group D!

The Owls of Eshialand have been on quite the upswing since their opening loss on Mathcday 01, but the ride ended tonight with the Ice Bisons defeating The Owls 6-3 in front of a sold-out home crowd here at Denneman Gardens.

The victory over Eshialand has given the Ice Bisons their first command of Group D, with a 3-2-0 record and 8pts as we approach the final match of the first leg of the World Cup. For The Owls, the defeat places them into a three-way tie in points for second in Group D, along with Delaclava and – for many in the tournament, a complete surprise - Siovanija and Teusland all sitting at 6pts. The Owls have had quite the ride this tournament so far in Group D, with some spectacular games bookended by les-than-stellar performances:

• Matchday 01 vs Poafmersia₂₃ – 5-2 LOSS
• Matchday 03 at Placely Placington₅₀ – 12-2 WIN
• Matchday 04 vs Taxonomic Kingdoms_NR – 3-1 WIN
• Matchday 05 at Siovanija and Teusland₂ – 8-3 WIN
• Matchday 06 vs Gyatso-kai₆ – 6-3 LOSS

With such impressive results, especially the utter decimation of Placely Placington and subsequent throttling of the back-to-back champion Goldhorns, many in the Avatarian hockey community were expecting this game to be a bit of a bloodbath for the Ice Bisons, who during the tournament have struggled to finish off an opponent, especially when coming from behind:

• Matchday 01 at Taxonomic Kingdoms_NR – 3-3 DRAW (Behind 3-1 at the start of the third period)
• Matchday 02 vs Siovanija and Teusland₂ – 5-2 WIN (Behind 2-1 at the start of the second period)
• Matchday 04 at Delaclava₁₇ – 7-2 WIN (Tied at 2 at the end of the first period)
• Matchday 05 vs Poafmersia₂₃ – 3-3 DRAW (Never held the lead)
• Matchday 06 at Eshialand₃₁ – 6-3 WIN

The game in Eshialand was the first game where the Ice Bisons scored the first goal – a powerplay goal by Degour Niyan in the first four minutes of play – and only the second game where the Ice Bisons were able to hold the lead for the game. This type of play style is not something we are used to seeing from the boys in black and white, and when asked about it, Head Coach Ishii Hakoda had something to say about it:

”You know, dealing with some minor injuries on the first and second lines – noticeably (Watang Kouji) for the second and third games and (Hiteki Kia out for our last two games and not sure when he’ll return – means that the chemistry we worked so hard to create and foster in training and dev-camps just hasn’t been able to shine through. The only game where we were at full-strength was that Delaclava game, and you can see the results of that chemistry in the outcome.”

Ishii Hakoda, Head Coach, Men’s National Ice Hockey Team

Speaking of the injuries – Watang Kouji out with an upper body strain and put on load management missing two games, and Hiteki Kia out indefinitely with some sort of back sprain – the lineups have been getting a bit of the “Hakoda Blender” as it has been come to be called over the last couple campaigns, where players at any depth are called up and thrown in to replace these veterans out with minor injuries.

Notably, Degour has found his place being that rotation guy; originally put into the third line with the ever-energetic pair of Relicyc Tho-An and Kil’or Alecyc, he was first brought up to the first line to replace Watang in games two and three, and then put back into the third line for the Delclava game, only to be brought back up to the second when Hiteki was helped off the ice during morning skate right before the Poafmersia game. While his usual anger and fondness for causing fights has earned Degour the nickname “The Gremlin of Mesh’rivare”, his skill and ability to just blend into any lineup has certainly enamored the guy with most of the staff of the Ice Bisons, as well as the fans. Of course, all of this work on various lines definitely paid off for the young man from the eastern Mandalorian lands, as he scored his second career hat-trick tonight; putting the puck in for goals #1, #5, and #6.

”You know, we have faced him before whenever we take on the (Kyrimorut) Ramikade during the season, and I have to admit, it is great to have that energy on your side for once rather than listening to the little demon chirp at you in three different languages.”

Song Unataq, Captain, Men’s National Ice Hockey Team

So for the Ice Bisons, who hope to be back at full strength for Matchday 08, what comes next?

---

◄ ◄ ◄ NEXT GAME ► ► ►

Match Day 07 – vs Placely Placington₅₀
The Capital Centre, Republic City, Gyatso-kai
Capacity: 20,950

The final match of the first leg of the tournament sees the Ice Bisons returning for a two-match homestay, with both games taking place in The Capital Centre, home of the AHL’s Republic Capitals team. While a bit more modest in terms of seating numbers when compared to some multi-verse venues, it is the quality of seating and the ‘hockey experience’ that The Centre is best known for; with the cheapest beverage prices in the AHL, combined with posh amenities thanks in part to the wealth of the Republic Capital ownership, ne’er a fan in the multiverse would come to The Centre and be disappointed.

Well… except if their team lost…

Rounding out the first leg of the tournament are the ‘Test Subjects but They’re On Ice” of Placely Placington. Currently in last place, holding a 0-3-2 record with a -18 Goal Differential, the Ice Bisons are set to hopefully continue their winning streak while at home. Even though they have yet to win, expect ‘The Test Subjects” to put up quite a strong fight and for the Ice Bisons to not take the team’s recent performances for granted.

Afterall, they are still ranked 50th in the Multi-verse…

---

Copyright 2021.3 Avatarian Sports Programming Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.aspn.com.gk/articles/wcoh/05493501
© 2021 Avatarian Sports Programming Network

[Trolleborg]

Greetings, compatriots!
It’s TTV with a news about our national hockey team. Our lads, as you surely know, recently play another two games at the World Cup, and achieved a result that was received by the fans with the delight. In the first match of this pair, lads go to the field to play with a team from Patriotland. Hockey players from this country perform for the first time at the world hockey championships, but have shown themselves to be a strong and brave team, already earning more points in the first round of the tournament than our team in its entire first championship. And this time, as in the previous (badly ended) games, our hockey players looked collected and ready to play. And when necessary, fan support came into play - despite the setbacks, the Trolleborg Ice Arena was packed to capacity. Maybe this also influenced the guests, but the first period ended with a score of 2:0. At first, Strow shot well on target, when the goalkeeper vision was blocked by his own and our players, who masterfully organize melee just on the sight line, and then Reuter slipped outside the goal and passed back diagonally, Bagger only had to avoid hitting the goalkeeper who was sprawled on the line. In the second period, the guests had a chance to recoup, especially when they got two powerplays almost in a row, but, fortunately, everything worked out well, altought but the fans waited for the third period with visible doubts. And yet our lads brought the match to victory this time, with third goal coming near the end of the game. Drakeson took over the leadership of the attack in a opposition zone and competently move of the puck: while pulled two players over himself, he gave a clever pass to the right to Riseth, and he gently transferred the puck just near the net, Morgen Brass was left with only make one move with his stick. 3: 0, finally the second victory in history after twenty or so failures.

But there is no time to relax, ahead of Valanora, the best rated team in the world. Detachedly, our fans were expecting some kind of nightmare result, such as a 0:9 at the second championship of our team. However, against the expectation, our hockey players looked decent in this match and, even having conceded an early goal, did not throw their sticks, as was expected of them. Several times they lock opponents in their zone even without powerplay, there were chances to score in the last minutes, when the coach replaced the goalkeeper with a sixth field player, but the match ended 0:1. Decent result, it must be said, but not satisfactory.

***

Vladimir Finn was not the happiest after finally the second victory in history for Trolleborg international hockey. Although for fans and specialists it was a moment of true delight, in the hope that the curse was lifted and now the team will stop limping from failure to failure and will begin, albeit slowly, ascending to a level at which it will no longer be possible not to blush for it. Yes, of course, the minimum task for the tournament has already been achieved, and this was done in a good style, a strong team that was seriously fighting for the result was defeated. But on the other hand, he can see very well how seriously psychology puts pressure on the players on the eve of meeting with high-ranking teams, and he didn’t know what to do with this. Some of the hockey secrets was already opened for him, but he don’t found ways to solve this biggest riddle.

[The Cordian Isles]

Goal Analysis

---

From Pius Desurongcrandis v. Cordia, World Cup of Hockey 44

---

Pius Desurongcrandis vs. Cordia was a rather insignificant game played between two lower-level (at the time) nations in the World Cup of Hockey 44 Group Stage. It's significant to our coaching program because of one of the goals scored in the game. Specifically, one scored by Justin Perreau, the Cordians' fourth, late in the second period on the power play. The goal showcases perfectly how effective the umbrella powerplay can be against a team using the standard box formation on the penalty kill.

In the clip, Cordia is on the powerplay, using the umbrella formation that is their standard, while Pius Desurongcrandis has failed to notice the situation and has arrayed themselves in the standard penalty kill - the box. Halfdan Leifssen, noted for his powerful shot, had a wide-open shooting lane from the center and uses it, crushing a shot on net which Desurongcrandis goalie Earl Robertson deflects into the corner. Harald Ericsen of Cordia picks up the puck from the corner and sends it up to the other Leifssen, Ivar. Ivar passes to Halfdan in the middle, and this is the critical part of the clip. Brian Arma of Desurongcrandis steps out to prevent Halfdan Leifssen's shot, which he's been pounding the opposing goaltender with all night long. Arma neglects to communicate with Jeremy Karts, who's Desurongcrandis' bottom-left point of the box, leaving a wide gap right in the middle of the slot.

Leifssen gets a pass out to Justin Perreau, whom Arma had been covering previously, and Perreau heads into the slot for a golden chance. He scores it, and the Cordians end the game with a win. The main lesson to teach your players from this goal is this: Make sure they know how to adapt to different opposing playstyles. A penalty kill isn't just a static box; it has to be mobile, or else players will be left wide open in high-risk areas as Perreau was. Against an umbrella, a diamond-shape kill keeps the puck to the outside and, while leaving the slot player open, blocks off most of the pass lanes the opposition might use to get them the puck. Against other systems, the kill will have to be adjusted, but the key is always going to be to keep the puck away from high-risk areas and showing your players how to do this will go a long way in both penalty killing and defensive play as a whole.

[Graintfjall]

It had been an ill tempered game. In the first period, Erlingur Holgeirsson had nearly put Onyango Jow through the arena glass at the Valhalla, though Christian scored on the subsequent penalty kill to give the Ice Wolves a 2 – 0 lead heading into the break. The second period brought more rough exchanges, though the referees judged Bjarni Davíðsson’s hit on Banta Soley legal. Gilead Obuo disagreed, and took out Lukas Jalmarisson in revenge; this time the refs did step in, sending Obuo to the penalty box where he could only watch on as the efficient Ice Wolves’ powerplay unit extended the lead. Bjarni himself added a 4th to pile on, and that proved the spark that finally caught light. Christian Sofusson was fortunate his head stayed on as Chukwuma Chinasa upended him with a savage blindside hit that attracted the wrath of Róbert Grímúlfursson. He and Junkung Kambi began exchanging punches that brought the game to a standstill. 15,000 beer-soaked Græntfjallers in faux Viking hats cheered madly as the hulking Grímúlfursson rained down punches and the plucky Banijan gave just as good back…

Zóphonías Juliusson’s lip curled in disgust. The scenes from the game were bad enough out of context, Græntfjallers trading in skill at the national winter game for ugly violence; but coming against Banija, of all teams, right as Háttmark was experiencing protests over police brutality and racism, the unedifying sights had become downright embarrassing ones. Græntfjall’s embattled Prime Minister, unable to take any more, turned off the television and sat back in his chair. He had never been one for tattoos, but if he were to get one, he thought, “Events, dear boy, events,” would a fitting motif. He’d like to get it emblazoned across his forehead in bold gothic script. His government had done more for minority welfare than any in national history, from ending the Hulk program to reforming immigration laws, from accepting a million refugees to a transformative economic agenda including a real minimum wage for tipped workers and rolling out comprehensive social security insurance. And yet, because of three idiot, racist, thugs, race relations were back down as low as they had been in years.

On the one side, he had Nusaiba Jihaadsdóttir el-Siddiqui, his welfare minister, who was using the situation as a springboard for her personal campaign: she was going to run for mayor of Háttmark, aiming to move from being the first Muslim government minister to the first Muslim city executive. Knowing Nusaiba as he did, Zóphonías doubted her ambitions ended there. She was joining with the protestors in their radical “defund the police” chants, though quietly her “reorganized allocation of justice resources” seemed to Zóphonías, who was old enough to remember the various organs of the communist state and what they had done to his various organs in dank cellars smelling of blood and viscera, to be police agencies by another name. On the other side, he had Októvíus Kristvaldsson, his justice minister. Though ‘his’ only by the technical definitions of the coalition: Októvíus was Kaija’s man all the way. The Progressive Liberals held the Háttmark mayoral seat currently and weren’t about to let Isabella Patricksdóttir be unseated by Nusaiba, whom Kaija openly detested; cabinet meetings had become tiresome catfights between the two in recent months. Októvíus, concerned that these protests were happening right as Græntfjall was hosting a football tournament and with memories of the race riots in Laafjörður, wanted disciplinary measures against the officers but otherwise a tough response to any street violence, including a show of force from the dragon-mounted police and a curfew.

Not that Kaija Michaelsdóttir was here to enforce her will right now. She was many miles away, in Dannin, representing Græntfjall – or, really, representing herself – at the Dannin Expo. The whole situation wasn’t her area of strength: she’d doubtless use it as an example of the problems created by the War on Drugs and once advocate reform and decriminalization, but racially things got tougher. The Progressive Liberals, for all their high-minded rhetoric, were whiter than the Blue-Greens. The overwhelming majority of black and brown Græntfjallers voted Left-slate. And they would be expecting more from Zóphonías than a florid oration. The overwhelming majority of Left-slate voters, though, were white and at least somewhat attached to the idea of a police force on their streets. Zóphonías had been elected to talk economic justice and here he was dealing with problems with no answer that wouldn’t anger vast swathes of his electorate. He sighed and turned back on the television.

“…and as another big hit comes in, the gloves are dropping again!”

1st period
8:29 Karim (Dýrmundur)
16:10 SH Christian (Karim, Bjarnleifur)
2nd period
8:29 PP Jason (Dýrmundur, Lukas)
13:38 Bjarni (Lukas, Þórlaugur)
3rd period
3:49 Corr (Ceesay)
19:54 Hairte (Bairley)

[Elejamie]

Five games and a bye day in and Alex was already thinking of quitting.

The tournament wasn't going well for him or his team in fact. They were the reigning champions going into this tournament. A team that had to go through absolute hell to get their good ending, a team that had to suffer through a tournament so demoralising that it saw them quit for a couple of editions and two failed returns to relevance only to strike it lucky on the third go, a team that had won the contest three times in the past and had only recently added a fourth star to that jersey. And now they were currently languishing in mediocrity and, from the looks of it, they would be lucky to even make it to that fated play-off round.

Why's that? A 2-2-1 record seeing them in third place. After a lengthy period meandering around in second place. He could feel that his job was on the line and he could feel that the EIHB were considering a replacement. If not another period where they just stop competing. Was it worth the league and union teams skipping both World Cups, which seemed to be occurring at the same time in the same nation, just to let the national ice hockey teams have their time in the spotlight? No but then again there were other reasons for the ERF declined to participate in those editions. Reasons that he didn't really want to go into, primarily because it wasn't his area. It would be like asking a brain surgeon to discuss rocket science or discussing art with someone who collects NFTs.

He wanted to ignore the match against Chromatika, their only loss so far. There wasn't any refpuck going on and, while there were decisions that went against them, they weren't anything dodgy. The Ice-a-phants weren't even underprepared or complacent or anything along those lines. It was just pure bad luck. But it was still something he wanted to get out of his mind as soon as possible. He didn't care who scored, who assisted, who got penalised, anything like that. He just shook his opposite number's hand, gave the hard press interview and just got ready for the next one. He didn't even say anything meaningful to the team apart from a few pithy statements, he was that fed up with what had happened.

And, of course, the morning after the team had returned to Davenport he followed up on what he said he'd do. While he didn't exactly rent it out, he did arrange something with the owner of the Sporting Field, the athletics track that was on the edge of the outskirts of Davenport, where it wasn't quite the suburbs but was still part of the city. And, just as Alex had predicted, it was teetering at around 16-17°. Celcius to be exact, as Elejamie is a country with the metric system after all. Normally it'd be a good temperature for someone a bit more northern in the world but, for a Pacific island nation nearing the middle of December, it might as well be Antarctica. At least it wasn't raining even though it looked like it could've, that would've made it a lot more worse. And another thing that would've made it worse was if Alex had made everyone race each other. But he wasn't feeling that disappointed or vindictive, he just merely wanted his 26-man squad to do a simple jog around the entire track. In their underwear. Usual starter Adrian Lambert along with the first pair and first line went first, then it was Cristian Serrano with the second pair and second line, then it was Pedro Cervantes with the last pair and third line before everyone else finished off as one group of eight. He was hoping that that would teach them to finally wake up and stop being complacent.

After all, Mapletish were next and if they lost this one they might as well write off their entire campaign. Especially since they were a team that had only appeared twice since they finished runners-up at the 22nd edition, so any potential rhythm or flow they had back in the day had surely dissipated by now. It appeared to explain why they were dead last in the group with no wins, now draws and four losses. As well as two goals total, both of which came against Pius Desurongcrandis, a team that Alex has yet to get to. He normally didn't want a heavy win, as a simple 3-2 score or anything along those lines would've been a good enough score. But, since he was still displeased with the team's performance in the tournament so far, it was a simple "go big or go home" game.

And "go big" they did. While Alex felt like the team could've scored one or two more, he was still pleased with the 5-0 win they had gotten over the Mapletians. That wasn't to say that the team otherwise known as The Dragons or The Minnows didn't try at all during that match; they actually held strong by only allowing 15 shots on goal with two of them being successful. The first was Stacy Saunders' deke with 10:09 left in the first, which was not only assisted by line-mates Cerin Meloten and Bill Harrison but also completely caught Maplish goalie Robert Armstrong off-guard. The second was with 6:14 left in the second and it was just Felipe Barajas netting it in after Ethan Swinburne's wrist shot bounced off of Armstrong's pads. However, when Harrison scored a goal of his own, which was not only assisted by Saunders but also Carlos Sierra, it seemed like that at that moment Mapletish just gave up. The defence turned sloppy, the offence became less accurate and they started taking a couple of bad penalties.

They even made it a 5-on-3 moment when Curtis Singleton was sent to the box for two minutes for slashing Harrison Blackburn, with Malcolm Hawkins also receiving a minor penalty for holding onto Bill Harrison not even fifteen seconds later. While the Mapletians did an amicable job keeping the Elejamians at bay during those two minutes, the floodgates ended up breaking. With 7:08 left on the clock, only two seconds before Singleton was to return to the ice anyway, James Han fired a shot that bounced off of Armstrong's stick and into the back of the net. Rafael Espinosa and Diego Pinto were credited with assists. Fortunately, they would kill off the remaining time and would avoid taking any more penalties. Armstrong was pulled with a minute to spare and an extra attacker was put on. Although this seemed to work fairly well to start off with, eventually with 9.3 seconds left Stacy Saunders doubled up with an unsassisted slapshot from the point to seal the deal and confirm that 5-0 win.

Unfortunately, despite that statement win, they were still languishing in third place as previously mentioned with a 2-2-1 record. The only way they could really stand a chance would be if Chromatika and/or Cassadaigua would start sucking but also if the team finally woke up and realised that they're supposed to prove why they're world champions. The T20 World Championship win was purely a fluke, as they were a bunch of semi-pros with jobs outside of cricket so it wouldn't matter if they tanked in the next competition. Especially since cricket wasn't a major sport in the country despite the presence of a few decently-sized stadiums for the sport. But ice hockey was pretty much a national sport for the nation and a sport where it was a household name, so there was no excuse for them messing up this badly.

Alex knew this so when he stepped into his side's locker room before their last game of the first half of the group stage, he gave a quick speech: "While I thank you all for the good effort from last time, I want you to keep it up. I want each and every single one of you to actually fucking try in this match. Because I don't know what's gotten into us, what's gotten into Valanora, what's gotten into a load of other teams but I want you all to show why we're the reigning champions, why we were an absolute powerhouse and, best of all, I want you all to show some pride out there. OK? Anyway, today we are playing..." He paused to squint at his hand, which he wrote the country's name on it because he could never remember it. "Pee-us? Pie-us? Plus?" He paused again to rest his eyes before squinting again. "Des-u-rong-cran-dis." He stopped squinting and put his hand down so he could look at the team normally. "We're playing them, so this is what I want you all to do."

After going through that match's game plan, as well as a quick prayer in private, he made his way to the bench to join his assistant coaches Akio and Eduardo. As he watched his players skate around the ice to warm themselves up for the upcoming match, he started to calculate some things in his head. Like any future line-up changes, how to get them to get a potential winning streak, all that fun stuff. Stuff that his side desperately needed in order to stay afloat and to stand a chance going into the second half of the group stage. But, for now, he just wanted a win. Any win would do, whether it be a statement win like the previous match or the opener against Cordia or just a simple win by a goal or two. Just something to push them up the table.

If not, he might as well draft up a resignation letter.

[Nova Anglicana]

World Cup of Hockey 44 Statistical Update

Record: 5-0-1, 10 points

Goals For: 27, 4.5/game

Goals Against: 18, 3/game

Goal Scorers: Glen Gray, 4 goals, Julian Stephens, 4 goals, Brady Dowell 3 goals, Sammy Jensen 3 goals, Gaston Fortin 3 goals, Owen Jones 3 goals, Robbie Reid 2 goals, Nick May 2 goals, Jason Gross 1 goal, Victor Hall 1 goal, Brandon Scanlon 1 goal

Assists Leaders: Victor Hall 5 assists, Julian Stephens 5 assists, Rene Kelly 5 assists, Louis Tremblay 4 assists, Jason Gross 4 assists

Goalie Statistics: Brett McQueen, 3-0-1, 11 goals allowed, 106 saves, .906 SV%, GAA 3.00, Justin Smith 2-0-0, 7 goals allowed, 66 saves, .904 SV%, GAA 3.00

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

OOC: Of course, if you wish to enter a sports film to be reviewed, send me a TG or PM with basic premises, ideas, etc, and we'll talk further. If you've done something before, of course, we can pick it up from there as well. There is only one condition - that it must be a foreign film covering Québécois sports scene/plot, or a film covering foreign sports/plot content but directed/produced by a Québécois.

The Taegukgi: The Korean-language voice of the Québécois Commonwealth

'100 Years of Sporting Films': 'Reves Perdus' Review

★★★★★

Jean-Francois Le Tellier

As audience, we always seek for the dramatically upgraded version of our pasts in films. It has been known for decades since the arrival of sports films on mainland Quebecois film landscape that audiences will eventually combine realism, past and the dryness of time has come in the age - a serious, Camusian drama that would start quietly with the phrase of 'Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas' (OOC: for those who don't know, this is the opening passage of Albert Camus's l'Etranger) with longing for past and hometown selves.

This is one genre where such questions have been explored for such a long time, that every era you see a director experimenting on it. It usually results in a mix of success, with most either falling into the problems of excessive commercialism or tear-jerking elements, or its inability to capture commercial success because only a selected few would really be willing enough to watch it. Perhaps, the problem with this is that people chase for the redefinition of human drama, when all they end up doing is just following the wheel they have defined themselves into.

Maybe that's why I do believe that a great retrospective piece that can bridge the generations of lost time, as the world evolves around them, would be able to land a strong impact with mass audience and critics alike. 'Reves Perdus', a small-scale, minimum-budget 1987 film by Yves-Francois Parenteau, is a Quebecois classic, a trailblazer that everybody seeks to emulate to this day and age because of it. It covers the four Quebecois males on their fifties, who live in a medium-sized city of Prince Eric now, but it really goes in details about their past as hockey-playing boys of the rural northeastern Manitoban town, and that's what moves many people to this day and age, especially as urbanisation of the Anaian state continues.

The post-war developments in rural Quebec and the beginning of the subsequent waves of urbanisation of the state, as portrayed on 'Reves Perdus', is an excellent story of what's lost and what's still carried on - the feelings of nostalgia over the days that we cannot get back, something that drew the film massive acclaim at the 1987 Halifax International Film Festival in the middle of neoliberal policies under three consecutive Lanka ministries. In the first of third segments, titled 'Abel', the film goes into the perspective of Abel (portrayed by Marc-Andre Hawerchuk), a wealthy widower who works as an insurance broker in Prince Eric, as we zero into him arranging a hangout with three other friends of his hometown hockey circle 'Rockwood Pond Shinny Boys' on the Prince Eric Orca match. Early into the film, we see Abel having flashes to his childhood days in a small hut, where he and his mother lived a solitary existence out in middle of the woods, and when he stayed mostly quiet in the schoolyards unless it was him playing a sport.

It's a mesmerising segment that goes right into the bones of the awkwardness of teenage days, which he had mostly erased and shelved aside the memories of, but still keeps his hands particularly shaky when him and the other three discuss about the times on the pond where they were the only lads in ten kilometre radius. He's never come to ease with his younger self that still limits him in the Quebecois society that was lot more stratified seventy years ago (and people still complain that it is lot more stratified than elsewhere, something that is debatable in its own right). The intervals between past and present scenes alternate lot quicker as the film progresses, and we see each scene shorten until we see half-minute flashes at the end of it...

And at that point, Yves-Francois Parenteau chooses to address the other characters, which will now allow him to create a bigger circle. Reves Perdus consists of three stories of friends that may appear separate in the beginning, but over time the links between them are all built together, as they approach closer and closer to their younger selves. The second segment is probably the most demonstrative of this case, as Noam Schuler-Kim stars as Guillaume Chenier, a stable, white-collar father of two children who's currently in middle of a year-long separation period with his wife, Yoon-Mi, while struggling with an unspecified substance abuse.

An insomniac who stays late walking all over the suburban streets of Prince Eric, what used to be the joys of his past and presents haunts Guillaume in the days after the hangout. In the days of the long-bygone rinks, the romances seemed to be easier to be found, and they can be manufactured much more comfortably without people complaining (aside from the doses of masochism that would pop up). That's how Guillaume, a skinny, scruffy-haired boy, managed to land an overtime golden goal to ask out Yoon-Mi, the homecoming queen favourite, and the roses and lotuses all seem to survive the extreme cold out there with hope. Hence the contrast, of watching the night streets darken and empty around Guillaume, with almost nobody but him walking in those hours, it's clear that the past and the present can still uneasy relations.

Eventually, the classic lands in the final episode that inverses a stereotypical drama. It stars Marian Strasser as Jean, a dying man who still remains on the hockey world as a youth coach. Strasser, unlike quiet Abel or introspective Guillaume, is a jolly good fellow whose high-flying temper lands him as a standout. In the night before their visit to the old pond, Jean meets Gyeong-Wook (Benjamin Pyeon), the fourth member of the circle, is actually a stock character who appears over and over again on Parenteau's film. Gyeong-Wook's a spiritual, Zosima-like character with his ability to explain the unexplained, but whose smell repels many non-believers before the prophet as well. Two friends have a dinner and talk about accepting the fate, and it is then we find out what happened to the old world.

As a cinematic classic, 'Reves Perdus' still carry massive traction into this day and age, over 70 years after it sweeping every possible winnable award at the 1987 HIFF. A film that was supposed to be more about personal stories and the lost images of past, it ended up serving as a resistance film against the neoliberal times that brought both excitement and horrors to the Quebecois public long tired of the industrial fatigue. In being able to trace the themes with genuine humanlike qualities, you cannot help but to being drawn with it. And that's where a true film can last, like all four actors whose careers were legendary before and continued to being highly memorialised to this day and age. By asking the society the questions of what the past can mean, and how people can interpret it, the ordinary life is challenged and questioned. Maybe that's what the younger filmographers need to look more into.

Read this article in:

English | Français | The Taegukgi Indigenous