Fight for the ECL5 championship is still going on, but the season is over for us and I feel to be ready to dig in a bit to it.
Final standings
As many might know already, we finished 8th in regular season and forwarded to playoffs against all odds.
How did that happen?
We had a flying start to the season as we won our first Elite games 2-0 and 1-2. These games against Northern Ascendancy were really even, but we managed to get full points thanks to our solid team defense, goaltending and deadly finishing.
After this strong start we faced Northern Stars and Written In The Stars. These games showed us how tough Elite will be. We only managed to get 1 point from these two opponents. Scores was even and did not have big problems, it just turned the way it turned. Aapon Taikasauva was the only regular season opponent that felt really hard to play against.
We had difficulties with our scoring at first half of the season. Pucks just didnt seem to go in. Our team defense worked greatly on the other hand, and that saved us a lot of points.
It was actually Carlsberg HC games that got us fired up for the rest of the season.
Some might remember our games against Carlsberg at ECL4 in Pro division? Carlsberg was marching on in Pro, defeating everything on their path to Pro title. Then this little team Rusty Blades came and took 4 points against them. That felt awesome then. I had a really good feeling about playing against Carlsberg this season. And we did it again, 4 points.
This gave a really good drive for our roster. After this it felt like playoffs can be achieved, it will be achieved.
So we did end up in 8th place and got our place in playoffs. Opponent was Aapon Taikasauva, the team that was most difficult opponent for us in regular season. Most difficult by a large margin.
As a huge underdogs we surprised everyone by winning first two games. Aapot was not ready to play us, as they counted on too much for being so big of an offensive force that they dont have to organize their team defense. After these first two games we saw a whole new Aapon Taikasauva on the ice. They played a really tight defense, used our very own weapons against us. That is the Aapot that are able to hoist the cup, no matter who they play against.
But still, I have to admit that it was a bitter one to drop.
All in all our first ECL Elite season was a rock solid. And others have noticed it, as I am hearing lots of rumours about Rusty players.
Supreex was great at the net as usual. We do defend well, that helps him a lot.
Still I do stand behind my words: Supreex is the best goaltender in ECL.
Tauri did not play. But believe it or not, he was still a great part of the team.
If we ever have to get rid of our mascot Alba, I do know who to call next!
Brothers Kinnunen, Kiki and Kinu did well also. Both of them are now tested and approved to be Elite level d-men.
Wuorio was as solid as I knew him to be. Good two-way hockey and 14+20 points.
Koojii aka Koutsi, important piece of our team solid just like Wuorio. 17+17 points and after a hard first half of the season in faceoffs he managed to get fow% to 45,9.
And Dirty Kantor aka "Hidden Gem" and "Who?". He did have a monkey(or was it ape?) on his shoulders at first. Then everything just clicked and he got it really going. 25+23 in 30 games. Thumbs up.
Just a little something about the season. Anxious to get the next one started.