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NHLGamers, A bit over a week ago we concluded a project that's been in the works for a long time - the ECL is waiting on its ninth season, the Finnish community has enjoyed eSM's and whatnot, GCL is alive and kicking and even the RCL has been running for some time. The thing that was missing was something for our Swedes, who make up a large portion of the community. Well now, some months back we announced a change to this stalemate as we launched the SCL, which is the very project I referred to at the start. It's been a long road, 22 teams signed up and we were treated to some high quality hockey all along the season. The regular season kicked off on Tuesday, 16th of April with a 22-team regular season. Teams were divided into two groups, out of which the eight best would make it into the playoffs. It's often a point of debate wether or not a final seed into the playoffs should be overly speculated, as in the end in order to be a champion you need to beat everyone, right? Well, one team certainly took this into consideration and finished above everyone else - Bucketeers bested the opposition by a wide margin in the group stage as they went a perfect 20-0-0, overcoming teams such as the eventual champion Vesa Pompa HC and the respectable Northern Stars (RIP) along the way. The "Buckets" were a clear 1st place seed into the playoffs, but the five remaining teams of the top six were all neck and neck, finishing within a five point margin of each other in the following order: Northern Ascendancy (35p), Vesa Pompa HC (34p), AIK Hockey (33p), Synergy Hockey (32p) and Northern Stars (30p). It was great seeing some new teams entering our tournaments and although some might have had a tough time, we hope they will be back stronger next time around. Not only new teams had a difficult season though, one of the most mentionable playoff no-shows was Korpens Finest, who actually finished a lackluster season in last place of group 1. This is in no way an acceptable performance for a well established team, we'll be looking for these guys to bounce back in coming tournaments! Interestingly enough, we ended up seeing the four best performers of the group stage paving their way into the final four. Through the first two rounfs, we only saw one series where the lower seeded team overcame the higher seed, this example was Stayhard Stallions (5) beating Cannonieris (4) in seven, so we can't talk about any kind of major upset here. "The playoffs are a different beast" - that's a phrase heard in the hockey world quite often and it's even considered a cliché, but it's also the cold hard truth all too often. That was the case in the final four of the SCL's inaugural season. We saw Bucketeers come in sporting an undefeated group stage record and Northern Ascendancy marching on stage with the championship in sight only to see Vesa Pompa and AIK steal the show - Vesa Pompa doing so in a very convincing manner to add insult to injury. We all know how that ended by now. If you for some reason missed out on the action from the finals at Birdie, please check out our broadcast below: AWARDS Most Points: @Tacterz, Northern Ascendancy, 35 Goals, 36 Assists, 71 Points in 20 games Most Goals: @FlyerKungen, AIK Hockey, 43 Goals, 26 Assists, 69 Points in 18 games Most Assists: @pajenc, AIK Hockey, 18 Goals, 38 Assists, 56 Points in 18 games Most Hits by a Forward: @bede, Verket, 96 Hits in 20 games Best +/-: @Tacterz, Northern Ascendancy, +63 in 20 games Most Points by a Defenseman: @Drunkendefender, SPARTANS, 20 Goals, 26 Assists, 46 Points in 20 games Most Goals by a Defenseman: @Drunkendefender, SPARTANS, 20 Goals, 26 Assists, 46 Points in 20 games Most Assists by a Defenseman: @The_Alpha_Furyan, Northern Ascendancy, 11 Goals, 28 Assists, 39 Points in 20 games Most Hits by a Defenseman: @Skogan, Nordic Vipers, 157 Hits in 20 games Now, enough with the writing - let's see some pictures: @Zalaz and @esdor were the dynamic duo in the commentary booth for all of the Finals weekend. Northern Ascendancy went into the finals with a commanding favorite status, but struggled mightily, ending up at fourth place. Before the final day commenced, players gathered for a photoshoot and some interviews. AIK captain @Bjono being interviewed for a video segment. AIK Hockey and Vesa Pompa HC went head to head in the Finals, @FlyerKungen with a staredown of the opposition. The trophy was up for display during the final day of the Finals. Tensions were rising as players awaited their turn to take the stage. Vesa Pompa HC remained focused and felt right at home on stage all weekend.

Hey NHLGamers, The first playoff round of the Spring League has nearly ended. So far we haven't seen that many upsets, but who knows - maybe things will change in the second round as soon as the big guns will enter the race. Will there be a choke, sorry, I mean Tampa Bay fiasco? As you probably noticed and/or experienced, the PSN network had some downtime on Thursday, the 13th of June 2019, which was set to be the last game day for the first round. Three series' are left to be played as they had planned to play the remaining games on the evening where the downtime occurred. Due to this unforeseen PSN downtime, we have decided to extend the first round until Monday, 17th of June 2019 23:59 CEST. As some second round pairs are already clear, these matchups can start playing on Sunday, 16th of June 2019 and the whole second round has to be played by Wednesday, 26th of June 2019. Please note that due to this generous amount of time for the second round, do not expect any additional time if you plan poorly. The last three remaining series of the first round are: #22 Blackdawgs vs EV Duisburg #43 (Series 1:1) #31 Silver Sword Griffins vs UnderRated Lekstuga #34 (Series 2:0) #32 Wolverines HC vs SOPPAJENGI #33 (Series 2:2) To summarize: 1st round: Sunday, 09.06.2019 until Monday, 17.06.2019 23:59 CEST 2nd round: Tuesday 18.06.2019 until Wednesday, 26.06.2019 23:59 CEST (however confirmed pairs may start sooner) League Administration would like to announce the following rulings on below cases: Deadly Phantoms HC vs ExBox DPH had a 2:0 series lead over ExBox and the teams agreed to finish the series on Tuesday 11th of June. After first delaying the decisive games by 30 minutes, ExBox informed DPH at the delayed starting time that they won't have the players to finish the series and that ExBox will forfeit the remaining game. Deadly Phantoms HC receives a WO win and are therefore qualified for the second round. Raccoon Rampage vs United Crew Raccoon Rampage had a 2:0 series lead over United Crew. After the second game, which United Crew quit in the third period, United Crew informed Raccoon Rampage that they won't play the third game and leave them the last remaining win. Therefore the WO is awarded for Raccoon Rampage and they have also qualified for the second round. LA would like to remind all teams that quitting mid-game and/or giving up during a series is poor sportmanship and unacceptable behavior from a team. Playoffs Round 2: #1 Written In The Stars vs HC Unknown Diamond #39 #2 Symphony vs The Black Jacks #35 #3 Butterfly Effect vs Wolverines HC #32 #4 Northern Ascendancy vs Silver Sword Griffins #31 #5 Invictus vs Company of Geeks #29 #6 The Next Gen vs Cannonieris #28 #7 Checkmate vs AIK Hockey #27 #8 Reality Check HC vs Virtual Horizons eSports #25 #9 MUKIMIEHET vs TIKI TALK #24 #10 Unlucky Boys HC vs Horror Hockey #23 #11 Supernatural vs Blackdawgs #22 #12 Almost Famous vs Raccoon Rampage #21 #13 Six Sticks Misfits vs Gotham Knights #20 #14 Vesa Pompa HC vs GHETTO FIREBIRDS #19 #15 Nordic Stars vs LIONHEARTS #18 #16 Cheers Hockey vs Deadly Phantoms HC #17 All matchups are a best-of-5 series, so you need 3 wins to advance to the next round. The higher ranked team has the home ice advantage. Captains of the teams which didn't qualify for the playoffs: After asking for your opinion about lower tier playoffs, we would like to announce that we have decided to not host lower-tier playoffs in this season. There weren't enough teams that wanted to participate in the lower tier playoffs and with the Summer Cup around the corner (info will be released as soon as we know all the relevant details), it didn't make sense for us to go through all of that trouble for only a handful of teams. That being said, a big thank you to the teams for their activity in responding to this inquiry!