ECL 11 Elite Weekly Recap - Week 5 - ECL

NHLGamers,

We're closing in on the end of the ECL 11 Elite regular season and with that it's only natural that the noose around the necks of some ensembles is tightening, whereas some others are still scrambling for those last couple of points in order to either secure their playoff spot or put them in the best possible position for the postseason. The past week held some interesting events and even some records were broken, as FILADELPHIA's Casper @ICappeI Lundgren passed former goalie colleague turned winger Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen for most ECL Elite shutouts in one season. The former record stood at 9 shutouts replicated in both the ECL 8 and ECL 9 regular seasons, but is now at 11 with four games to go for FILADELPHIA. That means that @ICappeI has the possibility to totally deny the opposition in 50% of the regular season games, which is something absolutely unheard of and will surely be a record that could stand the test of time for quite a while in the ECL as we know it. It remains to be seen how far they can take it as a team, but the opposition in their last week will be tough as HAVU Gaming and KOVA Esports are looking to spoil the party.

Another player deserving of an honorable mention and some extra pats on the back is SJ Gaming winger Mikko @EABUNKA Kärkkäinen, who announced that despite receiving terrible news about health concerns in his immediate family was able to show up to play on Thursday night against hREDS. No concerns were visible as the skilled winger took the ice, leading his team to an overtime win and an overtime loss, securing 3 points for SJ Gaming while grabbing a goal and a helper in both games for himself. Obviously there are things way bigger than the sport we're all playing, but the performance Thursday night by @EABUNKA surely is an inspirational show of determination and the support given by the community to a player in distress once again proved that we are way bigger than just the group of people playing video games for a pastime. That's an early nominee for this season's wholesome award.

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At the moment, most teams are at 26 games played, with Team LEISURE and SJ Gaming being the exceptions. No spot in the standings is set in stone, but a number of teams have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs at this point. With certainty we can state that a postseason among the top eight will take a minimum of 31 points, meaning that SAWO ESPORTS, YMCA Esports, Gotham Knights, SJ Gaming and KOVA Esports are still within striking range but the leash is extremely short at least for SAWO, who will have to win every game while Northern Ascendancy and Roots will have to draw blanks for the rest of the week - and even then it's up to tie-breakers. The battle at the bottom of the standings is raging tough as no one will want to be left dead last facing direct relegation. Currently in 16th place is Dark Horse, who are in for a tough last week with games against KOVA Esports and hREDS remaining, so a near perfect performance will be needed in order to get our of the trouble they've put themselves in.

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When it comes to scoring points, it seems like no one does it better this season than Cover gamer Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha and rightfully so. The HAVU winger has been a consistent performer throughout his career at the top level but is actually on pace to break his ECL Elite scoring personal best of 73 points this season. The two most prevalent goal scorers can be found on @FlyerKungen's line, which of course has contributed to his totals and the entire HAVU trio with Risto @Dominointi Järvi and @Hansulinho added to the mix seems to be as ready as ever for the postseason. The only player outside of your current top three teams making his way into the top 10 scorers is André @Foppatofflan Liljegren from Roots, who fits the color scheme but has also played an incredible season after taking a short stint outside the Elite division with Djurgarden Hockey back in ECL 10.

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Take a look at the scoring leaders for defensemen and you might think we've made a mistake but no, Väinö @vSilenttio Pietilä brings glory to his dear Roots Gaming by being close to surpassing his personal best performance at the ECL Elite level (31 points back in ECL 4 Elite with SIKA) while being in a position to see postseason action with this team for the third consecutive season already. It seems like he has been teasing calling it quits for an extended time already and would be going out on a high note after an individual performance like this, but you surely can't quit now, can you!?

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Goaltenders - who knows anything about those? I for sure don't but as already stated, @ICappeI is out here setting records and looking good doing so. However, outside of the top 10 winningest goaltenders this season, we find Juuso @Juizki Nikkinen, who's a part of a struggling SAWO Esports but definitely helped his team out last week. The solid netminder shut out the opposition in three straight contests, keeping his own net untouched for a total duration of 249 minutes and 17 seconds, which might be some kind of record at this level if someone would be keeping track. In general, @Juizki has put forth a solid effort all season long, but his team has faced their fair share of adversity and are highly doubtful to make postseason in any other form than a relegation battle.

Power Rankings

The power rankings reflect games played between 11.1 and 17.1.

Making a return this season will be the Elite: Power Rankings, provided by @MartindalexC. As always, the rankings are generated by weighting a team's results with the level of opposition that was faced, i.e. a team that went 4-0-0 against teams at the very bottom of Elite may very well be ranked below a team that went 0-4-0 against Elite's very finest. Without further ado though, let's have a look at how teams fared over the fifth week of ECL 11 Elite:

1. HAVU Gaming (6-0-0) [+1]