ECL 12 Elite Weekly Recap - Week 5 - ECL

The fifth week of ECL Elite action brought some interesting matchups and equally interesting results. Some squads managed to pet their stats, while others managed to find their way into an even deeper hole than before. As we're heading into the last few gamedays of the regular season, every point is crucial and truly anything could still transpire at the finish line.

Monday's broadcast was already an exciting one as last seasons ECL Pro teams GOONS and Tunnel Vision clashed to the beautifully sounding voices of your favorite casters Cody @Tougie24 Tougas and Paul @Cyn Anderson. GOONS have already been a heavily debated team so far, proving great performances despite their inexperience but also due to the mystery surrounding their logo artwork - NHLGamer has taken an official stance on it being a badger, but the organization has not commented on the heated debate yet. Tunnel Vision, on the other hand, have not fared as well, finding themselves in danger of relegation. Up until Sunday, the team found themselves in 15th place with a mere six wins - one of them against GOONS in their rivalry clash.

A notable absence in the top four this season has been JYP Jyvaskyla, who have lacked the consistent and effective play they have been known for, and now find themselves out of the playoffs in need of some help to even get back in. Unfortunately last week did not help their case with only one win out of their four total in matchups against POGGERS and FILADELPHIA. Today, JYP sits in 10th place with the possibility to reach 7th if everything should fain for POGGERS, IQUE and SAWO ESPORTS ahead of them - a playoff berth does look unlikely.

Most teams have already solidified their approximate spots in the standings at this point, but it is till very tight around the relegation zone and all squads are surely going all out to avoid having to go into those gruelling battles against the cream of the crop in the Pro division. To end last week, we had seven teams within a four point margin on places 9-15, and by now it seems like only SAWO ESPORTS might have clawed their way into safety. Keep an eye out for these fights in the very last rounds!

Interestingly enough, FILA and hREDS have been barking at each other a bit on social media in regards to the scoring stats department. Right now we're looking at a triple lead in quite dominant fashion for the big, bad reds as Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen, Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen and Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen have really heated up as the playoffs are closing in. hREDS is by a decent margin the highest scoring team in the league and the average of 4 goals for per game should push them to at least another finals appearance in the playoffs too, should they be able to keep that going.

Defensively, FBK star Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann continues to shine, as he has been throughout the duration of the season. He does have backup in the form of Hampus @l-Furyan-l Duvefelt and together they make for possibly the best defensive pair in the league right now - FBK is 9-1-0 thru their last ten games, look to have their eyes set on the 4th seed towards the playoffs and are receiving some heavy secondary scoring from their defensemen.

An all around dominant season by Casper @ICappeI Lundgren isn't anything we're not used to, but now the man is chasing his shutout record of 12 shutouts in the regular season. Finishing last week at seven and adding two more on Monday has him looking good with six more games to go in the season. The honorable mention this week goes to Oskari @SibeIius Grönroos of HAVU Gaming, who recorded two shutouts against Northern Ascendancy last week and has been sharing duties with Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen as the statistically better part of the strong tandem.

Power Rankings Provided by @MartindalexC

1. hREDS (20-3-1) [+8.00 | +19.50]