SCL 6v6 Finals preview

NHLGamers,

We've arrived! A long season has now reached terminus, as we're still left with four great teams out of which two will be battling for the title and a hefty slice of cash in the grande finale whereas the others will be going for what they can salvage in a bronze game. Ultimately, we've got the four most skilled teams in Sweden showing up tonight and we hope you do too!

(1)  Vesa Pompa HC vs Northern Ascendancy  (3)

TOP SCORER (playoffs)
Casper @ICappeI Lundgren (28+23=51) vs Erik @Eki Tammenpää (29+27=56)

GOALTENDER (playoffs)
Edvin @Thunborg5 Thunborg (82,22 SV%, 1.14 GAA, 3 SO) vs Jonas @poliskontroll Lindström (80.8 SV%, 1.5 GAA, 2 SO)

These are the two best teams in Sweden right now and all that remains is to determine an order in a gruesome best-of-seven final series. Both of these teams have gone through somewhat similar paths on their way to the final, although Vesa Pompa has came through with arguably an easier effort so far, which naturally is justified for a #1 seed. To go through some background, last year Vesa Pompa HC secured the title as the first ever 6v6 Swedish champion and are eagerly defending that throne whereas Northern Ascendancy faced defeat in the semifinals and finally also in the bronze game leading to utter disappointment. So, we've got two tremendously skilled teams heading into battle with similar, but also very different starting points.

Simply looking a few rows up at the top scorers of these teams is telling me this is going to be a legendary series. On Vesa Pompa we've got do-it-all superstar Casper @ICappeI Lundgren, whose capability of playing bigger games on the wing I somewhat doubted in the semifinal writeup, but the man proved all doubters wrong continuing his run and scoring cold-blooded snipes such as the one below in the process.

While @ICappeI looks to keep sniping, we're sure that his long-time teammate now playing on the other side, Erik @Eki Tammenpää looks to do just the same for his Northern Ascendancy. @Eki has been enjoying the legendary dishes of comeback kid Andre @Foppatofflan Liljegren who is once again proving his worth and elevating the game of his dear club, together with a partially renewed roster including lots of old acquaintances. Despite the immense star power that both of these clubs have an abundance of, we cannot forget the supporting cast that has played an important role in the success of both of these clubs this season. Besides the scorers and superstars, also players doing the work that's not as quantifiable in statistics will play an important role in the finals. Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann is the long time leader and captain of Vesa Pompa and has played through a multitude of situations, possessing experience from a variety of situations on both the 6v6 and 1v1 sides of the game. The captain has a balancing role to counter his superstar d-partner Joel @jtorro1233 Tourunen and is doing that work extremely well. On the Northern Ascendancy side we've also got an interesting character on defense - Mattias @iSvamp Björck has been in the community for what seems to be an eternity and has compiled an impressive amount of titles in that timespan, granted that the last time the man hoisted a trophy is quite a while ago. The defensively exceptional right defenseman of NOR looks to get back in his winning ways and doing so with an incredibly strong squad that has all the possibilities of taking a title.

Here's the community vote of the final series:

(2)  Vaxjo Lakers HC vs Leksands IF  (7)

TOP SCORER (playoffs)
Anton @antoniomannen004 Svensander (17+21=38) vs Johan @Isindar Jonsson (15+16=31)

GOALTENDER (playoffs)
Filip @Fcoy_faze Azri (85.29 SV%, 1.56 GAA, 4 SO) vs Kimmo @DUNZA Sunnari (75.31 SV%, 2.5 GAA, 1 SO)

Before we get going with the final games of the season, we're in store for some additional top tier hockey shown in the bronze game, which is played as a best-of-three series between Vaxjo Lakers HC and Leksands IF. Despite facing disappointment in the semifinals, both of these squads will be coming to play when the puck drops and are looking to secure that 3rd spot and some hardware in their closets.

Vaxjo is coming into the bronze game in good form after losing to Northern Ascendancy in a game seven in which they arguably outplayed their opposition at times, but the result has to be respected nevertheless. If their most recent performances are any indication, I'm predicting a tough time for Leksands IF who had a tough time getting their game going against Vesa Pompa in their semifinal matchup. 

Tune in for the finals tonight!

We'll be broadcasting all the action during the day, with your favorites Adam @esdor Ericson and Johan @Zalaz Nilsson in the booth as usual. The stream will be going live at 17:30 CEST and we'll kick off with the BO3 bronze game series. Make sure to tell your friends and tune in at twitch.tv/NHLGamer for some quality virtual hockey!

Here's a preliminary schedule for the night:
17:30 Broadcast start
17:40 Puck drop for VLH-LIF
19:10 Bronze winner interview and recap
19:15 Finals intro
19:30 Game 1-3 of finals 
------BREAK------
21:15 Game 4-5 of finals
----- SHORT BREAK ----
22:30 Game 6-7 of finals

See you in the chat, gamers!