Yearly Hockey post

 This was a pretty good year for the Family Hockey League, the subject of this post, mainly for my records.  I won't be hurt (much) if you bail on it now.  

We had a lot of Champions this year.  League championships were won in the UK (My Sheffield, who also took the regular season and the Challenge Cup), Norway (Shenan's Storhamar, also the Reg season champ), France (My Rouen, who also took the reg season title), Austria (Misty's Salzburg), the KHL (Again, Misty with Magnitogorsk, the conference champ), Denmark (My Sonderjyske, who also took the Danish Cup), Czechia (Again, me with Trinec), Latvia (Misty's Mogo, a funny story coming up here), and Belarus (Laurie's Zhlobin).  In addition, we had regular season winners- besides those mentioned- in Czechia (Laurie's Pardubice), Slovakia (KC's Poprad), Poland (Laurie's Katowice), Latvia (Laurie's Zemgale), Sweden (my Farjestad), and another conference championship with Shenan's Dallas Stars.  Add to that a few miscellaneous championships: Laurie's Pardubice wins the Dolmitan Cup; my Cortina taking the Serie A and Italy Super Cups; Misty's Brasov- a team that competes in the Hungarian (which we follow) and Romanian leagues (which we don't)- wins the  Hungarian championship AND the Romanian Cup AND the Romanian championship; Shenan's Tychy with the Polish Cup, and the Polish Super Cup; and KC's Grenoble taking the French Cup.

The funny stories along the way:  Last year in Latvia, Misty's Mogo was unbeatable in the reg season, but loses in the finals to Laurie's Zemgale.  This year, it was Laurie invincible in the reg season, with Mogo pulling the upset in the finals.

Another: Katowice and Pardubice- both Laurie's teams- lost double OT game sevens in the finals of their leagues.

A third: Shenan's Punk Vilnius in Latvia went into the fourth to last game of the season 0-28, averaging a 7-2 loss every night.  Fourth to last game of the year, they rise up for a 4-3 win at last, only to lose the last 3 by a combined 26-2.

Shenan again, the second straight year her Belarussian team Vitebsk got off to a tremendous start, struggles at the end, and gets dumped early in the playoffs.  It took a lot longer for the collapse this year, and it wasn't the bottom dropping out like it was in 2022-23, but the end result was sadly the same.

OH, and almost forgot.  My Swiss team, Geneve Servette, who won it all last year, struggled all season, bounced in a play-in round- and still stunned the world by becoming the first team to win the Champions League Title!  Go figure.

I like to divide the stats into Euro and North American leagues, what with the disparity in games and style played.  The Euro scoring champ was Peter Quennville of Shenan's Storhamar with 72 points; Anthony Romani of KC's North Bay in the Ontario League took the NA title with 115.  Auston Matthews of Toronto was the goal champ in NA with his 70 (with the 1 playoff goal).  Matthias From of Laurie's Herning from Denmark edges out Quennville for the Euro Goal title 44-43.

The Goalie champs: Save %, William Rosseau of Rouyn-Noranda (Quebec League) .924 and Maxim Malyutin of Shenan's Vitebsk in Belarus, .935.  Wins go to Matthew Greenfield of Sheffield with 38 and (reg season) Juusi Saros of Laurie's Nashville with 35.  GA Ave it was Rosseau at 2.24 and Malyutin at 1.69.  The shutout race was Rousseau and Tristan Jarry of KC's Pittsburgh Penguins with 7 in NA, the Euro by Greenfield with 10.

This years top 25:

1 Sheffield, UK, Chris.  59-9, Won the British trifecta of reg season, playoffs and Challenge cup.

2 Storhamar, Norway, Shenan. 53-5, rolled to re season and playoff titles.

3- Pardubice, Czech, Laurie.  62-20, a reg season title, a 2-1 2OT loss to my Trinec in finals game 7.  Also won the Domlitan Cup.

4- Vitebsk, Belarus, Shenan. 51-18, lost in 1st round to KC's Brest. 10-0 in winning Belarussian Cup.

5- Rouen, France, Chris.  52-16, swept the Reg season and playoff titles- lost the first two games in the finals before winning 4 straight.

6- Mogo, Latvia, Misty. 35-6.  Lost the reg season title to Laurie's Zemgale on head-to-head, but took her 4-1 in the finals.

7- Magnitogorsk, KHL, Misty.  60-31, swept my Lokomotiv 4-0 in finals.

8- Katowice, Poland, Laurie. 47-19, lost a double overtime 1-0 game seven in finals.

9- Sparta Prague, Czech, KC. 45-18.  Lost a 3-2 OT game seven to my Trinec in semis.

10- Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL, Misty.  52-26, suffice it to say all our junior teams struggled in the playoffs.  First year we had nobody in the Canada Cup.

11- Sonderjyske, Denmark, Chris.  46-20, won the Danish Cup, beat KC's Esbjerg 4-2 in finals.

12- Soo, OHL, Misty. 52-27.

13- Brasov, Hungary, Misty.  44-20.  Champs of 2 leagues, didn't count the Romanian record which was 24-6).

14- Trinec, Czech, Chris.  52-29, turned a 3rd place season into a championship by beating #2 in the semis and #1 in the finals.

15- Lokomotiv, KHL, Chris.  56-32. Capped one of their best ever seasons off by not even showing up in the finals against Magnitogorsk.

16- Angers, France, Misty.  38-15, stunned in the first round.

17- Carolina, NHL, Laurie. 58-35, put out in 2nd round.

18- Dallas, NHL, Shenan.  62-39, lost in conference finals to Edmonton.

19- Zemgale, Latvia, Laurie. 35-12, won the league title, but was running out of steam with a couple of Euro tourneys under their belts by the finals with Mogo.

20- Victoriaville, QMJHL, Shenan.  52-30, about the most successful of our Junior teams, made it to the semis.

21- Tychy, Poland, Shenan.  37-17. Beat Laurie's Katowice in both the Polish Cup and Polish Super Cups, but never made it to them in the playoffs.

22- Valerenga, Norway, Misty.  40-20, last to fall before the Storhamar rampage.

23- Grenoble, France, KC.  40-21, won the French Cup, but got slammed in the semis.

24- Farjestad, Sweden, Chris.  41-23, Won the reg season title, swept in first round.

25- Stavanger, Norway, Chris. 40-22, perennial champs but no match for Storhamar this year.