March 25th, 2013
The regular season has come down to the final week and there still is so much that is to be determined.
Who will win the American Conference? Who will win the Canadian Conference?
Can the Giants finish their incredible second-half run with a playoff spot?
Who will win the Presidents’ Trophy?
Can a miracle happen for the Xtreme to qualify for the postseason?
Which team will end up with the first overall pick in the 2013 Entry Draft?
All these questions and many more will be answered between now and late Sunday.
Which matchups should you be watching?
Here are all the matchups this week that have playoff implications:
BOLD = Playoff Contention
Manhattan (8th) vs. San Diego (19th)
Lakehead (1st) vs. Pittsburgh (20th)
London (9th) vs. Oshawa City (10th)
Twin City (2nd) vs. Hamilton (3rd)
Montreal (14th) vs. Philadelphia (17th)
Buffalo (7th) vs. Toronto (5th)
Victoria (5th) vs. North Bay (6th)
Comox Valley (16th) vs. Washington (11th)
Deer Park (13th) vs. Boston (12th)
Which teams are guaranteed a playoff spot?
The Lakehead IceHoles (1st) are the only team that has clinched a playoff spot which means there is a chance that Twin City (2nd), Hamilton (3rd), Toronto (4th), Victoria (5th), North Bay (6th), Buffalo (7th) and/or Manhattan (8th) can miss the playoffs.
How many teams outside of the current Top 8 are still in the playoff race?
There are six teams still alive for a playoff spot. Those teams are London (9th), Oshawa City (10th), Washington (11th), Boston (12th), Deer Park (13th) and Montreal (14th). Montreal is currently 16 points out of 8th place.
Who is alive for the Presidents’ Trophy?
We’re looking at a six-team race between Lakehead, Hamilton, Toronto, Victoria, North Bay and Twin City. It should be noted that North Bay won the Presidents’ trophy last year and the previous year so they have a shot at a three-peat.
Firestorm forward Chris Kunitz has racked up 41 points in 33 games this season while playing alongside Claude Giroux in Hamilton.
“This final matchup of the season is not going to be about work or X’s and O’s,” Hamilton forward Chris Kunitz told the media after a team practice on Monday. “It’s going to be about passion and how bad we want it.”
Oshawa City GM Earl McNeill is enjoying the fight to the finish despite the fact that it may add a few grey hairs.
“This playoff race is good for everyone involved,” said McNeill. “It’s great for the league and great for the fans and the players. It’s funny how it always seems to come down to the final week and this year so many more teams are jockeying for positions because of the shortened season, so that makes it even more exciting.”
COORS LIGHT COLD HARD FACT OF THE WEEK:
The Hamilton Firestorm have the most college prospects in the league as well as the most unsigned prospects in the league.
“They’re the oldest (average age) active team in the AFHL,” said Manhattan GM Tony Furino. “But their scouting staff is quite possibly the best in the league. If I was a betting man then I would bet that at least one of their four unsigned college prospects turns into a solid point producer at the AFHL level.”
April 22nd, 2013
When AFHL Commissioner Anthony Furino handed Lord Stanley over to Lakehead’s captain Eric Staal, you got a sense this was just the beginning of a Lakehead-style party that would last long into the night.
After taking the Cup, Staal let loose with a loud yell before smacking three kisses on the coveted trophy. He skated for approximately 20 seconds with the Cup high above his head before handing it over to his brother Jordan.
“This is certainly something special,” Staal said. “You dream of winning the Cup, and you know what, I’m glad to know I was the first Ice Hole to ever lift it.”
Jordan Staal eventually handed the Cup over to Jarome Iginla. The procession continued as players such as P.A. Parenteau, Keith Yandle, Kris Letang, Antti Niemi all received a twirl with the Cup.
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Defenseman Kris Letang returned from injury and scoredfour points in the Finals.
Andrew Ladd, who scored 8 points in the Finals, would eventually get his hands on the big prize, too.
And GM/Coach Jason Briggs would also have a chance to raise the Cup.
“Amazing,” Briggs said at his postgame press conference. “I had plans about this and had dreams about it. I wanted this to happen and I worked hard every day and took action, day-to-day decisions, running practices, everything. It’s also the players in our room. They’ve been tremendous all year. You can’t say enough about this group and how hard they worked.”
The pregame video just before the Lakehead Ice Holes took the ice at their home ice arena during the AFHL Stanley Cup Playoffs was accompanied by multicolored spotlights, a laser show and images projected onto the playing surface. The heart of the video, though, goes to the soul of this sport. There are pictures of the Ice Holes in their youth, boys wearing over-sized hockey equipment who dreamed of reaching the pinnacle of the sport they loved.
The boys in those faded photos arrived there Sunday night.
Lakehead, on the strength of their dominating offense, finished off the Manhattan Supermen with a 7-2 victory in the Stanley Cup Final, earning the franchise’s first championship in its four-year history.
The victory caps one of the most dominating seasons in League history. Lakehead finished the regular season with the best overall record and the number one ranked offense in the league. In the postseason, they were unstoppable. They defeated Oshawa City 10-1 in the first round. They defeated Toronto 6-4 in the second round. And they defeated Manhattan 7-2 in the Finals.
“I don’t know, I can’t even describe it,” forward Jarome Iginla, who at 35 years old the eldest of the Ice Holes, said after winning the Cup for the first time. “Everyone played road hockey as a kid. We had a green garbage can that everyone would go around and pose with it. We just did it for real, baby. This is awesome. It has been a great journey.”
The Supermen proved to be a tough foe all week before finally succumbing over the weekend. They also had a pretty incredible postseason run, knocking off the Vikings in the first round, and vanquishing the Vipers in the second round en route to their first Finals appearance in franchise history.
A small consolation was Manhattan goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who was awarded with the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
“Nabby” never smiled as he accepted the trophy and immediately skated off the ice with it as the Ice Holes applauded.
“That was very nice of them,” he said. “But the Conn Smythe Trophy is not the one I wanted.”
As the Ice Holes mobbed each other in victory at the final buzzer, tears rolled down Nabokov’s face. Teammate Henrik Zetterberg was the first player to console him as he rested his left arm on the net. Eventually he fell to the ice and took his helmet off. Soon, the rest of the Supermen skated up and patted him on the head. He used his jersey to wipe away more tears.
“I don’t think there was any question that he was the reason why we made it all the way to the Finals,” Zetterberg said. “He was unbelievable throughout the entire playoffs. It’s tough to lose when you make it all the way to the Finals, but this is a good thing for our organization. We took some big steps forward. We will be back.”
Jason Briggs thinks the Ice Holes will be back, too.
“We’re enjoying these emotions right now but it’s not over for us,” said Briggs. “I’m building a dynasty here.”
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Ice Holes fans hoping to carry on their Stanley Cup celebrations will have another chance Thursday at a parade and rally scheduled in downtown Lakehead. The parade is to start at 12 noon.
Players and their families, coaches and others are expected to ride in double-decker buses and other vehicles during the 30 to 45 minute parade.
An hour-long “championship rally” is scheduled to begin at the Ice Holes home ice arena at 2:30 p.m., featuring video highlights, presentations and speeches from several players, the team said.
Tickets are required, but are free. They will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis and are available online. Officials said season-ticket holders and suite and premier seat owners would be given first priority, with the remaining tickets made available to the public at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
There is a limit of four tickets per order, officials said.
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LIVE in Lakehead: Final Minute of Stanley Cup Finals
+ Ice Holes Locker Room Celebration
April 25th, 2013
An estimated 120,000 fans turned out Thursday to cheer for the Lakehead Ice Holes, holding a boisterous parade and rally to honor the Amazing Fantasy Hockey League champions who beat the Manhattan Supermen 7-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
“I’ve had to wipe away a few tears,” Lakehead forward Andrew Ladd said. “This is why I play in Lakehead.”
Four days after the Ice Holes raised the hallowed trophy, spectators jammed the streets of downtown Lakehead to join the party.
“I didn’t expect this many people to show up for the parade,” said Ladd. “Incredible!!”
The Ice Holes rode double-decker buses and flatbed trucks in a parade through downtown Lakehead, past thousands of roaring fans. Eric Staal and Antti Niemi then raised the Cup outside Lakehead’s home ice arena, where the Ice Holes completed their three week rampage through the postseason on Sunday night.
“It was more than you could ever expect,” forward P.A. Parenteau said. “It’s one of those moments you want to live over and over again. It’s amazing to hear all the support, and to put faces to the cheers we’ve heard all year.”
The Ice Holes gathered inside the arena for a packed rally, with fans waving towels and giving repeated standing ovations to every speaker. GM/Coach Jason Briggs even pumped up the fans with a series of joyously out-of-character fist pumps, and forward Henrik Sedin riled them up even more.
“What’s up Lakehead? Anyone want Jarome Iginla’s cell phone number?” Sedin playfully called out to the fans. “This is too much fun not to win it again next year!!”
“Just to see the looks on their faces after they won it is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said Jason Briggs. “It’s just amazing, amazing, amazing.”
The Ice Holes will have all summer to absorb what they accomplished this spring. The Stanley Cup has already made an extensive tour of Lakehead, starting at a local pub just a few hours after the Ice Holes claimed it. The Cup was in Kris Letang’s backyard Tuesday morning, where one of his nephews drank milk and ate cereal out of the bowl while wearing his Iron Man pajamas.
After appearances on two talk shows on Tuesday, the Cup was seen at a popular stage show in a historic Ontario hotel, where Will Ferrell and Brock Lesnar joined in the celebration.
“It feels great,” said Letang. “You want to have parades every year. It’s going to be tough, but we think we have the team to do it.”
The Ice Holes are uniformly excited they’ve got a strong chance of defending their title next season with much the same roster. GM Briggs, who lost his voice in the post-Cup celebrations and couldn’t speak to the rally crowd, already has already promised most of Lakehead’s key contributors for at least one more year.
“I’d say my chances are pretty good,” veteran forward Jarome Iginla said of his chances of returning to Lakehead. “I want to be back. They’ve got a good thing going here, and I love it.”