The day is here. At 8:00 pm tonight, the Red Army will faceoff against Cryptic Stench in a best-of-three series for the division title. The teams met three times in the regular season, with the Soviets winning two of the three (5-1 and 10-1). The lone loss to the Stench, a 9-5 defeat, was also the game that sent Mark Hendricks to the emergency room to receive stitches in his ear.
That was the regular season, this is the postseason.
If you want to know the playoff history of these two franchises, just know this: early on it was Cryptic Stench, lately it's been Red Army... all Red Army. The Red Army has won it's past six playoff contests against the Stench, and if you're a believer in omens, it's a good thing they are playing them in the Championship, because in all three previous Red Army titles the Comrades had to oust the Stench. To make it four, they'll have to do so again.
With less than five hours to go before puck drop, let's get to tonight's three keys to the game:
1: Goaltending. The Stench's best player is their goaltender. He's big, he's quick, and he's good. Good goalies have stifled the Soviets in the past, and if they want to have any luck today, like all champion-caliber teams, they'll have to crash the net and do the dirty work. On their end, Ron Whaley has been dynamite of late. He'll have to keep up his play because the Stench have several guys with rockets.
2: Special teams. These two teams tend to frequent the penalty box when they play each other, expect more of the same with more on the line. The Soviets penalty kill was great in the regular season but surrendered two power play goals last game. They need to be stout. With the power play the Soviets have been operating around 50%. That's... that's fantastic.
3: Skating. Yep, it's a key. Skating includes backchecking, forechecking, getting to loose pucks, breaking the puck out, and everything in between. It's a big rink and there's only eight skaters. Let's see the effort.
R.A.D. Prediction: 7-5 Red Army
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