The BHL Finals - PREVIEW

THE HOCKEY HOUSE FINALS : PREVIEW

BACKYARD HOCKEY LEAGUE FINALS

(3) LES CASTORS (6-2) vs (2) TOP CHEESE (6-3)

     The two teams landing spots in the 2020 BHL Championship Finals have been nearly identical during the regular season with both clubs posting 9-7-1 records, 19 regular season points and 6 postseason wins. This will be the 2nd meeting in the Finals for these two squads with Les Castors taking the first meeting en route to their first and only Championship in 2016.  Top Cheese have reached the finals for the 3rd straight season and will look to win their 2nd title in that timeframe.

     Top Cheese has had a hard run into these finals, playing the red hot Iceholes who were fresh off an opening round sweep. After being held to 0 goals  in games 1 & 2 the Cheese flipped the script and rattled off 3 straight victories to stun the leagues most potent offensive club and send them to the golf course early. The Cheese appearance in this years Finals has been a solid team effort as 9 players have tallied at least 5 points in the postseason. The absence of BHL Playoffs top point getter Kyle March will be a large hole to fill as after 2 rounds he had posted 10 goals and was playing at a very high level prior to the pandemic. The Cheese have one of the most stingiest defensive cores in the league with BHL vets, Blake Jackson, Steve Barati, Jack Hull and two time BHL Cup winner Justin Daigle on the backend. That defensive talent along with clutch goaltending by Frankie Principe , positional play by OG's like Dwayne Maki & Cam Green will be the key to stopping the potent offensive capabilities of the Beavers. If they can tap into their experience and weather the storm one more time they will be able to become the first 2-time Cup winning franchise in BHL history.

     Les Castors have been simply dominant in the postseason since squeaking by Les Pylones in the 5-game nail-biting opening round. That series was followed by a 3 game sweep over the expansion Sunshines squad and they now look poised to snag a second title for the franchise. Csaba Jr sets the tone from the pipes as he has been one of the BHL's top masked man again in 2020 and his NZIHL pedigree is a tough puzzle to solve night in and night out. The Castors have depth most other squads dream of and late season additions on the blueline of ex-pats Per Svendsen and  Ian Wannamaker have made the Black n Gold even tougher to play against. The beavers offensive attack in the regular season was dominated by the Top line of Reid Cole, Sean Abe & Matt Fuscic but it has been BHL vet Eric deWit who has led the postseason charge potting 7 genos thus far through the first 8 post season games. If the offence can get back on track and the Beavers can rely on their depth then that could spell lights out for the Cheese.

FUN FACTS:

- 8 of the Top 20 BHL Scoring Leaders are in this series (all had 20+ points)

- Top Cheese have just 4 players on the roster that were not part of their 2018 Championship winning season … Two are rookies and the other two are 7 year veterans (Dobbs/Maki) they have only played for Les Castors OR Top Cheese in their BHL careers.

- In 7 years of the BHL, at least one of these two clubs have been in the finals for 5 of the 7 Final Series