[Critch]

The most important point from the regular season that I forgot to mention, we didn't have a single team harmony issue. We even risked bringing up a couple of depth players with reputations for a few days and nothing happened.

2031/32 Playoffs Round 1 - Calgary Flames
We go into the playoffs still carrying injuries, Tomas Lavoie is definitely out for the year, Aiden Dudas might be back if we get to round 2, same for Leo Seitz (although he's no great loss, he wasn't very good this year), plus stars Lucas Karmiris and Emil Hemming are still game time decisions with day-to-day injuries. Emil Hemming is out with bruised testicles again, this is the third time, I'm not sure what he's getting up to in his spare time.

We've played Calgary 4 times in the regular season, we lost the first (2-3 in November) but have won the 3 since (5-2 in November, 4-1 at home on New Years Day, and 3-2 on the last day of the season). Surely we must be strong favorites.

Game 1 - Calgary Flames 7 Anchorage Huskies 4
Hemming will miss the game, but Karmiris is back so we're as full-strength as we've been for a while. A strange game, lots of twists and turns. Calgary are 2-0 up in the first two minutes, Oskar Vuollet pulls one back but Calgary add another couple and it's 4-1 after the first period. Karmiris, Vuollet and Podkolzin score in the second to tie it up at 4-4 after the second, but Calgary race away in the third. A powerplay goal, an even strength and a last minute empty net goal and we're 1 game down already. Sebastian Cossa with a .850 save percentage, maybe he's just a regular season goalie. We've now lost 7 playoff games in a row since being 3-2 up against Dallas a few years ago.

Game 2 - Calgary Flames 4 Anchorage Huskies 5
Another strange twisty-turny game. Hemming is missing again, some shuffling of the lines since we don't really have a top 6-level right wing to replace him. Things start badly as Calgary's Jeff Smith scores twice in the 1st, then another in the second to finish his hat-trick and put them 3-0 up with one period to play. Anchorage go wild in a seven minute burst in the third period: 7:24 - Henry Mews, 8:37 Prokhor Poltapov, 10:17 Henry Mews (power play), 12:19 Jordan Gavin, 14:10 Kaden Pitre and it's 5-3 to the good guys. The Capitals announcer always calls the Caps "the good guys". I like that, I'm going to start doing it for Anchorage too. Calgary pull one back late on, but the good guys hang on to win 5-4 and break the playoff loss run. We're off to Calgary with the series tied.

Game 3 - Anchorage Huskies 7 Calgary Flames 0
No twisty-turny in this one, it's total domination. Anchorage hold Calgary to 18 shots all game, Cossa saves all of them, then we score lots of lovely goals too. Hemming is back from his swollen nuts, 1st round draft flop Easten Turko also comes in to add a bit of defense-first to the defense and it all works. Gavin and Karmiris put Anchorage 2-0 up with goals 14 seconds apart, Nicholas Moldenhauer makes it 3 right at the end of the first. (I don't think I've mentioned Moldenhauer, he was a depth signing at the start of the season and is now 4th line center as Poltapov had to move to left wing to cover injuries). Podkolzin and Karmiris add two more in the second, Knox and Palm in the third and we stroll to a win and a series lead.

Game 4 - Anchorage Huskies 2 Calgary Flames 3
We roll on with no changes, same lines, same everything, and the result isn't the same. Calgary go 1-0 early, Gavin scores midway through the first and we're tied at 1-1 after one period. Calgary go 2-1 up in the second, 3-1 right at the start of the third. Pitre pulls us back into it and it's 3-2 with 17 minutes to play but that's the end of the scoring. The series so far has been fairly penalty free, but Jake Sanderson and Alexandre Lavoie of Calgary fight in the third. And we're back to tied in the series.

Game 5 - Calgary Flames 4 Anchorage Huskies 6
Jake Sanderson escapes without a suspension after the fight in game 4, but defenseman Tarin Smith is out with a knee contusion. That's fancy talk for a bruised knee. So Mendl comes in to replace him. Anchorage get off to a strong start, Vasili Podkolzin, Henry Mews and Samu Partanen all score in the first 6 minutes and we're 3-0 up. Calgary get back into it with 2 goals in the first, then Jeff Smith ties it up at the start of the second. Anchorage star centers Jordan Gavin and Oskar Vuollet then say "we're going to win this even if we have to carry you" and both score, it's 5-3 after two periods. It's stays 5-3 til the last minute, Calgary go empty net and pull one back through Louis-Francois Belanger and it's squeaky-bum time for Anchorage. No worries though, Vuollet scores and empty net goal with 4 seconds to go and we're 3-2 up in the series. Only the second time Anchorage have been 3-2 up in a series, and we messed it up last time so lets hope we can close it out this time.

Game 6 - Anchorage Huskies 3 Calgary Flames 6
Apparently a knee contusion isn't the same as a bruised knee, because Kaden Pitre is out with a bruised knee so the game thinks it's different. Looks like a knee contusion is a badly bruised knee judging by the expected days out. He's day-to-day and could play if we wanted to risk it, but it's only game 6 so he can sit. Calgary play like a team playing for their lives and dominate, they're 2-1 up after the first. Carter Klippenstein is the Anchorage scorer, it's a sign of how banged up we are that he's on the ice. Lecompte and Moravec make it 4-1 in the second, we have a brief comeback when Karmiris and Mendl score, but Calgary make it 5-3 at the end of the second and add another in the third and we're back to Anchorage for a game seven. We're going to lose, you know.

Game 7 - Calgary Flames 3 Anchorage Huskies 4 Overtime
It's game seven so we risk Kaden Pitre and his knee owie, he's back in to center the third line. We get out to a quick start, Lucas Karmiris makes it 1-0 after 22 seconds, then Nicholas Moldenhauer makes it 2-0 midway through the first. If there's been one thing about this series it's been that nobody can defend a lead, it happens again here with Calgary scoring 3 unanswered in the second, Kadon McCann, Louis-Francois Belanger and Nathan Lecompte make it 3-2 Calgary after 2 periods. We've got one period to save the season. There's a couple of minutes of 4-on-4 hockey (assuming the game gets that right) when Kadon McCann and Kaden Pitre get coincidental minors both for high sticking, but we're less than 4 minutes from crashing out when Prokhor Poltapov (3rd line left wing) ties it up on an assist from Jorgen Palm, and we're off to overtime. Overtime doesnt last long before the Poltapov/Pitre/Palm line strikes again, this time it's 6'8'' 241lb Swede Jorgen Palm scoring on an assist from Poltapov.

Really we have goalie Sebastian Cossa to thank, we were heavily outshot but he kept us in it saving 38 of 41 shots.

So the first ever playoff series win in Anchorage's history. The only slight downside is that we've missed out on being the first of the expansion teams to win a series by 1 day, Atlanta Thrashers and Hartford Whalers both clinched their series the day before.

So it's onto round 2 where we'll face San Jose Sharks. They upset the odds and put out LA Kings in round one.