Opening Weekend 2019…

The league was ready to launch with 12 games across North America, with pregame concerts featuring some major acts hoping to bring in viewers and fans. The numbers on youtube actually did better than the league had hoped which was a major success, but some attendance numbers were disappointing to the upstart league. The league was starting their schedule with home and home series with divisional rivals, hoping to quickly get some traction and bad blood between teams who would be seeing a lot of each other. The results on opening weekend were…

Home                                        Away
Minnesota Monarchs          8    North Dakota North Stars    7
Portland Marauders            1    Seattle Storm    1
Winnipeg Warriors              8    Vancouver Chinooks    7
Colorado Alpines                5    Houston Americans    0
Chicago Crush                    1    Kansas City Celtics    3
Las Vegas Heat                  1    Oakland Machine    7
Boston Whalers                  3    New York Pride    6
Montreal Arctique               8    Quebec Blizzard    3
Toronto Islanders               6    Detroit Dinos    1
Alabama Dixies                  2    Orlando Dream    0
Cleveland Rock                  4    Indianapolis Thunder    0
Pittsburgh Metropolitans    5    Philadelphia Stallions    2

Season 1…

The Western Conference proved to by a battle to the very end for almost every team with the exception of Minnesota and Winnipeg who were out of the playoffs by the mid-way point of the season. Rivals Portland and Seattle along with Houston and Colorado fought back and forth, especially down the stretch looking to secure a first round bye.

The division winners in each each conference would be guaranteed a playoff spot, but the top 2 teams in the conference would be guaranteed a bye. This was obviously a massive advantage and all four teams put it all out there to secure the bye. The top four spots actually came down to the final game of the season for each team, as Portland would go on the road and beat Seattle 7-5 to secure top spot and a bye. The loss meant Seattle would have home ice advantage in the Best of 5 first round, but would not be getting the bye. Colorado would walk away disappointed after losing 3-2 to the New York Pride to close out their season, which left the door wide open for Houston to get the bye, which they would with an easy 5-3 win over Winnipeg.

The race for the final 2 wild cards was down to 4 teams, Chicago, Vancouver, Kansas City and Las Vegas. Vegas was the first to bow out after losing 5-1 to Kansas City. The Celtics were poised to sneak in, but needed Chicago to beat Vancouver in order to sneak in. Chicago was up 4-1 going into the third, but Vancouver stormed back in the third on the back of their leading goal scorer Michael Lodboa who put up a hat trick to tie the game. Vancouver would add a go ahead goal and an empty netter to take it 6-4.

The final Western Conference standings:
Portland Marauders    87
Houston Americans    87
Colorado Alpines    86
Seattle Storm    85
Chicago Crush    85
Vancouver Chinooks    84
Kansas City Celtics    82
Las Vegas Heat    81
Oakland Machine    79
North Dakota North Stars    75
Winnipeg Warriors    67
Minnesota Monarchs    55

Over in the Eastern Conference, Quebec and New York battled for top spot in the conference, but neither had to worry about the first round bye as it was clear they were both going to earn them. In the end, Quebec would pull away and not only win the conference but would be the inaugural winners of the Commissioner's Trophy as the leagues top team.

Philadelphia and Indy would battle over the Southeast Division until Indy struggled down the stretch allowing Philly to run away with it. While Indy still cruised to a playoff berth, the feeling was that they were playing some of their worst hockey of the season, losing 6 of their final 8 games to close out the season.

The wild card race was really only a battle for the final spot. Boston held pace with Toronto and Orlando the whole way down the stretch, finishing in the first wild card spot and never really feeling the pressure to try and qualify. Toronto and Orlando were neck and neck, but the Islanders won 5 of their last 6 while Orlando went 3-3 to claim the final wild card:

The final Eastern Conference standings:
Quebec Blizzard    94
New York Pride    91
Philadelphia Stallions    88
Indianapolis Thunder    83
Boston Whalers    79
Toronto Islanders    76
Orlando Dream    73
Cleveland Rock    71
Alabama Dixies    70
Montreal Arctique    69
Pittsburgh Metropolitans    66
Detroit Dinos    56

The leading goal scorer was Miroslav Talafous of the New York Pride, who tallied 52 goals in the regular season, while the top goaltender was Nils Theodore of the Philadelphia Stallions who had a goals against average of 2.43, just edging out John-Paul Tapper from Vancouver who had a 2.54 goals against average.

The opening round of the playoffs will feature Best Of 5 Series. To ensure the top 2 seeds don’t sit out too long, the series will go maximum 7 days with 2 off days if needed. The matchups are:

#3 Colorado Alpines vs. #6 Vancouver Chinooks, the winner will play Houston
#4 Seattle Storm vs. #5 Chicago Crush, the winner will play Portland

#3 Philadelphia Stallions vs. #6 Toronto Islanders, the winner will play New York
#4 Indianapolis Thunder vs. #5 Boston Whalers, the winner will play Quebec