Dam Good: Bad blood boils over between MODO and Leksand

Things got scary in the SDHL on Halloween. With just seconds left in an inevitable 3-1 victory for MODO, Leksand forward Ella Albinson drove hard to MODO’s net and Saana Valkama wasted no time digging in Klara Peslarova’s pads for a rebound. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything erupted into chaos.

We could try to walk you through a play-by-play — or blow-by-blow — of the brouhaha, but instead let’s just look at how it was reflected in the box score.

After the dust had settled the officials issued three game misconducts, three match penalties, five fighting majors (yes, an odd number of fighting majors), a five-minute major for kicking (Jaycee Magwood), and a two-minute minor for slashing for Valkama. Yes, you read that right, there was a major for kicking in there. All told, 176 penalty minutes were assessed in the game. That’s a lot.

Lost in all of this is the fact that there was almost a goalie goal!

Peslarova — one of the players who earned a fighting major — very nearly scored a goal on Leksand’s empty net a minute or so before hell boiled over. Can you imagine if she had scored? Perhaps the hockey gods simply didn’t allow it to happen because there is only so much wacky chaos allowed in the final few minutes of a hockey game.

Besides the staggering amount of penalty minutes and the image of a very angry six-foot-three Lore Baudrit taking cross checks in the back, the big takeaway here is that MODO improved to a .500 record (7-7-0). It’s still unclear whether or not we’ll see any supplementary discipline here, but thus far, the league has yet to issue a statement.

Related

Dam Good: Amanda Johansson out-duels Lindsey Post

Three Crowns

Here are three performances worthy of hardware from the last week of SDHL action.

1. Rhyen McGill of Linköping had her first hat trick of the 2020-21 season against Göteborg on Halloween. McGill’s second goal of the game proved to be the game-winner and her empty-netter — scored with just 54 seconds left in regulation — was all the insurance Linköping needed to secure the win. McGill now has six goals and three assists in 14 games.
2. SDE’s Alexandra Anderson scored two goals on Friday — a power play goal in the third to put her team up 2-1 and the game-winner in overtime. It was a huge game for Anderson, who came into the contest with just one point in her first 13 games of the season.
3. Viivi Vainikka scored two goals and picked up a primary assist in Luleå’s 8-2 beatdown of Brynäs on Halloween. Vainikka scored one of her goals and notched her assist in the final five minutes of the first period before scoring Luleå’s eighth goal of the game late in the third. She now has 11 points in 12 games — good for fifth on her club in scoring.