Date: July 27, 2007
Headline:
Unlikely Hero Finishes Atop 'Phoons Scoring!
Hardware Sure To Head To Taipei!
Calcutta To Land In Taiwan!

Taipei, Taiwan - The Taipei Typhoons ended the season like everyone else in The Lee Division: below .500 in their last 10 games! ... oh, alright, Hong Kong, who didn't even make the playoffs, did finish 5-5-0, but that was the best The Lee had to offer! Heading into the post-season, the teams ought to be happy they'll at least be playing each other in Round 1, instead of any teams with a winning record...

Taipei finished the season with a decent record, all in all, though after coming off a Commissioner's Cup winning TWHL10, one has to ask if 2nd Place in The Lee wouldn't be considered a disappointment? But then again, they did lose two of the leagues best wingers in Marco Sturm and Martin Erat, who both ended up scoring 40 Goals and were in their teams' top 3 in scoring, so I suppose finishing 3 Pts back of Division leading Melbourne isn't all that bad after all.
 TWHL11 Lee Division Champions!

Congrats to The Horsemen for taking the crown, but it's all been downhill for The Lee Division since their unexpected AST championship, when everyone from the 6 teams were working together. Since then, it's been like that tourny victory was more than enough for Lee Div. players to rest on for the season.

Well, one player that hasn't taken any time off from the battle has been unlikely team scoring leader Brian "Praise The Lord, And Pass The Ammunition" Rolston, who has been, well, miraculous in dishing off the puck to anyone willing to score! If there's ever been a team scoring leader from the blueline, it'd have been one #4, Bobby Orr... but Brian Rolston?

Amazingly, he's transcended the nature of puck movement, setting a new TWHL Record for Assists in a season... did I say 'setting' a record? How about SMASHING THE RECORD!!! His 89 Assists blasted by Vancouver's Scott Gomez' 77 A's (set last season) by 12! Combine that with his 13 G's, and he joins Havana's Chris Pronger and Berlin's Eddie Shore as the 1st blueliners to break 100 Pts, all in the same season!

His 102 Pts total led the team by an incredible 11 Pts over Centre Byron Ritchie's 91. Centre Joe Thornton's 90 Pts, including a team leading 53 G's (6th in the league), was the only player on The 'Phoons to score 80 or more. Does this spell a lack of scoring depth, or an incredible balance of play? Well, only Havana and Berlin scored more GF than Taipei, so we'd like to think the latter.

This will mark the 3rd time in Taipei history that a player has won The Billy Taylor Honour Roll, follow Al Zhamnov and Bobby Orr in TWHL1 and TWHL2 respectively.

But Rolston won't be the only player taking home some hardware, if Rolston wants to look over his should at the keepers behind him.

Mika Noronen assured himself of both The William Jennings Trophy and The Bernie Parent Gold Glove, while fellow cage-dweller Miikka Kiprusoff will be drinking from The Tim Horton Cup, the first time a Taipei goalie will take home the trophy for most Shut-outs in a season!

The team will also receive The Val Fonteyne Medallion, for being the biggest pussies in The TWHL this season, in my books, nothing to write home about:

So, it's on to Round 1, where The Calcutta Mayhem, rookies to post-season play, will come to town and make a go of it!

vs

The season series saw Taipei take control with a 2-1-1 record, ending with a decisive 3-0 Shut-out in their final meeting late in the season that's sure to have The Mayhem doubting themselves...

040. TAIPEI 4, CALCUTTA 2 W

265. TAIPEI 3, CALCUTTA 5 L

709. CALCUTTA 5, TAIPEI 5 T

929. CALCUTTA 0, TAIPEI 3 W

15 GF - 12 GA

Coach Alexander Yakushev used several offensive weapons sparingly over the last few weeks, seemingly resting them up for playoffs duty. Two players in particular that GM Easton traded for late saw little if any action at all, including Alex Kovalev and Jeff Heerema. Rookie sensation Sean Bergenheim looks to have given up a sure fire Calder Cup as he missed the final 20 games of the season for some inexplainable reason, joining Heerema on the sidelines! And Bobby Orr has been lucky to see a regular shift all season long, Yakushev prefering to go with the likes of Dan Focht and Jamie Langenbrunner. But with Focht having just been diagnosed with elbow tendinitis, and expected to miss perhaps the entire 1st round, expect #4 to be back in the top-6 duty.

Calcutta will likely come at The 'Phoons with a top line of LIFE-TIME CALCUTTA MEMBER Mike York Centring former 'Phoons LW John Madden and RW Marcus Nilson, who averaged 43 G's between them! But what doesn't kill them can only make them stronger, someone stupid once said, and The Typhoons players are feeling confident that they'll be alive and kicking in Round 2, where they'll meet the winners between The Melbourne Horsemen and The Tokyo Dragons (oh, and DON'T count these sleeping dragons out of it for one second!).

For The Taipei Typhoons, this is Demi Moore; and Moore is NEVER less!