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Sarah Wardell has won the 2015 Lord Stanley's Pool in dominant fashion, leading from the end of round 1 until the final day with a steadily growing lead. Only two points shy of the pool record, Sarah had a near-perfect roster of picks and despite not picking the Cup champion was able to walk to the victory in her first time in the pool. Harper Christie-Allard has finished a solid second while Jessica Thompson jumps into third. Congratulations to the winners and thank you for playing in the pool. See you next year!
Some familiar faces and a few surprises are on this year's Dream Team. See who made it along with the Key to the Pool, who was hot and not in the end, and other final notes and observations in the final pool analysis. Shutout lifts last year's pool champ into third 6/15/2015 11:09:00 PM Jessica Thompson cashed in on Corey Crawford's game six shutout, combined with the bonus for Chicago's Cup win, to jump into third place and a spot on the podium for the second straight year. Jessica won the pool last year with LA's victory in one of the closest finishes in pool history. In both cases she came from outside the top ten after round 3. Chicago Blackhawks close out series in 6 6/15/2015 11:03:00 PM Coach Quenneville named game 4 as the turning point for the Chicago Blackhawks, the first of three straight wins to clinch the Stanley Cup in six games. Their third Cup in six years, the first on home ice, led the commissioner anoint the team a dynasty. I didn't know the commish had that power but one can clearly make the case for it in this 30-team, salary-cap era. Hawks one period away 6/15/2015 9:37:00 PM Leading 1-0 after two periods, the Chicago Blackhawks could win the cup within the hour. If so the top two in the standings will stay as is, but if Corey Crawford gets the shutout, Jessica Thompson would jump from 7th into 3rd place after the Cup bonus. This would knock Dave Spedding off the podium. A single goal from Tampa would lock things for Dave in third - or perhaps set up a game 7... Chicago could win on Monday 6/13/2015 10:55:00 PM A win by Chicago on Monday would clinch their third Cup championship in recent years and secure a pool victory by Sarah Wardell. Sarah would likely finish heartbreakingly close to a pool record for most points, but not pass the 187 mark unless the big guns open up in game 6. Sitting at 182, six points are needed to claim the record since Sarah will not earn the ten-point Cup-winner bonus. A Tampa win to force game 7 would allow an extra game to reach the mark - and it would also keep Harper Christie-Allard's chances alive, who needs two wins by Tampa to win the pool. Can we hear "Game 7"? 6/10/2015 11:49:00 PM Chicago's tying the series at two games apiece means we will go to at least game 6, and possibly game 7. It would likely surprise no one if it went to seven, with all games so far settled by one goal. And so the pool will go down to the wire - the winner of the final game determining the winner of the pool. Still chasing records 6/9/2015 1:12:00 AM Three games into a final where scoring is harder than in the last round, Sarah Wardell has now eclipsed the record for most points in the pool - after the final round but not including the Cup bonus. The previous record 177 was last matched in 2009. But Sarah cannot get the ten point Cup bonus so to break the all-time record of 187, Sarah still needs ten points in the final two-to-four games. Harper Christie-Allard would need nine points plus a Tampa Bay championship to set the new record. |
Halfway through the Stanley Cup Final and we are settled into a near-final leaderboard - with the exception of the Cup winner. If Chicago wins, Sarah Wardell will win the top prize with Harper Christie-Allard second and Dave Spedding third. Dave would be just two points ahead of Sherri Rowe who along with Jessica Thompson look like the only ones who could knock Dave off the third-place perch. If Tampa Bay wins, Harper would win the pool; Sarah would have the edge for second by one point over Dave, with linemates Kucherov (Sarah) and Johnson (Dave) determining that race. Leader still setting the pace 6/6/2015 11:54:00 PM Sarah Wardell continues to set the pace after two games in the final, holding her six-point lead over Harper Christie-Allard while the two of them extended their margin over third-place Dave Spedding by an additional one tonight. Sarah is now two points away from the record high pre-Cup-bonus, though she would need twelve to match the actual record since her Cup pick is already out. Harper still holds a four-point lead in the case of a Tampa Bay win and in that scenario, needs eight points to match the pool record. Master of the 5-save win 6/6/2015 11:45:00 PM 20-year-old Andrej Vasilevskiy became the first goalie since 1928 to win his first playoff game in a relief performance in the Cup final, according to Elias Sports Bureau, an organization just as prone to naming obscure statistics as I am in this pool. But with only five saves and in less then 10 minutes of playing time, he took a win that many in the pool were counting on from Ben Bishop. Game 1 grinds the fun out for pool watchers 6/3/2015 11:08:00 PM A low-scoring game 1 where the few goals scored were done by depth players doesn't make for an exciting pool - especially when we are chasing record highs for points. A 1-0 Tampa win would still have been better as it would have given the top poolies 6 points for a shutout win and tied the pre-Cup-bonus record high 177. Instead, Duncan Keith had a single point and some poolies got one from Corey Crawford, though no one above 16th place collected both. None of the contenders narrowed a gap or extended a lead. Minimum 3 and maximum 6 games to go... Slow start to series, but dramatic finish to game 6/3/2015 11:03:00 PM As if anyone needed further evidence that you should never count out the Chicago Blackhawks, we example #71, yet another late-third-period come-from-behind victory. Finally breaking Tampa Bay's defensive wall to tie the game with six minutes left and then winning it two minutes later, the Hawks take a crucial 1-0 lead. Comments, questions, suggestions? E-mail Mitch.
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