Minnesota Gazette
Pattrick Rode: Beat wirter for the Dockheads:

In Caden Boteler's debut game as a Dockhead, the team faced off against the  Orcas. The first period kicked off with an early goal by the Dockheads'A.C. Westren assisted by  Brantley Langevin assisted by Timothy Pham, giving them an early lead. However, the Orcas quickly responded with a goal from Keegan Ramkema, assisted by Karter Larocque and Jamal Gratton, evening the score. The period concluded without any penalties.

Moving into the second period, the Dockheads regained the lead with Langevin netting his second goal of the game, assisted by Eric Picklyk and Rawley Boney. Yet again, Ramkema of the Orcas swiftly countered with his second goal, assisted by Reeti Tiitinen and Justice Wang. Just before the period ended, Mikko-Matti Forsblad of the Orcas scored, assisted by Aston Critchley and Reko Hongell. 

 As the third period unfolded, the Orcas sealed their victory with an empty-net goal from Aston Critchley, assisted by Forsblad, securing a win with a final score of 4-2. Goalie stats revealed Mangjeol Su-Cheol of the Orcas as the standout performer, making 36 saves out of 38 shots, while Caden Boteler, in his debut, made 18 saves out of 21 shots for the Dockheads. The three stars of the game were awarded to Orcas players Keegan Ramkema, Mikko-Matti Forsblad, and Mangjeol Su-Cheol.

Today's games will be run first thing Sunday morning.  As I previoulsy mentioned I will be at a wedding today so I can't sim.   

Game 4 will run early Sunday so please get your lines in on schedule tonight.  

Game 5 will run Monday around the normal time. 

After this disruption we will run playoff games 7 days a week straight through until they are complete.  The sim handles rest days in between so we don't need the off day each week.  

Both Pro and Farm league playoffs begin today.  Good luck to everyone involved.  Please get your lines set. 

The regular season has concluded, year 1 is in the books.  

The playoffs will begin tomorrow Wednesday August 30.  

Both pro and farm brackets will run on this schedule.  Please make sure you have your teams lines ready to go.  

The Portland Twisters are 2 points ahead of the Bandits for the North West divison and 8 in front of the Samurai. Only 2 points behind the Chaos for a bye in the first round. Looking at my shecdule for the final 13 games for the Twisters, they only play a playoff team 5 times, which will be crucial to beat out the Bandits. In the Bandits final 13 games they play a playoff team 12 times. Those games will be some tough games for the Bandits to win and the Twisters should pull away with the division. The Bandits and Twisters play each other 3 times in the last 13. In the season series the Twister have the slight advantage of 3-1-1 outscoring them 19-16. This indicates that the Twisters should win at least 2 out of the 3 games. 

Taking a look at the trades that the Twisters made. The first one was Osma Gullfors for Jake Corbin, Gullfors has 4 points in 4 games, Corbin has 2 points in 2 games. Gm Boston had this to say '' Gullfors is a good player but didn't fit the win now mode that we are trying to accomplish here in Portland.'' Here is his comments on accquring Corbin ''He felt the win now mode and has a good resume on the season''. The second trade that the Gm made was accquring Reed Chubak and the High Rollers fourth rounder for Zackary Nowry. The comments from the Gm on the trade '' Nowry had a great season but struggled a bit with us and looking into the future he is 35 and a free agent this year asking for 2 million for 3 years and we didnt want to lose him for nothing. So we traded him to the Bandits for a good prospect''. Taking a look on how Norwy is performing for the Bandits, he has 10 points in 4 games. Looking at Chubuk, Chubak is coming back for a leg injury and is set to suit up for the vipers in the next game. Here is what the Gm said '' Chubak is set to come back tomorrow and except him to perform well for us''. 

Looking at the offseason for the Twisters, they have 3 important players to re-sign, and I can comfirm that they will try to sign all of them and we be very active in the free agent market. Looking at the draft picks the Twister traded their first and third round picks in trades and have a second, 2 fourth rounders, fifth rounder. Here is what the Gm said about the offseason '' The Twisters are very excited for the offseason and can't wait to draft, I have had some scouts looking for good prospects and they have found tons which is great news to hear. Talking about the free agents I hope we can come to a team friendly agreement with those players and think they will have a big impact on your future in Portland''. The Twisters have a very exciting team with having 3 of the top 6 scorers and have a should be very good team for years to come. 

Reporter Patches O'Houlihan