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Tumba Wolves - Chicago Crusaders 4-1

It took the Chicago Crusaders two games to understand what playoff hockey means.

Heading into the series as underdogs, the Crusaders seemed anything but ready and second seeded Tumba Wolves did not show any sympathy. A 3-0 shutout victory in the opening game was followed by a 7-2 wash in game 2.

Crusaders' coach Kevin Dineen realized he needed to shore up his defense to avoid an embarrassing early exit. The tactical changes proved successful but were too late.

In a much more balanced contest, the Wolves had to swallow first defeat in game 3, thanks to a pair of third period goals by Mats Zuccarello and Marek Kvapil. Boosted by the success, Dineen continued to apply his defense first-approach. Despite being limited to just 18 shots, the Crusaders were able to throw sand in the Wolves' offensive machine.

A third period Elias Pettersson power play goal, his fifth of the series, was the tie breaker in game 4 and earned the Wolves an opportunity to clinch the series on home ice.

Alhough the Were Arena was rocking, the Wolves looked nervous in game 5.

Magnus Paajarvi broke a scoreless tie, midway the third period when he let go a quick wrister that Devon Dubnyk never saw coming. The Crusaders did not capitalize and tied the game three minutes later when Patrick Hornqvist scored a trademark goal in front of the net.

Trying to avoid overtime, the Wolves turned up their game a notch forcing the Crusaders to take penalties to keep their opponents at bay. With overtime looming it was Ryan O'Reilly who reacted quickest to a loose puck on front of the net to tip in the 2-1 less than a minute left in the game.

The Wolves, who did not want to give any media comments whilst still in contention for the UHL Trophy, can now book themselves a trip to Stuttgart where they will square off with the local Bisons.

Tilburg Trappers - Mulheim Mustangs 4-2

No matter what their seeding is, the Mulheim Mustangs will always be considered a favourite for winning silverware.

GM Zerwas: "Looking back on what we have done in the past, I think the expectations are coming from our success and what we have earned. So I am happy about that and I actually want that. It means we did a lot of things right. And success is never a burden, it is fun"

No difference this year, as the Mustangs rebounded from a dismal regular season start to be red hot finishing 4th in the World Conference. Not surprisingly therefore the Mustangs entered their series against the Tilburg Trappers with confidence.

They were not alone in that.

Trappers' netminder Jordan Binnington came off a stellar rookie season and he continued to ride his confidence cloud and almost single handedly stunned the Mustangs. He backstopped the Trappers to a 3-1 victory in game one, saving 31 shots. The Mustangs took a second period lead thanks to Josh Archibald but Trappers rebounded with three unanswered goals including a pair by Vladislav Namestnikov.

Unsatisfactory with his performance, Mustangs GM Zerwas decided to replace Jusso Saros with Andrei Vasilevski in game 2, but the goalie change did not make any difference as the Trappers ran away comfortable 4-1 win.

Trailing 2-0 in the series, the Mustangs decided to change their offensive strategy which did make significant changes as the team was peppering the Trappers' net all game long. The Trappers top lines were unable to create any offense and were not able to tame the offensive offense Mulheim was deploying. A Mustangs vs Binnington game enfolded, with the netminder turning aside 47 shots.

Whilst the Trappers' goaltender was doing his work with aplomb on one end of the ice, it were the unsung heroes who came up huge in game 3 for the Dutchmen. Ryan Hartman and Andrew Poturalski scored first period goals while Pat Maroon cancelled out a Brett Burns goal to restore the two-goal lead.

Despite a surprising 3-0 series lead, the Trappers were concerned with the loss of Tony DeAngelo due to injury. The defenseman has been instrumental for the Trappers this season and his absence caused some significant challenges in the Trappers back office.

It took the Trappers time to get accustomed to the new defensive line-up and the Mustangs took full advantage. Flirting with elimination, the Germans were relentless and chased Binnington all night long, scoring 5 times bringing the rookie goaltender back on earth.

The trend continues in game 6, where the Mustangs's two first goals were sufficient to claim a 2-1 victory and the series still very much alive.,

GM Loonen realized something had to change in order to thwart a massive Mustangs' series comeback.

He recalled Cody Fransson and Christian Folin from farm team Bastards (who were still active in their own playoff series) in an effort to boost their defensive awareness. The strengthened defensive lineup brought back the much needed stability. Binnington returned to his early series level, notching 40 saves and the Mustangs were limited to just a single goal.

Paul Stastny and Craig Smith erased a first period deficit en route to a 2-1 victory eliminating the mighty Mustangs.

Zerwas was clearly disappointed but also realistic.

"Losing the two games at home to start the series was the key to losing. We just played bad. Normally the D is our strength but it was not in the first 3 games", he concluded. "After that the defense put it together but beside 1 game our offense never got going in this series. So if our defense would have played as good in the first 3 games as in the last 3 games, we could still have won that. But overall our offense did not show up at all. Just 1 game with more than 2 goals? you rarely win a series if you don't score more than 2 goals a game."

The Trappers' will hope to see Tony DeAngelo return in the series against the Crusaders and Binnington to remain on top of his game.

For the Mustangs, the prolonged off season is somewhat of a rare phenomena. Zerwas tries to used the extended time to his advantage in order to prepare his squad for next season.

"As always we will try to build a contender again. We are basically never rebuilding. So we will be aggressive on the FA market and on the trade front. WE want another shout at "our" cup, he joked before stepping into the team bus.

The Mustangs will never be shy off confidence.

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