Seen from a distance, it might have seemed inevitable that the Calgary Inferno would win the Clarkson Cup this season. A league-high nine of their players are 2018 Olympians, and another four have played for their national team this year. They captured the Chairman's Trophy as regular season champions with
For the third time in four seasons, the Calgary Inferno and Les Canadiennes de Montréal will face off for the Clarkson Cup. The Inferno won in 2016 while Montreal came out on top in 2017; in both of those meetings, it was the second-seed underdog side that claimed the championship.
For the first time since the current playoff format was introduced in 2015-16, both semifinal series went to three games this year.
The fourth-seed Toronto Furies upset the league-leading Calgary Inferno in Game 1 on Friday, before the Inferno pulled away with two consecutive wins. For their part, Les Canadiennes
With all four Canadian teams on a break during the Four Nations Cup, the Worcester Blades travelled to China to face the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays in a three-game series. (The Markham Thunder have already played two of their three games in Shenzhen as well, but those will be covered
