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
This year's playoff race came down to the very last game, when the Toronto Furies won their fifth straight contest to secure the final berth in a tie-breaker over the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays (the first tie-break was regulation and overtime wins).
Throughout the week, the Calgary Inferno swept the
Only two games were played this past weekend, with Les Canadiennes de Montréal defeating the Toronto Furies and the Calgary Inferno shutting out the Worcester Blades.
