Inferno vs Furies playoff preview

The 2019 Clarkson Cup playoffs begin tonight with the Markham Thunder hoping for another series win against Les Canadiennes and the Calgary Inferno defending their first place title against the Toronto Furies.

The first place Calgary Inferno (23-4-0-1, 47 points) will host the fourth place Toronto Furies (14-14-0-0, 28 points) at WinSport. The Inferno finished their season on a high note, winning all three games in their China series while the Furies went on to win five straight and barely make the playoffs in their final game of the season, eliminating the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays.

The Inferno and Furies begin their battle tonight at 8 p.m. MT. They’ll play again on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. MT and Sunday if necessary at 12 p.m.

The Inferno won four of the six games in their series during the regular season. While it’s clear they’re the superior team, the Furies beat them 3-0 in their final meeting and went on later to win five straight.

Although we won’t know until game time, we can expect Alex Rigsby to get the nod between the pipes for at least Friday and Saturday’s games. She went 14-2-1 with a 0.916 SV%.

Rebecca Johnston finished third in the scoring race with 39 points, a career high for her. She has also played on a line with Brianna Decker and Zoe Hickel for the majority of the season, finding chemistry quickly with her new American teammates. She finished with three goals and seven assists against the Furies this season, the highest on the team.

The Blayre Turnbull, Venla Hovi, and Kaitlin Willoughby line is somewhat of the shutdown line, so they’ll most likely be out on the ice every time the Natalie Spooner line is on the ice.

Both Furies goaltenders have played about 50/50 of the season. Elaine Chuli recorded a shutout in the final meeting. She did get pulled in the second period in the Inferno’s 6-0 win over them in December when she allowed five goals on 26 shots.

The leading scorers were Spooner and Sarah Nurse, each recording 26 points. Spooner led all Furies skaters in their series against Calgary as she had three goals and six assists in those six games.

Tickets can be found here.