Des Moines, IA

Holy major penalties, fans. Game 1 between Tallahassee Rollergirls (ranked #58, seed #8) and Dallas Derby Devils (ranked #64, seed #9) was the second game of the day, but it delivered more major penalties than the fans even thought possible.

Between the two teams, skaters accrued more than 100 penalties over the course of the bout. The Dallas Derby Devils came out victorious with a final score of 267-249 and a chance to move on to play in Game 5 against the D2 #1 seed, the Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls (#43, seed #1) at 6:00 on Friday night.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

The first half showed Dallas in the lead for points with Tallahassee in the lead for penalty minutes. In fact, many of Dallas’s points during the half came from the pack advantage that they regularly had over Tallahassee’s penalty-heavy blockers. Despite the slim packs, Dallas never truly opened a substantial gap to pull away from their rivals. The first half ended with Dallas in the lead at 187 and Tallahassee still within striking distance at 104.

Dallas ultimately upset the #8 seed Tallahassee, but it sure wasn’t pretty. With nearly an equal number of power jams and penalty kills, Tallahassee was able to claw back to make a win seem possible. The points skyrocketed after the first whistle of the second half. Within the first three minutes, Dallas had scored 48 points, and Tallahassee an impressive 79. From those first minutes of the second period, Tallahassee mounted a strong comeback, holding Dallas to a mere 32 points for the remainder of the period, while jammers from Florida scored another 63 points. The minutes ran out as Tallahassee tried for a comeback, but Dallas rolled away with the win.

Results

(9) Dallas Derby Devils 267
(8) Tallahassee Rollergirls 249

Dallas advanced to play Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls in Game 5; Tallahassee went on to play Duke City Roller Derby in Game 8.