Omaha, NE

By Vile Love It

The 6 Seed Boston Derby Dames (#23) held tight to their lead throughout 60 minutes of derby to earn the right to play for fifth place in the consolation bracket, winning over 7 Seed Helsinki Roller Derby (#25).

Photo by Steve Jurkovic

Helsinki’s path to Saturday’s game went through 10 Seed No Coast Derby Girls – winning in the last jam of their first game – and 2 Seed Angel City Derby Girls. They fell to Angel City 434-58. Meanwhile Boston played 3 Seed Minnesota RollerGirls (#12) in their first game of the weekend, losing 201-112, and then taking a win over 8 Seed Toronto Roller Derby Saturday morning.

The last time the Helsinki and Boston met was just this past May at The Big O tournament, where Boston slipped through for a 12-point win. Helsinki was looking for payback and at times was able to come oh-so-close to Boston, but penalties weighed on their ability to create the scoring advantage and Boston was able to sweep through for the win.

Photo by Donna Olmstead

The biggest difference in the statistics was in penalties. Helsinki had 5 more jammer penalties than Boston and 15 more total penalties. The teams were close in lead jam status: Boston 25, Helsinki 20.

Helsinki was able to thwart Boston’s jammers when they had at least 3 blockers on the track, as was Boston with Helsinki’s jammers. But send two blockers to the box and suddenly there are holes aplenty for the flee- footed jammers and the points rack up on the board.

This was much of the story of the first period. Helsinki’s jammer penalties gave Boston the advantage and they were able to run with it. Boston was also able to limit the damage of Helsinki’s power jams. Helsinki’s walls weren’t quite as tight and Boston’s, for the most part, and Helsinki’s jammers were not as able to navigate Boston’s walls.

About halfway through the first period Helsinki was able to begin to turn the tide in their favor. They pulled their walls together and their jammers were able to start finding the cracks in Boston’s walls and were able to keep Boston scoreless through 8 jams to come to within 7 points.

A 15-point power jam in Boston’s favor and another 13-point jam helped Boston head into the halftime locker rooms with a 27-point lead.

Helsinki had no hesitancy during the second period. Jammers Taru Saxelin and Varpu Knuuttila piled on the points as their blockers fine-tuned their braced walls and more regularly held onto Boston’s jammers.

Helsinki scored more points in the second period (83 to Boston’s 78) but it wasn’t enough.

Boston’s Ginger Kid and Space Invader were able to capitalize on their power jams and put enough points up to keep their team’s lead and a flurry of points won by Helsinki in the last few jams couldn’t pull them out of the deficit.

Boston will move on to play the winner of the Queen City Roller Girls and No Coast Derby Girls game in the 5th Place game. Helsinki will play the loser of the Queen City/No Coast game in the 7th Place game.

FINAL SCORE

Helsinki Roller Derby (#7) 165
Boston Derby Dames (#6) 187