Omaha, NE

By Vile Love It

On paper, the final game of Friday between 4 Seed Montreal Roller Derby (#16) and 5 Seed Windy City Rollers (#20) looked like it was going to be a close game but Montreal took a solid win to advance to the semifinals.

Photo by Ryan Quick

Going into WFTDA Playoffs the teams were separated by only 39.08 ranking points (as of 6/30/15 rankings). They were close in rankings (16th and 20th) and next to each other in tournament seeding (4th and 5th). Looking at those statistics it was easy to predict a close game. However, the teams just played each other in June, when Montreal trounced Windy City 303-97.

Windy City lost several key players after the 2014 Championships including Jackie Daniels, Varla Vendetta and KonichiWow (who transferred to Montreal). It clearly affected their season. Windy lost to Minnesota Roller Girls for the first time (78-283) and their only win was over Mad Rollin Dolls Roller Derby #35 (200-193).

Montreal had a winning season but they played teams that were not quite as highly ranked (other than Windy City & Boston). They won over Stockholm Roller Derby, bracket-mate Boston Derby Dames #23, and Nashville Rollergirls #43, among others.

Photo by Wes Bailey

Early on in the game the teams traded power jams, but in a prediction of much of what was to come, Montreal capitalized on their power jams while Windy’s jammers got stuck in the ever-swarming Montreal wall.

It took Windy City 8 minutes to get on the scoreboard when Zoe Trocious squeaked out 1 point in a jam. It took several more minutes, a 4-2 pack advantage and lead jam for Windy to add to that score. All the while, Montreal’s jammers dodged and hopped through the Windy defense to gather 75 points.

During another power jam, despite Montreal’s seemingly endless recycling, Windy’s Jan Trainor gathered up 10 more points.

Windy didn’t relent and kept chipping away at Montreal’s lead when they could take the advantage. At the half Montreal held a significant lead: 137-28.

Early in the second period Windy’s Killa Nois pulled out 16 points in a jam (though her Montreal counterpart, Swing La Bacaisse earned 22) and it seemed like Windy might catch some wind in their scoring sails. But Montreal foiled that plan and with the same significant pack and lead jam control they showed in the first period, shutting down Windy’s scoring ability in all but four more jams during the second period.

The penalty board was also in Montreal’s favor. Windy caught 38 penalties (12 of them jammer penalties) to Montreal’s 29 (9 jammer penalties; and only 1 in the second period). Montreal controlled lead jam status (27 to 9) and with that were able to shut down Windy City jam after jam.

Montreal moves on to play Gotham Girls Roller Derby on Saturday at 2 p.m. (CDT) and Windy City will play No Coast at 12 p.m. (CDT).

FINAL SCORE

Montreal Roller Derby (#4) 288
Windy City Rollers (#5) 67