2017 D1 Playoffs Malmö Game 10: Detroit vs. Terminal City
Crime City Rollers (#4) vs. Helsinki Roller Derby (#5)
Game 10 of Day 2 at 2017 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Malmö featured WFTDA founding members Detroit Roller Derby of Detroit, Michigan, U.S. (#8, WFTDA #22) skating against the Terminal City Rollergirls of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (#10, WFTDA #32). In their shared six years of membership in WFTDA (from Terminal City’s membership in 2011), the two teams have never played each other; it took a trip across the Atlantic to bring them together. The game was each team’s final opportunity to skate at the tournament, after both suffered a loss earlier in play. Detroit finished their play with a win over Terminal City, despite the Vancouver team’s strong play in the second half; the final score was 257–181.
With an aggressive start from Detroit, blockers Oi! Rish and Terror Ettes, dominated the pack and held Terminal City jammers Maiden Sane and Arya Ready in the opening jams, allowing jammers Sarah Hipel and Racer McChaseHer to quickly take advantage on the scoreboard. Racer McChaseHer picked up a forearm penalty at the end of her jam, as she was signaling the call off, which put Terminal City on a power start and power jam. La Zole took the jammer line, picked up a quick seven points, and put Terminal City on the board. After being blanked, Jilleanne Rookard, former Olympic speed skater, took the opportunity to open the point spread in the next jam for Detroit. The team suffered some serious losses to the penalty box, at which point Rookard took the opportunity run the clock to empty the box; she picked up 27 points, but a star pass from Terminal City jammer Bazinga to Scarlett Bloodbath resulted in 20 points to Terminal City. With 7:00 minutes expired in the period, Detroit held a 13-point lead, 40–27.
For the next few jams, Detroit continued to see blockers rotate in and out of the penalty box, during which time Detroit blocker McDonald denied Terminal City jammers from scoring. As a result of her efforts, Detroit outscored Vancouver by a narrow margin. Both teams then shared jammer penalties, Swift Justice for Detroit going to the penalty box for blocking out of bounds, while Mulan Bruise picked up a cut track forced by Oi! Rish. The jam went for two full minutes, and Terminal City came out on top, scoring 11 to Detroit’s three. After that jam win for Terminal City, Detroit sent jammers Racer McChaseHer, Sarah Hipel and Swift Justice to the line; the jammer-blocker combination on the track for the next five jams resulted in a 50–4 scoring run in favor of the skaters from Michigan.
An official timeout with 8:03 minutes on the period clock to check the track gave Terminal City a chance to reassess; the team fielded Maiden Sane who picked up lead jammer and nine points. After Maiden’s gain, Detroit still held a solid lead over Terminal City, 108–53. The final jams of the period saw small point gains for both teams until the final jam of the period when both jammers, Detroit’s Jilleanne Rookard and Terminal City’s Arya Ready, picked up penalties, forcing the jam to a full two minutes. With an impressive apex jump from Rookard, Detroit came out on top with 17 points to Terminal City’s 14, and the half came to a close with Detroit ahead by 67 points, 143–76.
In what looked like a Detroit dominated second period, Racer McChaseHer scored 19 unanswered points early on as jammer La Zole left the track for back-to-back penalties. Terminal City captain Griffith rallied her blockers Scarlett Bloodbath and Skatepark to hold Detroit pivot-cum-jammer Feta Sleeze in the pack. During Feta Sleeze’s first jam of the game, she was held to four points, while Terminal City’s Maiden Sane picked up 19. This 15 point-spread was preceded by a 14–3 jam in favor of Terminal City’s Mulan Bruise. Terminal City narrowed the spread with 20:46 left in the game to 109–173.
Terminal City’s blocker Smokie accrued two back-to-back penalties and was ejected with 17:30 left in the game; she fouled out with eight penalties due to an insubordination tacked on to her final penalty. Terminal City took a timeout in the following jam with 16:36 remaining, but the timeout was not called by either the captain or the assistant, which resulted in a delay of game penalty being given to captain Griffith. The kerfuffle during those three jams resulted in a win for Detroit, as the team picked up 24 points to Terminal City’s 12.
After Detroit’s run on the scoreboard, Terminal City responded by attempting some jammer fakeouts. The Vancouver team fielded two jammers at the start of two jams, only to quickly pull one prior to the start of the jam. The minute confusion resulted in two consecutive lead jammer statuses being awarded to Terminal City jammers Maiden Sane and Bazinga. Terminal City continued to lead point scoring over Detroit, and the team went on a 33–21 scoring run until the penultimate jam. Racer McChaseHer grabbed 10 points, blanking Arya Ready as she went to the penalty box for a forearm call. The final jam of the game pitted Detroit veteran Sarah Hipel against Terminal City’s Maiden Sane. Hipel got lead quickly as Maiden Sane got stuck behind the Detroit blockers. Maiden Sane passed the star to Scarlett Bloodbath, Bloodbath’s fourth time to take the star during the game. Hipel chose to run the clock down, sharing passes and points with Bloodbath. The game ended with Detroit ahead by 76 points over Terminal City; the final score was 257–181.
FINAL SCORE
Detroit Roller Derby (Seed #8, WFTDA #22) 257
Terminal City Rollergirls (Seed #10, WFTDA #32) 181
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