2017 D1 Playoffs Seattle Game 3: Montréal vs. Charlottesville

Montréal Roller Derby (#5) vs. Charlottesville Derby Dames (#12)

Game 3 of the 2017 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Seattle showed Montréal Roller Derby’s New Skids on the Block of Montréal, Québec, Canada (Seed #5, WFTDA #14) fiercely defending their higher seed in a blowout against the Charlottesville Derby Dames’ Charlottesville All Stars of Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. (Seed #12, WFTDA #39).

Before the game, Montréal’s Miracle Whips wrote, “Today, we remember our 2016 performance with the fresh perspective of a full season of progress. Today, we will come together again and push our limits. Today and again, we will do some beautiful roller derby.”

True to her word, Miracle Whips grabbed the first lead jammer status and set the tone of the game by scoring 5 unanswered points. But Falcon Punch picked up a back block penalty in the following jam, giving Charlottesville’s Stonewallup an opportunity to get on the board. She put up 13 points to Montréal’s eight, but Montréal was still leading 17-13. The Honey Badger also found herself in some penalty trouble when she received the second jammer penalty in three jams for Montréal, this time due to a track cut. Charlottesville’s Boom! ShakeTheRoom took the opportunity to deliver a lead change, but it would end up being Charlottesville’s only lead of the game as it was quickly taken back by the New Skids. Even when Machete from Charlottesville next earned lead jammer status, the team struggled to maintain momentum as a track cut penalty against Machete gave Mel E Juana an opportunity to secure Montréal’s lead 52-38.

Through multiple blocker penalties, Montréal was still able to dominate. Blocker Labrosse already had 4 penalties and pivot Mange Moi El Cul was sitting at 3 penalties for the Montréal bench with 13 minutes left to go in the first half, but huge scoring jams from Falcon Punch, The Honey Badger, and Mel E Juana kept the score heavily weighing in favor of the New Skids.

After Jam 11, Montréal had secured a lead of over 2:1 with The Honey Badger scoring 35 points, and Charlottesville having passed the star four times, including two while they had lead jammer. Charlottesville was able to outscore 11-5 in one jam, but Montréal still kept 2:1 the lead ratio, with The Honey Badger leading the board with 68 of those points. After the sixteenth jam, Montréal secured a lead of over 100 points, 181-79, and kept Charlottesville scoreless for six jams. They only continued to pull ahead from there, skating into halftime with a 235-84 advantage.

The beginning of the second period looked like a repeat of the first, except that this time around, Montréal jammers stayed out of the penalty box and held onto their momentum. After the third jam of the second period, The Honey Badger had scored a total of 118 points in just six appearances in the game. While Charlotteville jammers appeared to be growing increasingly exhausted by relentless defense and recycling from the New Skids blockers, Montréal jammers continued to charge ahead, consistently lapping the pack multiple times per jam and quickly adding dozens of points to the board, which soon increased their advantage to a 200-point lead. Even when Charlottesville was able to earn lead jammer in the second half, they would struggle to capitalize, even being outscored by Montréal in those jams.

With 5 minutes remaining in the game, the New Skids were leading 439-144, having increased their scoring ratio to 3:1. After a 34-0 jam by Miracle Whips, Charlottesville was left no choice but to call a timeout and force a final jam in an effort to earn more points and help their rankings. But Falcon Punch denied this opportunity to Charlottesville by quickly earning lead jammer and calling off the jam after adding four more points to the board.

The final score of 486-144 seems consistent with the 45.7 percent of Derby on Toast users’ current prediction that Montréal will finish the weekend between first and fourth place.

The Charlottesville All-Stars, making a return to Division 1 after succeeding in the 2016 International WFTDA Division 2 Champs will continue in the consolation bracket to take on the loser of Game 6 tonight between the Jacksonville Rollergirls (Seed #3) and Rat City Rollergirls (Seed #6).

Montréal Roller Derby will take on the Bay Area All Stars from Bay Area Derby of Oakland, California, U.S. — whom they beat in their first game in the 2016 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Montréal with an upset of 178 to 166 — during the first game of the Day 2 of the tournament, tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT.

FINAL SCORE

Montréal Roller Derby (Seed #5, WFTDA #14) 486
Charlottesville Derby Dames (Seed #12, WFTDA #39) 144

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