This year’s Chicago Steel have been called the best USHL team of all time, the “dopest” team in hockey (I sure hope that means something different than the dopiest team in hockey), and have been considered a shoo-in to win the Clark Cup. They have been featured everywhere from Sports Illustrated to NBC to Eliteprospects.
Forgive the Muskegon Lumberjacks if they feel a little left out. After all, they were only nine points behind the Steel, like Chicago, they averaged over five goals a game, and they were nearly .500 against the Steel this season, Chicago posting a 5-4-1 record against the Jacks (technically, Muskegon was 5-5-0 against Chicago, but the Steel had 11 points head-to-head while the Jacks had 10). *thanks to Kevin Kasel for the great stats analysis as always!
Chicago doesn’t always outplay their opponents, they are not a big team or especially physical, and they are prone to slow starts like the one in game one against Dubuque, where they only posted three shots in the first period. But in that game, as with so many this season, the difference was Matt Coronato. He scored the winner late in the second period on his trademark hard, accurate, quick release wrist shot. If that sounds like Joe Sakic, it should. Having watched both at the same age, Coronato reminds me a lot of Sakic at that age.
While Chicago has the league’s top four scorers, Danil Gushchin was the league’s top scorer who did not wear a Steel jersey. He can match Coronato step for step in a short series, so this won’t be easy.
PREDICTION: Because of the odd schedule this year, most of the league never faced Muskegon and have no idea how good they are. But Chicago really is as good as their media clips say. Still, it will take all three games for the Steel to advance, and expect at least one to go to overtime.
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