2017 | nhl95championship

New World #1 as Bell defends title

Shawn Bell, front left, took on Colin, front right, in the finals while the hordes looked on.

With 14 competitors, ugly t-shirts, a new banner and a new location in Waterloo, the 2017 tournament was the biggest and best yet. Colin came in looking to avenge his loss in 2016, and four newcomers tried to make their mark. In the end the defending champ Shawn Bell retained his title, and a brand-new third place winner shocked everyone.

Round Robin

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Pool A was a shocker right from early on. The defending champ Shawn Bell lost to Stefan Todoroff in game two of the round robin, turning the bracket on its head. And newcomer Mike Optis quickly established himself as a contender, winning against Brent Kaesler.

When Mike Optis also beat Shawn Bell in the round robin, it was looking like a disaster tournament for the defending champ. That settled the top of the bracket, with Stefan taking the top spot at 6-0, Mike in second at 5-1, and Shawn in third at 4-2.

In the end, despite very close results amongst the bottom four teams in the pool, Brent ended up clinching the final quarterfinal spot while Myles Dunn finished 5th, earning the bye in the consolation round, newcomer Namish Modi finished 6th and Chris Collins took the bottom spot.

Pool B went as expected at the top, with Colin sweeping to a 6-0 record to take the top spot, Sean Collins going 5-1 to finish second, and Jame Wuergler finishing 4-2 to take the third spot.

That left only one place in the quarterfinals, and the other four members of Pool A did their best to make it as close as possible.

In the end Jon Johnson, Jon Niemi and Ian Lawrence finished the round robin tied in points for the final spot in the quarters. By way of plus-minus, Jon Johnson took the fourth spot, while Ian Lawrence got 5th (and the bye in the consolation round) and Jon Niemi finished 6th in the pool. Dasri Naimji brought up the last spot, with only one tie throughout the round robin in his first ever NHL 95 action.

Championship Round

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The quarterfinals came and went in a flash. Stefan Todoroff beat Jon Johnson 2 - 0, although the scores were closer than anyone expected. Colin destroyed Brent Kaesler, running up the score and dominating from the get go. Shawn Bell made quick work of Sean Collins, getting back on track after a tough round robin. The only quarterfinal matchup to go the distance was Mike Optis vs James Wuergler. After James won game one in OT, the newcomer Mike took games two and three to move onto his first ever semi-finals.

In the Semis it was Stefan vs Shawn, a rematch of the round robin game that Stefan won. The semis were a different story, however, as Shawn dominated from game one on and destroyed Stefan 3 games to zero.

The other semi final was just as quick, as Colin continued his undefeated tournament by beating Mike Optis three games to zero.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Sean Collins beat Jon Johnson two games straight and James Wuergler swept Brent Kaesler. Sean then beat James two games straight to take the 5th place title, while Brent beat Jon Johnson to finish in 7th.

Medal Matchups

The finals was the classic matchup that everyone was waiting for. In corner #1, Colin came into the finals with four championships to his name and an undefeated run through the round robin, quarterfinals and semifinals. In the other corner, Shawn Bell came in as the defending champ, with two titles to his name but having suffered two losses in the round robin.

The two sides matched teams all series, saw three games go to overtime, and met everyone's expectations for a close fight.

In the end, Shawn won game one in OT, Colin took game two in OT, Shawn came back with an OT win in game three and then Shawn finished the series off in game four with a convincing win.

The third-place game was supposed to be a romp, with perennial challenger Stefan Todoroff taking on the new upstart Mike Optis.

There was not a person in the room betting that Mike could win the series, especially given that Stefan had handled him easily in the round robin.

But Mike had other ideas, taking game one in convincing fashion.

Game two was over just as quick, as once again Stefan could not figure out the newcomer's attack

In game three Mike finished off the upset, completing the sweep and taking the third place medal.

Namish Modi (right) celebrates his Not Last medal that he won in a close 2-1 series over Chris Collins

The Consolation side of the bracket took over the basement room, with some very tight games that showed how tight the bottom of the rankings is. In the first round, with Ian Lawrence and Myles Dunn waiting after getting the byes, Jon Niemi faced off against Namish Modi and Dasri Naimji played Chris Collins. Jon made quick work of the newcomer Namish, winning two straight. On the other series, Chris won game one but Dasri stormed back to take games two and three and move on.

In the semi finals, Jon Niemi matched up against Myles in a must watch battle. It was close all series but in the end Jon took the series two games to one.

The other semi finals saw Ian Lawrence sweep Dasri Naimji in two straight games.

The Nineth place finals was a nail biter, with Ian Lawrence trying to complete his most succesful tournament ever and Jon Niemi trying to show that his 8th place finish in 2016 was no fluke. In the end it was Jon Niemi coming out on top with a tight 2-1 series win.

Dasri and Myles were set to face off for 11th place, but Myles was passed out and so Dasri finished his first ever tournament in 11th place.

In the Not-Last finals, Chris Collins won game one over Namish Modi but Namish came back to win games two and three to take the medal.

Top three (from left to right): Shawn Bell, Colin, Mike Optis.