Expat Sport
Best SHL season culminates with Novotel Championship Photography by Tadamasa Nagayama
T
he 2019-2020 Sport Corner Siam Hockey League capped off what was the most exciting season yet with a drama filled playoffs and championship. Peak Biolabs and Novotel earned the right to play for the championship by winning their respective semifinal series. In the first playoff series, Novotel took out Hertz in a two-game sweep after Hertz earned the right to select their first round opponent by finishing first in the final regular season standings. Novotel took their selection as strong motivation to prove Hertz made a mistake by picking them, as Novotel had finished third in the standings ahead of Aware.
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Both semifinal games of the series saw Novotel take control of the game, and when Novotel was able to get a few pucks past Hertz goalie Lance Parker, Novotel netminder Leo Liao shut the door and proved why he was the best goalie in the league all season. In the other semifinal series, Aware and Peak played the closest playoff series in the four seasons of the SHL. The two teams split the first two games with Aware winning game one and Peak game two, with both games only being decided in the final two minutes. The third and final game was a back and forth affair with Peak pulling it
