This Saturday night at the Midwest Hockey Complex at Queeny Park the St. Louis GateKeepers will crown the 4th Turf War Champion and it will be the first time ever that a team captures its second title!

The South Grand Slammers come into the bout as heavy favorites having gone undefeated in the regular season. Their 4 - 0 record includes two wins over the challenging Crimes. The season opener back on December 14th saw the Slammers beat the Crimes by a score of 189 - 94. Then, on March 22nd the Slammers pummeled the Crimes 246 - 56. So you may be thinking “well this is going to be a blowout”. That is unlikely however as only one team has managed to go undefeated throughout the regular season and then win the championship. That was the 2012 Dogtown Rockets. That Slammers look to complete the perfect run on the backs of their stellar blocking contingent anchored by Neil Death Experience, Kyle Stark, Double Excel and Percy Controll. The only question is what will the jammer rotation be? The Slammers have done well this season with a “jammer by committee” system that has seen them use six different jammers as the season has progressed. Regulars like Handrail and Gnat King Kill have been joined by D Mouthful, Indecent Exposure, Jagged Little Will and Spin Diesel. It will be interesting to see what rotation the Slammers come out of the gate with.

The Crimes may come into the bout as underdogs, but they are also defending Turf War Champions. This season has been a rough one and they needed some help again to get into the Championship bout, but there are many similarities this season to their Cinderella run last year. Last year, the two victories that propelled the Crimes into the Championship bout against the Rockets came at the expense of the South Grand Slammers. The Crimes look to be the blemish on an otherwise perfect Slammer season and they certainly have the talent to do it. A solid blocking contingent led by Bled Zepplin, The Saint and Skulls McCrackin will give anyone headaches and the Crimes are always a major threat when Debaucherous Prime dons the star. Screech Around has established himself as a solid jammer and Oodles of Brutal has developed over the course of the season as a nice change of pace jammer in the third slot. The wild card will be New York transfer Bane-ana (on Skates!). He has played well this season and will likely get even better as he has now had time to get familiar with his new teammates.

This is going to be a wild one ladies and gentlemen! No doubt about that.

See you at the bouts!

Star-Spangled Hammer

(Star-Spangled Hammer is the announcer for the St. Louis GateKeepers)

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