The 2024 Valorian Hockey Season, stylized VHL 2024, is the forty-seventh and current running of the Valorian Hockey League and Coupe Balbuzard competitions, held from October 2023 to July 2024.
The Boston Spirits are defending league champions and Earle Trophy winners. The Spirits secured their 25th Earle Trophy and 50th trophy overall on the last matchday of the league, beating out the Mainers and Halifax Hockey Club.
The Newfoundland Sailors are reigning Coupe Balbuzard champions, having won the last two editions. They will host the 2024 Coupe Balbuzard finals at Kaufman Arena.
2024 is the first VHL season to promote the top eight teams to the playoffs, rather than the traditional four. This led to an extended playoffs tournament, with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and a finals series.
League
Heading into the season, the defending champions and Earle Trophy winners Boston were considered favorites to defend both titles, with the Carlos Ortega-led Mainers considered to be their strongest challengers. Three matchdays into the season, Charlottetown emerged as the surprise league leaders, as the only undefeated team remaining. They were quickly surpassed by the Spirits and the Doves, although both were surpassed by Halifax by matchday 9. By matchday 14, the Spirits and the Mainers overtook Halifax, closely followed by the Sailors. The Sailors surged into the lead from matchdays 18 to 22, although their performance dropped in the last third of the season. The Spirits and the Mainers eventually overtook the Sailors, entering a two-horse race for the Earle Trophy. On the final matchday, Halifax overtook the Mainers to claim runners-up in the league.
Playoffs
Semi-finals 1
| Team
|
G1
|
G2
|
G3
|
G4
|
G5
|
| EH Bas-Canada
|
3
|
3*
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
| Acadia Rage
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
2*
|
0
|
2024 Finals series
| Team
|
G1
|
G2
|
G3
|
G4
|
G5
|
| Halifax Hockey Club
|
6
|
5
|
3*
|
|
|
| EH Bas-Canada
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
|
Semi-finals 2
| Team
|
G1
|
G2
|
G3
|
| Halifax Hockey Club
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
| Newfoundland Sailors
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
Quarter-finals
Boston Spirits (1) vs. Acadia Rage (8)
The Spirits entered the series as the heavy favorites, as the senior-seeds and defending champions who had recently secured their third consecutive Earle Trophy. They won the first game rather comfortably, although a last-minute goal from Gilles Dufour made the final score 3–2. In game two, the Acadia Rage managed a massive upset 4–0 victory as the visitors, upending the entire series as they travelled home for the next two games. In game three, their first home game, they took another victory, holding Boston off 3–2. The Rage failed, however, to secure the series in front of their home crowd, losing game four 4–1 to the visitors. With the decisive game five in Boston, the Spirits were once again favored to head to the semi-finals, but the Rage managed another massive upset, this time winning 3–1.
EH Bas-Canada (4) vs. Providence Doves (5)
Bas-Canada started the series as the senior-seed, and were slightly favored to win. Bas-Canada had had a rough start to the regular season, but had improved to ultimately secure qualification early on and finish a strong fourth. The Doves had experienced somewhat the opposite, starting strong but waning slightly by the end of the season. In the first game at home, Bas-Canada took a close 3–2 at home, which some pundits took be a sign of the close series to come. The home side shut those conversations down after game two, which they won in dominant 5–0 fashion. Now the only [2–0] team in the playoffs, Bas-Canada travelled to Providence with a chance to be the first team to secure their spot in the semi-finals. They managed just that, with the Benoît Brisbois-led team holding the Doves to just a single goal, against their three, as the visitors.
Halifax Hockey Club (2) vs. Salem Loggers (7)
Halifax entered this series as the heavy favorites, with a late-season surge in performance that saw them win six consecutive games. It thus came as a surprise when Joseph Courtney's visiting side took a 3–1 victory over them. Halifax responded with a 3–1 victory of their own, making the series [1–1] heading to the Naumkeag Arena. Halifax won game three with a comfortable 3–1, and continued that performance into game four, securing a spot in the semi-finals with a 2–1 victory.
Mainers (3) vs. Newfoundland Sailors (6)
The Mainers entered this matchup as strong favorites, as the team, led by a two-time reigning Golden Puck winner Carlos Ortega, had enjoyed a consistently nearly league-topping regular season, while the Sailors' performance had noticeably dropped off in the last few months. While the Sailors had held a three-point lead as late as matchday 19, they had since fallen down to sixth. Despite this, some pundits pointed to the Mainers' demoralizing two losses in the final two matchdays, which saw them lose what could've been their first Earle Trophy. Additionally, this matchup was the most closely followed of the four quarter-finals, as both the Mainers and the Sailors (along with the Spirits, on the other side of the bracket) were competing to sign Carlos Ortega, whose contract with the Mainers was up at the end of this season.
The Sailors took a massive upset victory in the first game, winning 5–1 as the visitors and featuring a spectacular hat-trick from Sailors captain Danilo Lorenz. Commentator Walter Cobb described the Mainers' loss—their third in a row, if taking the two final matchdays of the league into account—as "utterly crushing," a sentiment echoed by a frustrated Dominique Bergeron, manager of the Mainers. His side responded convincingly, however, with their own dominant 6–2 victory in front of their home crowd, featuring four goals from Ortega. With the next two games at the Kaufman Arena, the Sailors had an opportunity to swing the series in their favor. They did just that with a 3–2 win in their first game at home. Ahead of the fourth game, pundits described the Mainers as "completely shattered," and Cobb noted that Ortega was "the only thing keeping them going." In the fourth game, Sailors goaltender Stefán Kaczmarek held Ortega and the Mainers to a shutout, while the Lorenz-led home side found the back of the net three times to secure their entry into the semi-finals. The Sailors' series upset against the Mainers was widely celebrated in Newfoundland, and Cobb said that Lorenz had quelled "any doubt that he's not still the greatest player in the VHL."
Semi-finals
EH Bas-Canada (4) vs. Acadia Rage (8)
Having swept the Doves, Bas-Canada entered the series as the favorites, although pundits reminded of the Rage's upset against the heavily-favored Spirits. Despite this, Bas-Canada kept the Rage's high-scoring front trio of Ronny Olsen, Gilles Dufour, and James Westbrook at bay. In game two, they barely managed to contain them, winning on penalties after a 3–3 game. The Rage, however, managed to turn the tide at Arena Acadia, winning 2–1 for the home crowd. In another tied game, the Rage managed to win the penalty shootout, sending the series to a decisive game five in Montréal. Back at home, Bas-Canada took a 3–0 victory to make their way to the finals.
Halifax Hockey Club (2) vs. Newfoundland Sailors (6)
As the senior-seed, Halifax enter the series as the favorites.
2024 Finals series: Halifax Hockey Club (2) vs. EH Bas-Canada (4)
Halifax appear in the finals series for the first time since 2019, while Bas-Canada appear for the first time since 1987's "Saison Dorée". Even despite entering the series as the favorites, Halifax stunned with a dominant 6–0 performance, featuring a hat-trick from Ed Lowe to take the first game of the series. They returned to their second home game with yet another crushing victory, 5–1 with another hat-trick from Lowe. The Benoît Brisbois-led Bas-Canada defense managed to hold off Halifax's star offensive trio of Lowe-Holland-Palmer to three goals, which, courtesy of two goals from Olivier Favreau and one from Victor Perrault, meant the potentially-decisive game was sent to penalties, which Halifax won to secure their second VHL title.
Coupe Balbuzard
Main article: 2024 Coupe Balbuzard
The Newfoundland Sailors will enter this tournament as defending champions, seeking to become the first team to win three Coupes Balbuzard in a row.
Trophies and Awards
