Preview: #13 Boston @ #25 Montreal

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri May 21 2010 9:27pm

MONTREAL, QC -- Montreal hopes to continue their meteoric rise up the WFTDA Eastern Region ranks when they play host to Boston this weekend in a bout that has the potential to be one of the best of a very busy weekend of derby.

This bout will be streamed live on DNN courtesy of Montreal Roller Derby. Action starts at 7pm Eastern on Saturday, May 22.

Boston and Montreal last met slightly less than a year ago in August 2009, where Boston shut down the MTL offense and cruised to a nearly triple-digit win at 130-31. But Montreal 2010 has already proven to be a much different animal than Montreal 2009; they absolutely caught fire this year after opening their season in February with a big loss to Charm City (159-57) and a narrow one to Tucson (117-108). It's been 7 WFTDA-sanctioned wins in a row for them since then, with the most impressive ones coming fairly recently: a 135-29 domination of an understaffed but still respectable Carolina squad in April, and a 186-65 rout of mid-range Eastern Region rival Dutchland. What Montreal hasn't done in their streak, though, is take out a top-25 team, and they'll get the opportunity against Boston.

Boston has gone 2-2 thus far in their own 2010, but they've had much stiffer competition in the forms of 2009 champs Oly and 2009 Eastern Region champs Philly, losing to Philly 137-52 in April and to Oly 125-60 just last weekend. Their wins have been relatively solid over Carolina (110-55) and Providence (170-41).

Boston is officially ranked #3 in the WFTDA Eastern Region, where they've sat since their defeat of previous #3 Charm City at the 2009 Eastern Regionals; DNN's unofficial ranking has them at #13 in the nation. Montreal is currently unofficially ranked #25 in the nation, and started the year way down at #13 in the Eastern Region, jumped to #9 WFTDA East in the second quarter, and seems certain to only go higher as they've defeated #6 WFTDA East Carolina and #8 WFTDA East Dutchland. The only question is how high the ceiling is, and Saturday's bout will provide what should be a very exciting answer.

Further reading: Check out The Derby Nerd's bout preview.

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