BI Knockouts - Vandahls

BI Knockouts - Vandahls 6-6 (3-1, 1-1, 2-4)

1-1 Marko (Henri)
2-1 Artur (Evgeny)
3-1 Wolfgang (Topi)
4-1 Marko
5-6 Henri (Wolfgang)
6-6 Topi (Marko)

First things first: Congratulations to our goal keeper Jani and his wife, for new baby girl!

Very good start for the season, indeed. There was some risen blood pressure levels due to our goal keeper situation, though. I had called through 4 possible last minute candidates, with no luck. I was pleading for volunteers. We had reserved the goal keepers kit from the register, just in case, and still about a minute before the game started, we were not sure about who's going to be in the goal. Then, amazing stroke of luck: Our neighboring rink had a practice game at the same time, and suddenly someone pointed out that the other team had two goalkeepers. So, I went to disturb their tactical gathering, explained briefly our situation, and managed to get the coaches permission to borrow their goal keepers. These two nice guys, Antti and Timo, agreed to share half and half of the goal keepers duty in both games. The change was pretty much exactly half way to the second period. Thanks, guys.

We had a sharp start. We got very quickly to the leading position 4-1, and our defense, although a little chaotic, was holding well. We were feeling very pleased with ourselves. Nothing much happened in the second period, but in the beginning of the third, Vandahls suddenly found a completely new gear. Our defense was frankly paralyzed at times. There were panicky situations, and at least twice a very dangerous change of players. Also our attacks started lacking, as the wings could not coordinate their running with the rest of the attack chain. Very often it was possible to see all three forwards running up in high speed, in a row, and stop to wait for the pass from the defense. As the Vandahls pretty much blocked the whole mid field in these situations, passing high balls up behind them was nearly impossible.

In the end, we got our spirits back, and the last 2 minutes played without the goalie, thus managing to finally tie the game to 6-6. It surely felt like a victory, so hard were people working for it. Very good running, and the ball stuck with us.


See you in the next game,

Anni