On Saturday, September 19, it was the turn of a new championship match of our young dragons, who are competing in the IHL member competition this season. The HD team of Hidri Jesenice arrived in Tivoli, which means that it was a real small derby.
The HD team of Hidrija Jesenice in a slightly strengthened line-up is showing good performances in this year's championship, so our young dragons had a hard job ahead of them. This time the teams were joined by more experienced ones Mark Čepon in Stamp Holy, which definitely gave our young people extra impetus and extra security.
The very beginning of the match indicated that we would be watching an open and fast game. Already in the first minute, the teams exchanged good opportunities. But there have been no hits here yet. In the 9th minute after the pass Jana Bizjaka, Gregor Žeželj escaped the counterattack, where he scored reliably for 1: 0. But the guests equalized a good minute later. Anton Sharpanskikh scored after the deduction. Here the game opened up completely and we watched a quick game with attacks on both sides. When it already seemed that the final result of the first third would remain 1: 1, the guests scored again. A quick counterattack by Eduard Chekmarev took advantage and the guests went to the first break with a 2: 1 advantage.
But that didn't throw our dragons off track. They started the second third even more decisively and this was soon evident in the result. An equalizing goal fell in the 33rd minute when our players had more on the ice. After the pass Stamps of Mehlet in Marka Čepona redirected the tile to the grid Matic Perčič. Soon after, there is a quick counterattack and pass Stamps of Mehlet took advantage of more Mark Čepon and Olympia led 3-2. And when it already seemed that this would also be the end result of the second part of the game, he is experienced Mark Čepon staged another independent breakthrough and in the 37th minute of the game, our team was already leading with 4: 2.
In the last third, the game remained equal. The teams alternated in the game with a player more on the ice, until Anže Podrekar finally took advantage of one such opportunity in the 55th minute and reduced the guests to 4: 3. But the really hot final was prevented by our team a minute later. They combined Jakob Pečnik in Matic Perčič. Plošček was defended by the visiting goalkeeper, but then he fought Martin Črepinšek pushed into the net. With the score 5: 3, the match has not been decided yet, but the guests have no choice but to quickly pull the goalkeeper out of the game. But they didn't get many opportunities with that. In fact, our goal hung in the air all the time, until at the end, a few seconds before the final beep, he pushed the puck into the empty net. Žiga mehla (they gave Blaž Stipanič in Gregor Žeželj).
With 6: 3, our team won its first victory in the IHL championship.
After the match, the coach was also satisfied with the victory Gregor Polončič"We’ve made a lot of progress since the first game, we learn with the boys every day. We are happy with the first victory, but we will have to work hard for the whole season."
The next match will be in Maribor on September 22.
Written by: Vladimir Ban
You can see the statistics from the match at this link.
Otherwise, you can follow the entire events in the IHL Championship at this link.
