Monday 13.3 brought the return match of the semi-finals of the U-18 national championship.

The dragons traveled to Jesenice. In the first match a few days ago, Jeseničani were a better opponent, but with a good game in defense, the Ljubljana team achieved a relatively (depending on the course of the match) good result and lost 2-0.

We have already written that the Jeseničani are probably a better team at the moment and that in the U-18 selection they are cutting the top of Slovenian hockey. A cursory glance at the scale of the regular part does not show this, as in the regular part the people of Ljubljana took the first place, and the people of Jesenice the fourth. But this is due to the busy schedule of the guests (most players also play in the EBYSL competition), who in the regular season often performed in a very reduced lineup.

Still, we expected a troop Ildar Rahmatullin in the playoffs he bravely pitted against good opponents.

If we saw at least a part of that in the first match, this is unfortunately not the case for the second match. The team from Jesenice has confirmed that they are a better team at the moment.

In the first third, the match was still somewhat reminiscent of the match a few days ago in Ljubljana. The hosts were more at the plate, more attacking, but the defense of the guests with occasional counterattacks held up. A third thus ended without a goal.

In the second third, from the 23rd minute onwards, the Ljubljana ship began to sink. It started with the exclusion of our player, which was used more by the home team after a minute of play with the player, and after the goal was scored, there was simply no more energy, strength and the opportunity to return. The match ended with a high defeat of 8: 0.

Congratulations to the Jesenice team, which deservedly and reliably won the semi-final clash with the Dragons (Jesenice are in very good shape, as the team also qualified for the semifinals of the EBYSL finals, where they have already beaten Salzburg 2: 1 in the first away match… ). In the final, the team from Jesenice will face the team from Triglav, which beat the team from Slavija for the second time in yesterday's match (4: 1). Olympia is left with a match for third place. The match for third place will be on Monday, March 20 in Tivoli. The opponent is HK Slavija Junior. Only one match is being played for third place in this year's finals, so we will know the final ranking of the Dragons in the championship on Monday. We believe that we will see a completely different face of the Dragons in Tivoli on Monday and that we will confirm the good games from the regular part of the championship.

 

Written by: Vladimir Ban

You can see the statistics from the match at this link.

You can see the status and ranking in the playoffs at this link.