DENMARK-After a short halt from domestic action due to the annual mid-December international break the AL-Bank Liga resumed normal proceedings Tuesday evening with a total of four games on display.
There were a fair share of interesting match-ups that took place in week 24 of Denmark best Ice Hockey league. 1st place S ø nderjyskE took on last place Hvidovre, the leagues two youngest outfits Frederikshavn and Herning were involved in the battle for 3rd position, a mid-table clash between EfB and R ø dovre and a bottom-of-the-table duel between Odense and Rungsted meant fans were more than spoiled after a weeks lay-off.
S ø nderjyskE- Hvidovre 6:1 (2:0) (2:1) (2:0)
S ø nderjyskE continued it’s fine dominance in the league by pasting bottom club Hvidovre 6-1 on home ice. The team from Vojens have put together an eight game unbeaten run in which they haven’t tasted defeat since a 2-1 overtime loss to R ø dovre back in mid November. In that span they have only conceded five goals. Hvidovre on the other hand have only won one of their last eight games respectively and now sit dead-last, six points adrift to it’s next competitor Odense.
It took just over two minutes for the leaky Hvidovre defence to be breached as Daryl Andrews netted his fourth goal of the year. Mario Simioni’s men then doubled their advantage when Aleksandr Macijevski scored his ninth of the campaign at the 13 minute mark to conclude the scoring in the first. The away side did pulled a goal back two minutes after the restart when Andreas Christiansen scored his first ever goal in the AL-Bank Liga after receiving a feed Daniel Patrick H ø hl and slotting one past Alfie Michaud in the home side net marking the first goal S ø nderjyskE conceded in over 240 minutes of play. But that was as good as it got for the Zealanders as the home side went on to score four more without reply and absolutely carried the play the entire course of the game. A Dustin Van Ballegooie brace, Macijevski’s second of the night and a single from Dan Ceman capped of the scoring. The final shot count told the entire story of the game as the home side went on to outshoot the guests by a tremendous 36-11 margin. Troubled times indeed for Hvidovre.
Rungsted Cobras- Odense Bulldogs 1:4 (0:0) (0:1) (1:3)
The Kjaer & Lassen Arena played host to a battle between two teams vying to get back into play-off contention. 842 fans packed into the arena to see what will bear fruit between the seventh and eight placed teams respectively.
The first period got of to a real scrappy affair as both teams sat back and sized each other up. Chances were few and far between as both goalies rarely were tested meaning the first ended in a stalemate. The beginning of the second continued in the same fashion as the first and so far the game looked like a real bottom-of-the-table scrap. It took until the middle of the second period for the deadlock to be broken as the Bulldogs two great Canadian imports Ryan Huddy and Chris Falloon combined to great effect as the later broke through the Rungsted defence and fed the former to one-time a shot from the slot past the young Rungsted Netminder for a power play goal. The away side extended their lead three minutes after the restart when Falloon again broke through the home side defence after a bad turnover and fired a shot on goal which was saved initially by the keeper only for Martin Ravn to then pounce on the juicy rebound to make it 2-0 at 43.45. That seemed to finally wake up the home side up as they clawed one back three minutes later from Nicklas Monberg’s second of the year. But Some woeful defending on the penalty kill from Rungsted towards the latter stages of the third meant Odense nabbed the go-ahead goal after a sloppy Thomas Johnson pass was intercepted by Bulldogs captain Mads True in the slot and with all the time in the world had no problems depositing it past the keeper to make it 3-1 at 56.27. It got worse for the North Zealanders as further abysmal defending meant Dan Rudisuela was able to send a long break-out pass to Martin Ravn who sped through on a breakaway and snapped a high wrist-shot over Kim Petersen’s blocker side to bag his second of the game at 57.02.
This crucial victory meant Odense have now reduced the gap between them and seventh place Rungsted to only three points and have now put together their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Contact Sandro.berish@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.