This week’s tournament started a bit later as the rink was still wet and the drying took longer than expected.
This was also due to the fact that the Vikings were down to 4 skaters and a goalie for the day. Only with Hans Schmidt dressing as 5th skater the Vikings were able to start the game at all to meet league regulations.
The game against Herborn proved to be intense and close, Wiesbaden eventually getting a 1-0 victory.
The Vikings were forced to take a structured approach to the game, with a lot of passing, patience and proper breakouts. Surprisingly this was a new aspect to the Vikings game which turned out to work quite well. Jason Malak scored in the first period and the Vikings held on to the lead for the rest of the game, successfully killing a penalty in the second half, securing the first shutout for Shane Steenberge.
The second game against Frankfurt was even in terms of personnel – as the Mainprimaten had a short bench as well. The result however was clearly in the Vikings’ favour, 6-2.
It started as a close game, the Vikings scoring first on the powerplay but conceding the equalizer halfway through the first period. A few shifts later Wiesbaden got another goal, making it 2-1 at halftime.
Both teams were slightly low on energy but Frankfurt had played the game before and therefore struggled more to keep up their game. Wiesbaden scored two more goals early in the second half for a comfortable 4-1 lead. Although the Mainprimaten cut the lead in half temporarily, the Vikings went on to score two more goals, with Thomas Connell completing a hattrick for the final score of 6-2.
Late in that game Shane Steenberge took a blow to the head and neck in a collision with an opponent – forcing him out of game 3. Wiesbaden was therefore unable to play the last game and the Kronberg Crusaders could have easily taken the points for free but decided that a real match would be much nicer. Therefore the match was postponed and will be played on Friday (20h45 in Assenheim). This is great sportsmanship – thank you, guys!!!
Last but not least a big THANK YOU goes out to Petra, Winnie, Marcel and Hansi for putting up with all the preparation work, running the game clock and helping us making it through this tournament. You guys rock!
