Ritten ties series, Asiago prolongs winning streak

The second semifinal game between Ritten and Jesenice was played infront of more than 2.000 fans. While the hosts were without Rok Avsenek and Gasper Sersen, Ziga Urukalo and Jaka Sodja returned to the lineup. Ritten missed long-term injured Andreas Alber and Markus Spinell. Both teams started the game with lots of skating, Jesenice’s Luka Kalan shot wide after three minutes. The first goal was scored by Thomas Spinell in the 8th minute. Jesenice goalie Clarke Saunders was covered and Spinells shot was very accurate. Ritten doubled the lead five minutes later after a great shot from Dan Tudin. Late in the period Ritten goalie Patrick Killeen made good stops on Nik Pem and Luka Basic. Two seconds before the buzzer Basic only hit the post. After the restart Luka Kalan struck metalwork once again and soon later Adis Alagic could not beat Killeen. With their first chance in the middle frame, the guests added a third goal: In the 32nd minute Cole shot the puck from the blue line and Tudin deflected successfully. The home team started to play better after that goal but Kileen saved all their shots. Early in the third Jesenice wasted some more chances and with five minutes to go Ritten rounded off the scoring: a Jesenice defender deflected a Andreas Lutz pass into the own net for a 0:4 final score. With Killeen celebrating his 8th shutout of the season, the „best of five“ series is tied at one.

 

Alexander Kinkelin was the starting goalkeeper for Val Pusteria for the semi-finals game 2. Alex Hofer returned after 2 rounds of suspension while Elias Thum was absent due to injury. Asiago had the same formation as game 1 semi-final. Good start of the Wolves who immediately created some dangerous opportunities while the Asiago tried to hit with fast action. After seven minutes there was the first goal. The Asiago lost the puck behind the net of Frederic Cloutier. The puck arrived to Alex De Lorenzo Meo who overcame on rebound Cloutier. In the second part of the first period, the visitors reacted as they played much better becoming more dangerous. The game was not very tactical and hard fought. Michele Stevan made the draw after a puck rejected by Kinkelin after a shot by Josè Magnabosco in a four-on-four situation. The game remained very pleasant with Jean-Francois Jacques who had the last chance of the time. During the second period Jacques was still dangerous and then Ringrose. Then the Asiago changed the gear in powerplay. First there was the goal in six against four (delayed penalty) with Anthony Bardaro and then after less than two minutes the guest formation advanced in the result with Marco Rosa that surprises Kinkelin in powerplay (1:3). But it was not over because the reaction of the Wolves came after three minutes and always in powerplay: Helfer finalized a geometric superiority (2:3). The game continued to be always fought with a Bruneck who tried to find the way of a draw but couldn’t score. In the third time the Asiago started well but didn’t finalized. Then the home team equalized (3: 3) after an insistent action by Raphael Andergassen who then served the puck to Armin Hofer for the third goal of Bruneck. The yellowread team reacted immediately but Kinkelin saved the result. Then minute by minute the third time became more tactical. The final seconds were very excited because Fabrizio Pace took a penalty when missing 51 seconds from the whistle of the third time. But at the end of 60 minutes the result was 3: 3. During the first overtime, Asiago defended himself in penalty killing and then for a penalty to Matteo Tessari. When the visitors returned to play in a numerical parity, Asiago preferred to control the puck and tried to reason in the actions. The patience rewarded the Asiago: after 10 minutes there was the final goal of the match.  Anthony Nigro scored the game winning goal after a big shot of Casetti. Asiago took the 2:0 in the series.

Foto: David S. Wassagruba