GAME 6 - PIV VS OLL

 GAME 6 - PIV VS OLL 

PIV 2 - 5 OLL

DRAGONS RETURN TO WINNING WAYS, BUT IT WAS CLOSER THAN IT NEEDED TO BE

Stars of the game

* Lukaš Horak - the birthday boy was not given the present of 'organised team defence' on game night. Similar to last season, it is concerning to see that the identity of the team seems to revert to 'let's just have Horak and Kolin's excellence bail us out when we have regular defensive meltdowns'. After one of these, where a PIV forward got to stroll down the middle of the ice unhindered, Horak booted the puck down the ice in anger. It's brilliant that we have goalies who can bail us out, but we need to stop exposing them to the amount of high danger chances that we currently do.

** Nik Simšič (1G 1A) - a really good performance from 12. Instead of turning the puck over in the neutral zone, like others, he was nabbing takeaways and generally just being really on his details defensively. He also scored the crucial goal to go up 2-4 and seal the deal. Having to move from wing back to centre is no mean feat, so hats off to him for adjusting so well.

*** Žiga Mehle (1G) - scored an important goal, but more generally was doing the dirty work of putting himself in the net front mixer and working hard to generate opportunities for the team. Glad to see him rewarded for this with a goal. He has so much to offer this team, long may it continue.

Game flow

P1

On the very first dump in, we almost concede a tap in. Oh-oh.

16 - Sodja hits the bar!

12:03 - GOAL - OLL - MAŠIČ. Assisted by Simšič, who also provided a bit of a screen. Nice to see Bine on the scoresheet after squeezing one through the goalie. OLL were on a line change, but Simšič and Mašič play fast through a PIV switch-off to score. Great stuff, boys. 0-1

11:20 After Ege gives his best looping Kaprizov impression... THE PUCK WENT OVER THE LINE, BUT IT'S NOT CALLED A GOAL!!!

11:20 On review... GOAL - OLL - MEHLE. Assisted by Gregorc, with a beautiful dish across the net front. Great work from Mehle to get back up on his feet and follow through on his deflection, stabbing one in under the goalie's pad. 0-2

The energy levels seem way up compared to yesterday.

6:43 GOAL - OLL - BIČEVSKIS. Assisted by Sabolič. A real beauty from Sabla, making it look like he's going around the back of the net, but instead curling it back over to Bičevskis for the tap in. 96 gets his goal from the other night! Great positioning on his part. 0-3

5:50 PEN ON PIV - INTERFERENCE (?) ON CRNOVIĆ. Pance is on PP1 again over Simšič. PIV manage to get a shot on goal before we do..... We actually don't get a shot on goal this powerplay. As the Chuckle Brothers used to say, "oh dear, oh dear".

Crnović is subbing in for Pavlin as the 7th defenseman quite frequently. It seems like they're spotting Pavlin's minutes a bit, which makes sense. He is still a beast, but as a 39 year old it's tougher to keep up, especially with the kind of huge frame he has!

2:00 GOAL - PIV. Wraparound chance is saved but the net front area is wide open for a PIV player to put in the rebound. PIV were engaging in rapid-fire movement here, but there is another instance of a lot of puck-chasing. I am no expert in defensive systems, but we do seem to do this quite a lot. Do we really need three players skating after the puck carrier? Are we playing man or zone? Man? Maybe we should try some more zone?

10s left - a big wraparound chance for the top line.

P2

PIV's stadium is 3/4 empty. Just like last year.

17:31 PEN ON OLL - Mehle hook or interference (not announced on the broadcast). Slightly unnecessary, but he was trying to slow the player down. Penlty killed off with one shot on goal. Forward pairings go 96+13, 23+10, 88+12. Gregorc and Ege throughout.

15:22 PENALTIES - BOTH TEAMS - Atwal and a PIV player can't stop themselves jabbering on about something and both get 5 mins for unsportsmanlike conduct. This doesn't make it a 4-on-4 though.

PIV are finding net front gaps with alarming regularity. Thankfully the Czech wall is there to stop them.

11:30 A near-calamitous giveaway in the neutral zone by Bičevskis results in a double chance that Horak saves, doing especially well with the potential deflection off his back.

10:07 Horak furious as he makes a glove save on a PIV forward who sailed right down the empty middle of the ice unimpeded. He boots the puck down the ice for good measure. Please, sir, may I have some more (effective team defence)?

Lackadaisical defending leaving Horak out to dry - just like last season. At least we could try mixing in some zone defence to combat this. Something has to change.

6:16 Lovely fast move by the 4th line - 23-10-13 - but Beričič probably should have shot there instead of passing to Pance, who can't reach it. As the grandads behind me at Hala Tivoli often say - SHOOT!!!

3:26 - GOAL - PIV. This felt awful to watch. Tomaževič turns it over on the blue line and Atwal gets blown past. Even Ćosić ends up kind of just watching. Now the game is much closer than it deserves to be, all due to a lightning counter ex nihilo. We absolutely have to clear the zone there, no ifs or buts.

2-3

2:08 PEN ON PIV - INTERFERENCE. One shot on goal; Lavoie goes well wide with a decent chance. To be honest, I feel like it's barely worth watching our powerplays anymore - it's that frustrating. We could just fast forward a couple of minutes and continue the game.

3s left - PEN ON OLL - Ege for interference. Yanking a player down in front of the refs isn't the best idea.

P3 

Penalty killed off.

15:37 PEN ON PIV - hook on Ege.

13:14 PEN ON OLL - clumsy trip by Pavlin. Seems like we are doing everything we can to throw a great first period's work away.

5:26 - GOAL - SIMŠIČ. Assisted by Crnović and taking place on a line change, just like the Simšič/Mašič link up. As a Crni truther, you know I am pleased to see this. A gorgeous zone entry by Crnović as he breezes past three players and sets up Nik for the hugely important goal to go 2-4. This is more like it! We can't score PPGs, but at least we can be 5 on 5 monsters sometimes!

5:03 - PEN ON PIV - slash on Beričič through on goal. We have the best 4th line in the league, don't we? I always loved 10 and 23 from last season's PK efforts, but adding Pance on there is such a luxury.

42s left - EMPTY NET GOAL - OLL - SABOLIČ. Assisted by Lavoie. Game over!

Final thoughts

PIV seemed to have our number last year, bullying us in one-sided losses. So, it was wonderful to see a win - but the circumstances must be learned from. 1-3 was a fair reflection of the game, but conceding the 2nd PIV goal was unforgivable. We just can't get dispossessed on the blue line like that. Horak is sensationally good, but he can't save every mega high danger chance that he gets exposed to. Coach Karhula needs to address the team defence as a matter of urgency, as better teams will punish us more consistently for those lapses.

On the other side of things, our powerplay is back to being powderpuff. It feels like we're fighting simply to get a shot off - and even then, it's often only after the other team have already had a better chance shorthanded! I was hoping Coach Karhula would find a solution to last year's PP woes, but it doesn't look great so far. They're meant to be an advantage, fellas...

Now, you might fairly say 'it's a 2-5 win away to a team that beat us last year, why do you have to be mad?' Look, I'm happy - I just think if we can sort ourselves out a bit (on the two above points), we can be a real force this year. Not a 'scrape our way into the play-ins' - a real contender. I would dearly love that to be the case, as I'm sure would you, so let's hope they can keep refining and keep it rolling.

Anyway, on to Bolzano on Friday, who got walloped by Asiago in their penultimate game (8 goals conceded!) but today shut out Fehervar 3-0. Hopefully another big loss for them!

P.S. The club's IG account once more tried to hit this narrative that 'we were better' than Innsbruck on Friday. We were not - and that is fine. Sometimes we come out a bit flat and the other team plays better. That will happen this season. There's no point deluding ourselves!

P.P.S. If I can survive my way through reports season, there should be an interesting non-match report article out in the midweek. Stay tuned...