OLIMPIJA 4 - 2 INNSBRUCK
POTATO WEEK ENDS SWEETLY WITH ANOTHER 4-2 WIN
TEAM ANNOUNCE NEW CONTRACT FOR HORAK AS HE WINS MVP
Lineup changes
As expected, Červeny is out - no announcement on the severity of his injury as of yet. Simšič moves up to first line centre and Kapel returns on the 2nd line, so it seems he wasn't injured and was scratched (as I had suggested). I am happy he's back, actually, as we had too many left handed forwards and it was impinging on our shooting capability in the o-zone. Hebar comes in for Crnović as the 7th defenseman.
Stars of the game
* Lukáš Horák - finally won MVP after deserving it almost every game and made it even better by signing a contract extension to keep him here next year. I'm only sad it wasn't a longer extension! Thank you, Hory! This time, he made spectacular saves galore and had another quadra-save, which delighted his new fan club that followed him around all game. No other player on the team has such crowd affection shown for them!
** Marcel Mahkovec (PPG, A) - currently our leading scorer and looked properly dangerous out there tonight. His game just keeps on growing. The reigning Young Player of the Season indeed!
*** Tian Hebar (A) - great point shot that Pance tipped for the first goal. It's the first time we've seen him in a while and it was the first time that he seemed really effective in his defensive and offensive contributions, causing turnovers in the neutral zone and making plays in the offensive zone. I don't mean this in a bad way - being a young D-man is really difficult. But it's fantastic to see such a leap of progress from him. As much as I like Crnović's game, I want to see more playing time for Hebar from now on as Hebar's play still has more room to grow.
Notable contributions: Simšič filling in at centre on short notice, yet again. What a valuable guy to have on this team, as, unfortunately, we have needed him over and over when I am sure he would prefer to be back on the wing. He played well on the top line today despite not having the chance to settle into some chemistry with any linemates this year. We appreciate you, Nik!
Game flow
P1
Innsbruck start fast.
1855 Horak lays out for a save.
1752 Glove swipe through traffic from Horak and we get a 'dneska ne' on the screen ('not today' in Czech).
1625 Horak handles a late deflection and passes it away.
1436 Another Mašič turnover leads to a 3 on 1 - Horak stops the puck with an insane octopus roll. There's a chance back the other way, but I'm still too busy processing Horak's save to register it properly.
Sharks are very much in the driving seat thus far, which is an interesting sentence to write.
1209 Mahkovec circling shot on goal.
1130 Pavlin lays out to stop 2 on 1, Horak makes a post save.
1057 Another Horak body save.
1038 Beričič shoots on the rush and it's blocker saved.
944 GOAL OLIMPIJA - Hebar shoots from the blue line and Pance tips it in! Zajc also gets an assist.
4th line +1
3rd(?) pair +1
1-0
8 It's opening up for us now.
725 Pavlin gracefully intercepts a net front crossing pass.
644 Scintillating helicopter glove save by Horak.
615 Nice move started by Mašič being brave enough to skate right down centre ice results in Simšič's shot going just wide.
427 Hebar with a fantastic dispossession in the neutral zone.
146 Good first line chances for Mahkovec and Simšič.
105 Big block by Pavlin that Horak stick taps appreciatively.
38s Horak glove save on a 2 on 1. Atwal takes the pass but misses it on the way past.
27s Simšič blocks one heading to the net.
Sharks are finding a lot of space again.
7s Horak makes yet another save off a faceoff. This pressure is worrying.
1-0
P2
1920 Mašič gets ambushed by two forecheckers and the turnover leads to a casual quadra-save by Horak.
18 Sharks coming out hot again.
1720 Double hit from Sodja, yes please!
1657 GOAL INNSBRUCK - in a flash, the puck goes from the boards to a wide open centre ice, where it gets put in the top corner. Defensive holes are being exploited. It's disappointing to concede, but it does reflect the flow of the game thus far.
1st Pair -1
4th Line +0
1-1
1524 Sabolič receives the puck in a wonderfully central position but he takes too long to wind up his shot and the window has closed - he loses it and they go down the other end...
1515 GOAL INNSBRUCK - off the ensuing rush, the Sharks score. That is a frustrating one - we should have been the ones to score, but they end up doing so!
2nd line -1
2nd pair -1
1-2
1416 Beričič passes back in a good position after a linked move, but he misses everyone and the Sharks have a chance down the other end.
It's end to end stuff here, with little structured hockey on display.
1238 Smash Attack - a defensive zone faceoff - we've had too many free burgers recently, apparently!
1209 2nd pair turns it over in the d-zone and INN have a high danger chance net front.
1127 PEN OLL - Tomaževič clearly holds an INN player and gets penalised for it.
PK does well, with clears and line changes.
954 Simšič has a breakaway chance that is blocker saved.
939 Horak pad saves on a 1on0.
846 Sabla enters the zone with speed, Kapel winds up and it's right into the goalie's body. Need to do better there for the man who is a team-low -7 so far this season. More on this in an upcoming article...
738 PEN INN - Ege gets high sticked. It was a delayed penalty, which I am nervous about since our own goal, but we emerge unscathed. PP1 is now Mahkovec, Lavoie (who takes faceoffs), Tomaževič, Sabla and Mašič.
725 Hack and whack for the PP unit.
700 shots and blocks galore.
645 PPG OLIMPIJA - Mašič shoots from the point, it's saved, but Mahkovec is there to pounce on the rebound! Tomaževič gets an assist, but I didn't see his contribution.
2-2
532 GOAL OLIMPIJA - Zajc roofs it after a 1-2 with Sabolič! Bičevskis plays a key role here after brutally causing a turnover in the offensive zone, well played.
4th Line (with Sabla) +1
3rd pair +2
3-2
459 GOAL OLIMPIJA - Simšič scores thanks to another screen from Lavoie! He may not be scoring, but at least Lavoie is helping others to do so! The announcer was still going through the last goal! Mahkovec and Lavoie on the assists.
1st Line +1
1st Pair +0
4-2
432 Tomaževič nearly scores another goal mid-announcement!
315 3rd line and pair pass well in the o-zone. Ćosić's eventual shot is pad saved.
111 1st line nearly catches the INN GK out of his net.
22s Big Sabla hit in the d-zone knocks an INN player over. I love seeing him do that, keep it up!
4-2
P3
Kumanović was warming up during the interval and it looks like he replaced Pance on the 4th line. Whether this was an injury replacement, we do not know. Hopefully nothing serious, we can't afford to keep losing forwards!
1624 Lavoie hits the post, and is furious with himself after. I really want to see one go in for him, it must be tough having been the leading French league scorer to now be goalless in 10 games. I believe in him!
1542 PEN OLL - Simšič high sticks.
It's Bičevskis and Zajc as PK2.
Horak with blocker, glove and toe saves.
1232 We let an INN player skate rings around us, but eventually Gregorc and Horak stop him.
1117 Zajc to Kumanović in a 2 on 1 is well saved by their goalie. The d-man got something on Zajc's pass, which made it harder for Lovro, but he still did well. I would love to have seen him score there.
956 Sabla is in on goal on another 2 on 1, elects to shoot and it's saved.
915 Pavlin intercepts another cross-goal pass.
600 Horak glove save.
551 Horak net front stop.
547 Horak glove save.
4 Period of weird possession losses in the d-zone, with two more glove saves from 61.
3 It's all Sharks now.
235 Double save from Horak, both pad.
Innsbruck try to go empty net in the last two minutes, but keep getting penalised when we regain possession and look for the empty net.
229 PEN INN - trip on an empty net chance.
115 INN player goes down after a block, but Simšič can't take advantage and shoots wide. (This is different to Červeny's, as blocking hurts but Červeny had clearly been injured on a freak play.)
43s Kapel does some good work.
23s left - a second empty net try for INN.
17s left - PEN INN - 2 INN players go to the box after yanking down our players going for the empty net. 5 on 3.
Sodja goes down with 2s left clutching his hand, oh no!
ENDS 4-2
Final thoughts
I love the way we are playing at the moment. We are attacking much more effectively and scoring bounteous goals, including on the formerly dormant powerplay. This bodes very well for the rest of the season. One thing I do not like, though, is the amount of unforced defensive errors we keep committing. Horak is good enough to save us on most of those, but we need to reduce the quality of shots/chances that we are giving up. Now, I am aware that I could be criticised for always focusing on our team's deficiencies when we give up goals. Sometimes, the opposition do something great and they score! It happens! Whilst acknowledging this, I do think that most of the goals we give up are down to our mistakes rather than opposing brilliance. Horak is so good that if given half a chance he will stop the puck going in. When we concede, it tends to be some kind of defensive breakdown that leaves even a goalie as good as 61 with no real chance of saving it. Even then, he still sometimes does, somehow!
It's an international break coming up, so they won't be training together as a whole, but I hope that over that time the coaching staff will come together to plan how we plug these defensive holes and continue to make gains on the powerplay. If we do that, automatic playoff entry should be assured.
The break comes at a good time for us, as the injury bug has been biting. Pance left after the 2nd period and Sodja went down with 2 seconds left in the game. Červeny looks to have been seriously injured this week and Kerbashian hasn't started skating yet (although that is coming soon). I like Kumanović and Vodlan, but we are running out of depth if we keep losing players. Let's hope we can heal up over the break.
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