OLIMPIJA 1-2 SALZBURG
BEST ATMOSPHERE IN HALA TIVOLI FOR A LONG TIME CAN'T POWER DRAGONS PAST RED BULLS
GAME RESTS ON A KNIFE EDGE THE WHOLE WAY BUT WE JUST LOSE OUT
REFEREEING CONTINUES TO BE IN FINE FOCUS DUE TO FAN FURY
Stars of the game
* Lukaš Horák (34/36 for 0.944) - I was sitting next to a friend who was at their first Olimpija game. She was marvelling at how good 61 is. It's an important reminder not to take him for granted. This was yet another scintillating performance in a very long list of them. Having said that, I hope Kolin starts in Asiago tonight, as we need to keep Horak fresh.
** Rudolf Červeny (PPG) - Červeny has become a real powerplay sniper for us. I have often criticised the team for simply lining up Sabla in the right circle for predictable shots, because the goalie knows they're coming and can stop them. Now we are frequently going to Červeny in the left circle, but he keeps scoring from there! Just like the last match report, if you can do something well enough that they know it's coming and you can't stop them, it's *chef's kiss*!
*** The Hala Tivoli Crowd - 3,125 people created and enjoyed the playoff atmosphere. I wish we had managed to get the win, but being incredibly competitive and taking RBS to the wire is such a positive step for this team as the play-ins and playoffs approach.
A word (actually, 419 words) on the referees...
Thank you to various friends of the blog, including ŽG and F13 for pointing out that the referee in particular who keeps frustrating us with flagrant non-calls is a former Olimpija 'legend'!
Now, with the announcement this week that Red Bull will be officially partnering with the ICE League to make a 'media house' (https://ice.hockey/en/news-en/?id10736/211141), it is clear the league doesn't see much issue in the way of clear conflicts of interest. I know Red Bull can seriously help out the league, but it shouldn't happen when they own one of the top teams. Even the Austrian fans were complaining about this!
More relevant to us, though, is the continued allowance of a former Olimpija player to referee our games. You might think that this would result in some bias in our favour, but frankly it's the complete opposite! As any Olimpija fan knows, we seem to get biased treatment against us from both Austrian and Slovene referees. The Austrians tend to favour their own teams and the Slovene refs don't want to appear biased. As any cursory knowledge of Greek myth will tell you, the thing you try to avoid is the thing that becomes inevitable. We had metronomic calls for RBS tonight for any tiny infringement, including one with 2 seconds to go on Bonino where the RBS player simply got overpowered. There's a difference between a foul and losing a strength battle! On the flipside, Olimpija players like Červeny were getting hauled down and blatantly interfered with right in front of the zebras' eyes and play kept being allowed to continue.
I sincerely do not want to be a constant ref-basher, as these are all judgment calls by human beings, but they make it hard. The league needs to do some serious soul-searching, training and recruitment in the offseason to ensure some vague perception of parity and justice prevails and disperses this malevolent cloud of fan frustration. I sympathise with the league that there may be a shortage of high-level refs that they can use, but we should ensure that former players are not refereeing games of their old clubs, as they will either be perceived as favouring their old team or they will be so concerned to transcend that perception that they will heavily favour the other team!
In sum, I think we did extremely well tonight to hang with a perennial winner of this league, despite giving up a killer shorthanded goal and suffering through frequent calls for RBS and frequent non-calls for us.
Stats
Shots-saves at even strength
P1: 11-17 (OLL PPG, RBS G) - an action-packed opening period sees it end 1-1.
P2: 7-4 (RBS SHG) - a brutal shorthanded goal is given up on our powerplay, which ends up being the game-winner. I'll say it every time it happens - you just can't let those in and expect to win.
P3L 7-10 - despite a well-organised empty net attack, RBS just about control this period and see out the win (with some officiating assistance, let's say...).
Game flow
P1
929 GOAL RBS - We let RBS enter the zone very freely and they find a man at the right circle who hits home. We need to make them work for it more than whatever that was. EDIT - On the replay, I see that we had 4 defenders against 3 attackers, but our leftmost one of them (Simšič, possibly?) inexplicably decides to go off for a change, freeing up the space for the eventual right circle goal. HELLO!!? Defend the incoming attack first please?!? It's a wicked release from the RBS player that hits the pad-glove gap, but come on now. I think that player was aiming to help the transition once the attack was over, but the problem was that the attack was over - and they scored! This is the type of line-change clanger that happened far too often under Coach Karhula, so let's cut this out pronto, please.
0-1
607 PEN RBS - trip.
413 PPG OLIMPIJA - Červeny! We haven't got many PP ideas, but we don't need them when we can just give it to Rudolf to bang in from the left circle! He beats the goalie's glove, top right corner. Sabolič and Mašič on the assists.
1-1
307 Bad turnover on a change and Horak is there to smother the resulting chance.
Great energy in the building from the fans, which feeds the players and vice versa!
It's getting fesity, with Atwal, Červeny and Gregorc all getting a bit chippy with RBS!
P2
1817 Atwal fight! 5 minutes each. Sadly for people in the West stand, like me, we couldn't really see much as it was right at the boards.
1628 OLL PEN - Bičevskis high stick. They got this a bit mixed up and Červeny seemed to go in, so I'm not sure what happened there.
1423 Pance breaks on the PK but gets his shot glove saved.
1342 Good stick from Bohinc.
1244 PEN RBS - check to the head on Lavoie.
1217 SHORTHANDED GOAL RBS - oh no... Unfortunately, as friend of the blog NR pointed out to me, it's Mašič who turns the puck over right next to the net (again). The joyous forechecker slides it into the slot for an incoming teammate who takes it around Horak for the SHG.
We need to talk about Mašič - as NR and I discussed, he is in danger of becoming the 'offensive defenseman' stereotype of being a points scorer (he is second on the team in points) but one who gives up a lot the other way. He's young, but these killer turnovers that lead to goals and losses have to stop. Hopefully Tavželj, Pavlin and the other defenders can help him out. Simplifying his game would be a good start - as NR suggested, sometimes he is trying to do too much when he can just take the simple pass. Sadly, at the moment he is becoming a Predan-esque liability. Last season, Predan started off well but then kept turning the puck over in dangerous areas, eventually losing the trust of the coaching staff and his place on the team. I don't foresee the same ending for Mašič, but you can't rule anything out if these turnover goals continue. He's fallen quite far from my 'Rolls-Royce' assessment at the start of the season!
1129 Kapel hits the bar!
844 PEN OLL - Sabla delay of game. The puck goes over the glass in the neutral zone.
428 Kapel hits the post!!
P3
1931 Mahkovec hits the post!!!
1750 PEN OLL - slash by Ege.
1432 Dangerous looking hit to the head on Sabla not called. This is the same ref who didn't give anything for Kumanović being motionless on the ground, according to a friend of the blog (can't find who it was, sorry!).
1242 Lavoie hits the post!!!! The crowd are baying and begging for a goal!
530 Clear interference right in front of the referees on Červeny and it's not called. What are they looking at? Seriously?? He's got a defender draped all over him, hauling him down. If that's not interference, I honestly do not know what is.
1 - we go empty net.
11s left - Mašič falls at the offensive blue line and RBS take over, nearly scoring an empty netter and finishing the game. I don't blame him for this, it was an accident and a pressure situation. The turnover for the SHG is what I am more concerned with.
2s left PEN OLL - Bonino for a very dubious slash.
ENDS 1-2
Final thoughts
We hit the goalposts 4 times tonight, in quick succession. Both goals were down to our mistakes. Despite refereeing controversy, let's focus on what we can control. We were hyper-competitive against a top, top team in this league. That bodes very well for the near and more distant future. On to Asiago, in 10 minutes! ^^
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