GAME 39: ASI VS OLL

 ASIAGO 2 - 3 OLIMPIJA 

DRAGONS MAKE IT HARD ON THEMSELVES BUT GET THE WIN

KERBASHIAN LIGHTS THE TORCH, ČERVENY FANS THE FLAMES AND BONINO BURNS DOWN THEIR HOPES OF VICTORY

Stars of the game

* Nick Bonino (GWG (game-winning goal)) - I feel like it's easy to forget how lucky we are to have signed Nick Bonino. He has fitted in so well at the club that you almost take him for granted, already. Let's agree not to do that! His work on the penalty kill was crucial, his goal yanked us out of our slide towards OT and his leadership and dedication to defending our lead (and net) in the closing seconds of the game were exceptional. 'TFC' in cricket means 'thanks for coming', and is a kind of derogatory assignation to someone who did nothing in the game. I sincerely want to thank Bonino for coming to Olimpija, in the complete opposite sense to that of the cricketing acronym. He is everything to this team!

** Kale Kerbashian (G, A) - Now, I can't go saying all that nice stuff about 63 without giving KK his flowers, too. This game was a call-back to his early season form, where he looked like the maestro conducting the Olimpija team in attack. He has still been doing that, but just in a less flashy way. Today was flashy. His assassination of a goal sparked the team into life after a difficult start and he manipulated the Asiago defence into losing their shape just enough for Červeny to bang one in from his usual left circle office. I suppose I should take this opportunity to thank everybody for letting me have his OnkoMan jersey - I appreciate it! If you see me at a game and you like the blog, come and say hi! If you don't like the blog, leave me alone! ^^

*** Lukaš Horák (34/36 for 0.944 - I have this as the exact same statline as last game!) - A theme of these stars of the game is outrageous skill being commonplace. Horak, of course, fits this bill magnificently. Saves that many goalies across the league could not even attempt are basically default moves in his arsenal. He bails us out so, so often. Gratitude is the key to happiness, people - appreciate our squad for the greatness they put on show! As much as I love 61, I do want to see Kolin worked into the rotation more to keep Horak healthy. Perhaps Kolin was just being saved for the Slovene Cup games this week.

Stats

That left side cluster at the low slot / net-front is the highest concentration of chances I have seen in these shot charts, at least since I realised they exist a couple of months ago. I thought it was us, since we've had so many home games recently. It's actually Asiago! So, it shows we weathered a storm of chances and have improved in our stick-lifting and engagement in front of goal. They did score twice here, so there's work to be done, but specific goal analysis is down below. 

Now, you can see that we scored two goals in that exact spot on the right hand side, so the hockey gods giveth and the hockey gods taketh away. 

Shots-saves at even strength:

P1: 11-13 (OLL GG, ASI GG).

P2: 16-3. To not score in this period, with such dominant outchancing, is something we can't afford to do against stronger teams. It's that classic sporting thing of failing to capitalise on chances just being guaranteed to come back and bite you in the key moments. Mercifully, it did not happen today - but we can't put ourselves in that position when the play-ins/offs come around.

P3: 8-9 (OLL G). Closed out effectively and surprisingly later in the period, after I felt sure OT was on its way.

Shooting %: 3/39 for 7.69%. This was always going to be low with a scoreless 16-3 second period at 5 on 5. Their goalie did make one insane save on Mahkovec, so we were unlucky in that regard. 

Save %: 34/36 for 94.4%. Same as last game - a pillar of consistency!

Game flow

P1

1857 GOAL ASIAGO

Asiago hit us straight down the middle of Mašič and Atwal, just like last game. It's nifty stickhandling but comes off as weak team defence. I sang Atwal's praises recently, but that doesn't prevent me from saying that if he wants to assume this role of 'tough guy', then he should be doing what the likes of Radko Gudas would do for the Anaheim Ducks and hitting that attacker into oblivion instead of wafting a stick at him. It's another goal where a fast neutral zone transition catches us unawares. Something to keep in mind for the play-ins/offs, as other teams will be watching. Don't worry, I'll stop myself from waxing lyrical about the NFL's potential impact on the Belichickian meta-game we are neglecting of tendency building and breaking (but the offer is still there if the coaching staff wants!).

1-0

1620 triple save sequence from Horak.

938 Big entry hit from ASI 57 on Kapel that sends him spinning. We should try more of that!

836 GOAL OLIMPIJA - Kale races up the ice after pickpocketing a board battle for a 2 on 1 with Sabolič. He keeps it and rifles the puck over the goalie's glove. Yowza! Like Ezio Auditore da Firenze in an old Assassin's Creed game (don't buy their next one, Ubisoft must suffer for their gaming sins), he's in and out before you know it!

1-1

548 GOAL OLIMPIJA - Červeny 1-2s with Kale for yet another left circle snipe! Their new Finnish goalie, Kaarlehto, really should have had that, but the force of Červeny's shot squirms in through his defences. No matter, it's in! As a wise man once said, "no takesies backsies!".

1-2

206 GOAL ASIAGO - a point shot finds an ASI forward in front of Horak and all alone. Let's not sugarcoat it, this looks pretty awful on Hebar and Crnović, who were both caught way off on their right side of the rink chasing the puck - and then neither of whom thought to get back anywhere near the goal. Perhaps in AT's system somebody else should have dropped, I do not know. I don't think I am too out of line to suggest it may have been one of the defenders' responsibilities, though. The ASI F knocks it through Horak's 5 hole on what seems to be a rebound. These moments of really hanging Horak out to dry have thankfully become rarer since AT took over, but wow - it certainly happened tonight. There's no excuse to be playing like juniors.

2-2

P2

1427 PEN ASI - first penalty of the game, for a slash on a Mahkovec breakaway.

1421 Mašič gets tripped almost right away but it's not called. This is one of those frustrating ones where it would be called at 5 on 5, but the refs feel like they'd be piling on the team on the PK if they called it during a PP. You should still call it, Lord knows we've had those called on us enough times!

ASI's PK look ready for Červeny's left circle slot (admittedly, after he's already scored from there once, lol). They are smothering him at every opportunity. It's overall a good job from them in limiting what we're trying to do. They've clearly done their homework, which is why we need to play the tendency meta-game by...I'll stop myself!

1140 Kaarlehto makes a quadra-save sequence on the floor! Mahkovec gets robbed by a glove save on the line (later reviewed but there wasn't enough to overturn the no goal call), two further shots, and then a Bohinc shot that really should have been elevated more. If so, the goal was secure - Kaarlehto was fully laid out by that point, but Rožle could only hit his flailing glove.

1059 Kapel's solo drag and shot is blocker saved. Rok has been reinvigorated under the Tavželj regime and on the second line with Mahkovec and Bonino (admittedly, two excellent linemates to have). Whether it was just getting fully healthy or something mental, it's worked - and he's making an impact every game. I just hope he can squeeze a few more goals in, as he keeps hitting the goalposts recently.

848 It's currently 17-2 shot differential OLL-ASI at the moment, including special teams. And yet, no goals to show for it, so it counts for little!

653 PEN OLL - Bonino high stick.

547 Fantastic pad save from 61 on a very late accidental deflection off Crnović - pure class and stops what should have been a certain goal. A mix of good positioning and great reactions contributed here.

400 PEN OLL - Mašič for elbowing. 72 has the right idea, here - he aims to hit the attacker in the neutral zone, but he goes way too high and flails his elbow out into the guy's face. Can Červeny, Sabla and Bohinc teach him how to hit properly, please? 

ASI got 6 shots last PP, so it's a bad idea to give them another...

301 ASI PEN - hooking. 4 on 4 for 101.

P2 ends - we needed a goal from that. Our 4 on 4 and 1 minute of PP ends with zero shots.

P3

1832 Sabla turns it over in the defensive zone, passing straight to an ASI player - thankfully, Horak is there for the 1 on 0 smothering save.

1751 great double save from 61 - an elegant pad through traffic and an aggressive positioning to swallow up the follow up chance.

1529 PEN OLL - Bičevskis slash. He's seemed a bit ill-disciplined since his return. Perhaps it's him being conscious he needs to make up for his lack of full match fitness post-injury comeback? This stuff is not the refs, this is us being undisciplined.

1128 Lavoie gets dispossessed from behind, showing a lack of awareness, which springs a momentary 3 on 1 on Horak, who saves. Bailing us out once more!

This is too even, at the moment. We need to be in more control of this game, given the opposition.

1113 PEN ASI - high stick on Kale.

1054 Mašič's run of bad luck continues, as he breaks his stick on a prime chance.

1002 Gregorc's shot is  blocked by Kale, an unfortunate (and probably painful) one!

Zero shots on a PP when we really need a goal is also painful. We've only got ourselves to blame if we don't take the win this time.

6 - it's messy and it looks like OT is on the way.

529 GOAL OLIMPIJA - happily, I am almost immediately proven incorrect! Maybe I should state that it looks like I won't have an amazonian, hyper-intelligent model walk into my life in the near future who doesn't expect me to pay for all our dates and actually puts in a modicum of effort?? Hello??

Back to hockey (and, sadly, reality) - it's a great move from the second line. Kapel from the right side goes to Mahkovec down low, who hits Bonino in front of net. Two tries and it's in!

2-3

427 PEN ASI - roughing on Pance. A PPG would be a great finisher, but we look very indecisive with our zone entries and only get 1 shot on goal over our two PPs in P3. Ouch. 

Luckily, ASI are themselves indecisive on whether and when to go empty net.

51s left they finally do go EN.

Gregorc with a key stick to stop a back post shot.

3s left PEN OLL Gregorc slash. Bonino takes the reins and kills the last few seconds for the 4 on 6.

ENDS 2-3

Final thoughts

We made this harder than it needed to be, but we got what we came for. It's worth noting that these penalties were not like the tiki-taki RBS game's - these were our own fault. Learning opportunities!

AT said in the post-game that "the confidence in this group is that we kinda manage to find a way to win games" - I couldn't agree more. Such a sea-change from when we 'kind kept finding a way to lose games'!

Two personal notes - one, I am planning on doing a 'Farewell Miha Zajc' article, partly to make up for what I felt was an overly-brief farewell message from the team. I don't know the circumstances for how it went down, and I know I am more sensitive than most others (it's not just Olimpija who mark the end of years-long partnerships with a few short sentences), but I feel he deserved a bit more than that. So I aim to do that for him in our ICE League break! 

Two, talking of breaks, I am taking a break from the blog for the Slovene Cup games. I didn't watch them last year, for whatever reason, and we had a strong run to end the season. As a highly superstitious Celtic islander and former cricketer, I want the same for us this time around. I'll save up some energy for what we all hope will be an onslaught of playoff games!

These last few articles have been fuelled by the KILL KNIGHT soundtrack. I haven't even bought the game, but it's well worth checking out the OST on Spotify if you want some focus music à la Hotline Miami (which really powered me through my undergraduate degree). I wish I was somehow sponsored but you are well aware that I am not, by anyone! Feel free to hit me up, though, Radenska! I love your water! Still not up to the Serbian VodaVoda's levels, in my opinion, but the best on offer here by far! I would also take an EMKA.SI sponsorship. Time to stop the deranged ramblings. See you in a week or two!