Catch Ups: GAMES 42-44

G42: OLIMPIJA 2 - 1 BOLZANO (PENS)

Buzzer beats HCB's last second effort

Sabla and Horak shootout heroes once more

Stars

* Lukaš Horák - penalty king (1). 37/38 in regulation for a 0.974 save %, 3/3 in OT and 3/3 in the shootout. Overall, a 43/44 for 0.977. Horak's on fire!

** Robert Sabolič (A, PEN) - penalty king (2). The forehand-backhand-roof combo looks unstoppable when he gets it right!

*** Andrej Tavželj - this was a big statement win for AT after we got embarrassed by two other playoff teams previously. Bolzano didn't look their usual selves, in fairness, but they're still a top-2 team in the league and beating them in any fashion is something to be celebrated and appreciated. 

Highlights

• Seeing Horak's potent mix of elation and relief at winning the shootout after thinking he had conceded just before time expired in regulation was wonderful. He propelled himself towards the West side fans and launched himself into the boards. You love to see a happy goalie!
• Crnović's deflection goal was a funny one. Even he looked a bit bemused by it! It's not how, it's how many... (Crnović G, Simšič and Sabla A).
• Another stellar performance in OT and penalties. We seem so focused in these formats this season. This is the kind of stuff that gets you far in the playoffs...

Lowlights

• Refereeing - finally there were multiple obvious blown calls for both teams, rather than just us for a change! I suppose in that sense, it's a highlight!
• Kerbashian's net-front scramble goal should have counted. ŽG got some insider info for me that they disallowed it due to Mašič moving the goalie's leg with his stick, meaning goalie interference occurred. As ŽG himself pointed out, there was a HCB defender doing the same thing, so it was a wishy-washy call.
• HCB's buzzer beater - more info from ŽG revealed that HCB scored exactly on 0.0 seconds remaining on review. The refs called the league's head office in Austria to check what to do, and they were told to disallow it. To me, this makes sense - if it's zeroes on the clock, it's game over! However, confusion was caused by the siren only sounding slightly after the puck went in. We've got to be faster on that next time! ^^
• HCB were frustrated at an icing call that preceded Crnovic's goal. I don't understand why, to be honest, but if there was something amiss about that call then it was unfortunate for them. 
• There were further missed calls for both teams on various minor penalties.
• A momentary lowlight was when we thought we'd let in a last second regulation winner for HCB. We do tend to start switching off near the end of periods, so that's something we need to work on. Perhaps shorter shifts would help keep us fresher (more on that later).
• My Mum informed me that she was disappointed that Bonino missed his penalty. Come on, Nick! 😆

Takeaways:

• So, we're not dead yet! Perhaps my prognosis of AT's off-season departure was premature... I still think they'll look to upgrade at HC, unless we go on a deep run. A perfect scenario would be to bring in a big name HC, keep AT as an assistant to provide a Slovene link to the local players and get rid of Rodman (more trouble than he's worth, from what I've seen so far).
• I'm considering doing an off-season series on 'what can we learn from (insert team)'. What could we learn from HCB's play today? They were very efficient at finding passes in the neutral zone that made offensive zone entries a formality. These passes were often stretch passes across the rink, with willing players skating hard to accept them on the far side. We can definitely improve our neutral zone transitions from defence to offense, so let's take a leaf out of their book!
• Friend of the blog NR had an interesting and noble perspective on being disappointed at winning when we didn't really deserve to (due to the icing call that preceded Crnović's goal, the disallowed buzzer beater, etc). I have to say, though, that at the moment I am much more inclined to adhere to the motto of Al Davis (former Raiders owner in the NFL): "Just win, baby!". I don't really care how we do it, as long as we win! Winning pretty is nice, but winning ugly is still winning!

G43: INNSBRUCK 0 - 4 OLIMPIJA

No bigger boat needed as woeful Sharks put down by Dragons

Horak shutout continues his dominant run of form

Stars

* Lukaš Horák (22/22 for S/O) - Innsbruck looked pretty atrocious tonight, but having 61 in net will do that to you sometimes. He crushed any dreams they had of tickling the twine tonight.

** Nick Bonino (G, A) - he does the little things very well, which leads to points and wins.

*** Wyatt Ege (G) - some precision passing, tough work along the boards, PK2 duty and a goal that he set up. Ignore Innsbruck's commentators whining about a missed high stick - if you hit a guy high into the boards and then launch your schnozz into his stick, that's your problem, buddy boy! 

Highlights

• Horak's away game shutout. I love seeing him tip the net over at the end to signify the shutout.
• Even if we didn't score in P1, we created a lot of chances, which was pleasing to see.
• The floodgates opening in the last 5 minutes of the 2nd period, where we scored three goals!
• G1 - brilliant recovery by Bonino behind the net, followed by a pass back into a central position for Kapel to smack into the top corner (Mahkovec A, too).
• G2 - not sure if this was a clever deflection or a happy accident, but Pance scores shoots the puck into a defender's skates and it goes in. Assisted by Mehle and Beričič.
• G3 - Bonino wraps around the net and performs a simple backhand that beats the static goalie (Mašič and Mahkovec A).
• G4 - Ege from Lavoie and Bičevskis. Innsbruck want a high stick called on Ege in the run up to the goal, but to no avail. Ege creates this with hard work along the boards, then Lavoie finds him at the back post.
• I enjoyed that there was only one penalty called all match. It makes a change from our usual games!

Lowlights

• This was a bit of a snoozefest for the first 35 minutes. We peppered Innsbruck with shots and controlled the flow of the game without anything to show for it. Thankfully, the last 5 minutes of P2 were rather fruitful...
• The commentator saying "Bičevič" for Bičevskis. I find it truly exasperating that these guys get to be commentators and can't even be bothered to do the most basic research on how to pronounce players' names before the game. I feel I would do a far better job than them (*cough cough* let me have a go on the Olimpija broadcast please *cough cough*).

Takeaways:

• Wow, Innsbruck looked lost. Let's be grateful we are not like them!
• This should be a big confidence builder for the team, even if it was against the bottom-feeding Sharks.

Story time

I had a funny interaction with Horak after the game. He laugh reacted to my story which I'd captioned with 'No Kolin start again :(' after his away game shutout. To be completely transparent, I saw my future plans and blogging career crumble before my eyes (as you can probably tell by now, my greatest strength and biggest weakness is that I overthink things). How can I get more involved with the club next year and do interviews with the players if our star goalie doesn't like me?! 

(On a side note - Mr Lefebvre, Mr Butara, Mr Ulčar, Mr Sever, Petro, anybody who'll listen - please let me get more involved with the club next year. You can see my dedication throughout this season! You could give me a press pass so I can teach these professional journalists a thing or two! What about joining the post-game broadcast/interview team? You know I'd be dynamite - I'd certainly do my research! Neža and Katja are great, but I could add an extra content dimension for the club! At least let me do the foreign-born away coach interviews - you know the questions were a bit lacking this year (e.g. "Is that it?" from the now-fired Asiago coach)! Please?!). 

Anyway, back to the Horak story. I frantically responded with "You're a beast, man - I just want to make sure you're not overworked for the play-ins!'. Bear in mind, I have tagged him 24 times with effusive praise and was horrified that our first actual interaction would be a negative one! Thankfully, he cleared things up and said 'I know' and 'we're all good'. My future plans reformulating, I breathed a big sigh of relief! Just another day in the life of Olimpija Hockey Blog 😅

G44: VORARLBERG 1 - 3 OLIMPIJA

PIONEERS REDISCOVER THEIR HEAVY HOCKEY BUT OLIMPIJA PULL THROUGH

HORAK OUTSTANDING ONCE MORE; ČERVENY BAGS TWO AND PANCE SEALS THE DEAL

Stars

* Lukaš Horák (27/28 for 0.964) - yes, Hory does go 3/3 on first star of the game in this sequence - he has gone 86/88 in 3 games for 0.977, which is absolutely world-class. While I have been calling for Kolin to start and give 61 a rest, if he prefers to stay in a rhythm and be that workhorse type of goalie then who is anybody to stop him?! He's started 37/44 games this season, per Elite Prospects, which is an 84% start rate. The highest start rate in the NHL of recent times is Mackenzie Blackwood's 81% in his first 22 games with the Avalanche. Otherwise, it's Hellebuyck (who I have compared Horak to before), with 77%. That puts things in perspective a bit - if this is what Horak wants, then I suppose this is what Horak gets! If we keep winning and he's confident his body can take it, I can see why AT is just riding him off into the (hopefully playoff-based) sunset!

** Rudolf Červeny (PPG, G) - this second star does come with a caveat. While he scored two cracking goals, he did get a 10 minute misconduct penalty on a silly retaliation after he felt he deserved a penalty call. You've got to be a bit more clever about that, even if it was a bit of an overreaction by the referees. Take the guy's number and hit him hard the next time you're both on the ice. Even better, keep playing and scoring instead of sitting out for 10 minutes where you could have got your hat-trick!

*** Žiga Pance (ENG, A) - magnificent work from Pance to single-handedly turn the puck over just before the blue line in an empty net situation and then score the ENG with a diving attempt. Quality, quality play as usual from 13. 

Highlights

• Horak playing lights out again.
• Červeny's two goals. The PPG was a brilliant tip from a low and fast Sabla pass. The other saw a great cycle and pick play by Ćosić open up acres of space for 65 to shoot top corner (Pance on the assist). 
• Battling through long periods of PIV dominance to come away with the win. This kind of resilience and winning when the other team plays better for most of the game bodes very well for the pre-playoffs.

Lowlights

• Sabla getting 2 minutes for abuse after Červeny already had his 10 minute misconduct. Not the behaviour you want out of your Captain. I look forward to Žiga Pavlin's return. (UPDATE: Friend of the blog ED informed me that Sabla was only serving Červeny's penalty for him - my apologies to 55 for assuming his guilt! That's a weird choice of person to serve the penalty!).
• PIV really controlled the flow of the game for much of P1 and P2, with Horak the only reason it stayed 0-0 for so long. We found their brand of 'heavy hockey' (i.e. big players who physically outmuscle you at every opportunity) difficult to play against last year, and so it proved for long stretches today. They had a huge shot differential in their favour for much of P1, but we managed to claw things back as the game went on.
• The stream cut out in P1 from 307-133 remaining. It then proceeded to blink like my TV was tired for the rest of the game. No thank you, broadcasters! Sort yourselves out!
• Hebar tripping over himself in the neutral zone, which led to PIV's goal on a very tight angle shot. Accidents happen, but that wasn't a good look for someone who should be proving he belongs in a starting spot. At the moment, I would always take Bohinc over Hebar if it came down to choosing who starts and who's 7th D-man. 86 looks much more comfortable and effective at this level than 22, currently.
• The commentator saying "Nick Bonio". Come on now, the man has two Stanley Cup rings! Put some respect on his *correct* name!

Takeaways

• We are 7 points clear of HCP for 8th place, although the Wolves have a game in hand on us. The ICE League announced that we have secured a "pre-playoffs" spot. I seem to have been calling it the wrong thing, but play-ins works, too!
• Only 4 more games to go in the regular season - hasn't it gone quickly?!
• Please let me know what you prefer - are these short catch-ups actually easier to digest / more what you want out of match reports? Or do you like the big juicy ones? DM me on Instagram @olimpijahockeyblog!