Stars put up a good fight
It was a very physical game between two teams who have bult up quite a rivalry this season. Right from the opening faceoffs neither team was shying away from the body contact. The tempo was good, and Dominik Dieber was outstanding. In the first period Dieber fished out 3 certain goals with his legs and glove hand. Both teams were into this game big time, every hit was cheered by both benches as long as every nice pass and scoring chance. The Black Hawks would take the lead after beating our D and ending the rush off with a hard wrist shot on the ice through the wickets of Dieber. This gave Linz a little fire and they picked it up and kept pressuring. The turning point of the first period was a great body check by Mark Flamand who caught a Black Wing with his head down and made him pay the price. The momentum suddenly switched and after great chances from Nikita Zantmans and Matt Flamand, it would be Eduard Kuznetsov with one of the nicest combinations of the Season, as Irhuesogie and Baltram did the ground work to set up the Russian Star. The period would end and thanks mostly to Dominik Dieber it was still 1-1.
We started the second on the Power Play but the execution was not there, and this would come back to haunt us later Both teams had equal chances to get the go ahead goal but unfortunately it was Linz who took advantage of a Neutral zone turnover and our one Defenseman gave up a little too much ice to let the Linzer walk in and put a screened shot past Dieber.
The third period and the Stars came out pressuring, 7 minutes in after a good 40 seconds of peppering the net, Emil Sztatecsny finally got one past the Goalie to tie the game. The pressure continues forcing Linz to take a penalty and give us the Power Play. But a bad face off and then Max Paczkowski caught an edge and suddenly Linz had a shorthanded breakaway and Haas would make no mistake beating Dieber to regain the lead. But the fight was far from over, the Stars battled back and Wolf would send Irhuesogie in on a breakaway. Cedric was hooked down and awarded a Penatly Shot. But no luck this time as Cedrics shot would be saved. One minute later the play that would change the game. Dieber made a save the rebound would come out to a Black Wing who would squeeze in through the pads of Dieber, but Dieber would reach back and make what looked like another amazing goal line save, with the ref being behind the play, the linesman signalled a goal. This is isn't the first time this scenario has played out for us this season, but the outcome would be the same. The frustration in Dieber apparently got him to lose the focus he had such good control of during the game. The next few shots and an unconcentrated Goalie suddenly made this good game look like a one sided battle as the score climbed to 6-2. The frustration was still apparant 3 minutes later, after Florian Baltram laid out Gaffal with a big hit, the Linzer team retaliated and attacked Baltram. Dieber showing his frustration didn't think twice about jumping into the action and suddenly there was chaos. The Linzer Bench would emply and the "Bench Brawl" was on. Dieber would be given a Match, as well as Baltram, Mark Flamand, and Patrick Dieber being sent to the showers. There was still 3 minutes of hockey to play once things settled, and Max Paczkowski would make a great pass to Cedric Irhuesogie as his Power Play goal would round out the scoring making the final 6-3.
BWL:LA2 6:3 (1:1,1:0,4:2)
