(Photo by: Sport50.lu , JMM)
After the long Christmas break, Tornado fans finally had something to cheer about on Saturday night when the home team hosted the squad from Deuil/St Ouen and posted the first win at home to continue its short winning streak that started two weeks earlier in Dunkerque.
The 3 lines put together by coach Joakim Eriksson delivered in a 10-2 win, even if it was less convincing than it could have been. The pace of the game was very slow from the beginning and Tornado seemed to adapt to the level of the short-staffed guests from St Ouen. The teams traded scoring chances early, but not many shots were on net in the first ten minutes of the game. It was only when Jason Maclean pinched deep in the St Ouen zone to keep the puck in, feed it to Jeff Meyer and that Steven Minden buried the rebound for the 1-0 lead at 11:23 that the game seemed to start.
Unfortunately, Tornado got into penalty trouble when Jeff Meyer received a double minor for roughing and St Ouen benefitted from the situation to beat netminder Gilles Mangen for the 1-1 tie at 17:30 with a shot just past the blue line that caught Mangen off guard.
Understandingly, coach Eriksson was not very happy with the performance of his team. In an uneven match where the home team should be dominating easily, the score was 1-1 after 20 minutes. The instructions were pretty clear: more skating and better use of the chances.
It took another 8 minutes in the second before Tornado managed to cash in on the promise of better play. The same Steven Minden converted a pass from Benny Welter and Georges Scheier and put Tornado up 2-1 at 28:19. Unfortunately, less than 3 minutes later, Tornado was stunned when a give-away at the St Ouen blue line led to a 2-on-1 breakaway and Lannes scored for the visiting team.
The third line bailed out Tornado again at 32:24 when Steven Minden continued his strong play and fed Patrick Schon with the perfect pass in the slot for an easy goal into an empty net.
When Thierry Magalhaes got checked from behind, St Ouen played shorthanded and got punished by Benny Welter who converted a perfect powerplay combination from Robert Beran and Serge Milano for the 4-2 at 36:55. On an ensuing 5-on-3 powerplay, things got a bit ugly with a small brawl in the St Ouen corner and penalties spoiled the rest of the period.
The last period was marked by a breakdown of the shortmanned and tired visiting squad. At 42:56, Georges Scheier converted a pass from his eternal linemate Benny Welter and 41 seconds later, on the same shift, he returned the favor and assisted on Benny Welter's tally. The floodgates seemed to have opened and Tornado had finally found to its pace. On a powerplay at 45:31, Agi Ichinnorov fed Thierry Magalhaes who skated easily in on the St Ouen goalie and put the backhander home for the 7-2 lead. Two minutes later, Patrick Schon's shot from just behind the blue line seemed to have been gloved by the St Ouen netminder, but it somehow slipped through and found the back of the net. Benny Welter completed his first hattrick of the season at 57:05 when he converted Agi Ichinnorov's pass. Robert Beran scored his team-leading 9th goal of the season on a powerplay in the final minute to put the score into double-digits and provide Tornado with the first home-win of the season.
The crowd was pleased with a sufficient performance of its home team and is certainly looking forward to seeing the winning streak extended in this weaker relegation round.
*UPDATE*
Click here to view pictures of the game!
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