Dijon II Wins Close one, 6-5 Over Tornado Luxembourg

Photo by Mike Sinner



27 October 2012

On october 27th in the Patinoire Kockelscheuer, the Tornado Luxembourg hosted Dijon II, where Dijon II won 5-6 in a very intense game.



The visiting team was stronger than their opponent in the first period. It was Gautier Sordel who opened the scoring for the guests at 4:02 on an assist by Jan Babic. Another goal followed quickly after, as Jan Babic scored another one for his team on a pass by Gautier Sordel. Colm Cannon scored a goal for the Tornado Luxembourg at 18:14 after being assisted by Kevin Grönlund. Dijon II didn't take long to retaliate, as Jan Babic scored 34 seconds later after being assisted by Charles Bordes. At the end of the first, the visiting team was leading 1-3.



The visiting team didn't change it's game and hold on to the lead during the second period. 5 minutes after the puck last crossed the goal line, Teemu Hinkula scored the 2-3 on a feed from Colm Cannon. The answer came only 3 minutes later, as Alban Janny scored for his team. The guests kept the momentum on their side, as Gautier Sordel scored only 2 minutes later. The score was 2-5 at the end of the second.



In the final period, the home team kept working and managed to cut down the difference on the scoreboard, but the answer simply came too late. Marcus Eriksson of the Tornado Luxembourg made it 3-5 at 47:52. Just 2 minutes later, it was Benoit Girardin who found the back of the net for Dijon II. Sacha Backes of the Tornado Luxembourg scored the 4-6 at 54:21. Another goal followed quickly after, as Colm Cannon scored another one for his team after being assisted by François Schons and Kevin Grönlund. In the last minute of the game the Tornados pulled their goaltender Gilles Mangen to bring in a sixth player. With 10 seconds left, the Tornados had a huge opportunity in front of an empty net, but couldn't bury it. The teams were heading home with a 5-6 score.



"We lost the game in the first two periods.", said Gilles Mangen of the Tornado Luxembourg. "We had trouble again to get in the game and play our new system. We also adjusted to their game instead of imposing ours. We played extremely well physically during the whole game, but we lost it during the first two periods when we were giving away turnovers. There were simply too many turnovers in our own zone. We had a huge comeback in the last period and certainly gave the spectators a reason to be excited, but unfortunately the answer came too late. We could have won this one if we had gotten of better in the beginning. We certainly would have deserved it after our overwhelming performance in the last period".



Topscorer of the game was Jan Babic of Dijon II with 5 points. Some players attracted attention by breaking personal season-highs, namely Kevin Grönlund (2 points) and François Schons (2 points). Out of these two teams' last 3 encounters, Dijon II won 66.67% of the games (2 out of 3). On November 3rd the Tornado Luxembourg will face the Puckers Luxembourg, whereas the Dijon II meet with the Tornado Luxembourg on January 26th.



Pictures of the game can be found in our photo gallery.