A victory in Courbevoie after many coincidences!


08 October 2017

Tornado spent a long evening in the bus, in the traffic jams on the Boulevard Périphérique de Paris, on the way to Courbevoie to play the Coqs of Courbevoie. Arriving at the rink 15 minutes before the puck dropped meant no warm up whatsoever and the beginning of the first period was just about keeping the sheet clean. Jesper Miquel did not get the start of his debut he had wished for.

The rest of the team was scrambling to find necessary equipment. The team's hockey professor, Robert Beran, made a rookie mistake by forgetting his hockey pants in Luxembourg. As you can see from the pic, Courbevoie very nicely lent him some small red pants. It's fair to say that Tornado tried a new concept, and had only 14 players plus the goalie.A bit surprisingly Tornado, through Robo opened the goal scoring at 3.55 into the game, in his borrowed red Krauthosen. The end of the period was broken up by penalties for both teams and Tornado could go to the break in a 1-0 lead. Coach Fical encouraged the team to keep playing the same way in the second period, apart from the stupid penalties, in particular the hookings in the offensive zone. The message was well noted, although Courbevoie equalised after 5 minutes, but Tornado scored the second 7 minutes into the second period after a funny incident. Tornado got a delayed penalty, Courbevoie pulled the keeper and Courbevoie scored an own goal! Lucky. Hockey professor played a part in this goal by raising the opponemts stick which allowed the puck to slide in the empty net. But all goals count. 2-1 to Tornado.Only 5 minutes later Colm Cannon used his famous wrist shot and the game was 3-1 for Tornado. Courbevoie scored once more, this time in the right zone before David Shorty Müller scored on one of his many chances after big hassle at the net, and the the score after period two was 4-2. 

Coach Fical warned for provocations from Courbevoie before the third period - and he was right. The third was a story of penalties, provocation and suspense. And the excitement and audience woke up for real with 3 minutes to go. Courbevoie had pressure on the PP and the puck found its way behind a Miquel who could not see the puck behind the mask. Both teams took penalties, Courbevoie pulled the goalie, did not score in either zone and Tornado could celebrate a 4-3 victory. 

In the game preview we presented the competition in the competition, between the Finns of Courbevoie and the Finns of Tornado which was won by Courbevoie, who scored twice, once in their own goal, once in Tornado's goal. Tornado has the capacity to play even better than this, but the team spirit on the bench was impressive - the players supported and encouraged each other. That's promising for next weekend with two away games against Caen on Saturday and Cergy on Sunday. It's gonna be tough but the team is inspired!

Tornado had a nice debut with new jerseys and Jesper Miquel got his first victory in his first game for Tornados! Well done Jesper, well done team!