The hockey players of HK “Kurbads” have returned from their first trip to Estonia this season, and in Tallinn on Friday and Saturday they won twice, beating the “Panter” club. In the Estonian “Coolbet” hockey league, the Tallinn team and the “Kurbads” team had not experienced a single loss before the two games.
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In the first game between the two teams, “Kurbads” was superior in overtime with the result 5:4. The hosts were the first to open the score when they beat Uldi Čalpa in the second half of the first period, but at the end of the period, playing five against three, Edgars Adamović made it 1:1.
In the first half of the second period, “Kurbads” gained a two-goal advantage, but the home team later managed to recover one goal. At first, the defenders of the home team did not cover Mārtiņš Shpak, but in the middle of the period, Roberts Binde scored the third goal after a mistake in the defensive zone. A little later, the home team responded with an accurate shot, and after 40 minutes, “Kurbads” was in the lead with 3:2.
In the 8th minute of the third quarter, Emil Lochmelis was the first to rebound the puck and made it 4:2, but the home team managed to equalize in a short time. The winning goal was taken care of by Mick Lipsberg, who demonstrated individual skill in overtime, scoring a beautiful goal.
A day later, “Kurbads” won the second victory over “Panter” hockey players with 4:2. Goalkeeper Fyodor Aganezov, who had not been in goal until now, made his debut in the Estonian Championship. He was recognized as the best player of the match for “Kurbads”. It should be noted that Fyodor Aganezov has been invited to the Estonian U-20 national team to participate in the test tournament.
Roberts Yekimov put the guests in the lead at the end of the first third, but they had to wait 20 minutes for the next goal, when at the end of the second third “Panter” reached 1:1. In the middle of the last part of the match, Julian Misjus restored the leadership of “Kurbads”, but a few seconds later the balance followed again – 2:2.
In the 53rd minute, Mick Lipsbergs scored the winning goal for the guests, while Marcis Zembergs added a point to the game with the fourth scored goal.
The hockey players of “Kurbads” will also play the next two games on the road, when they will meet the team of “PSK Narva” on November 19 and 20.
“It took some time for us to wake up on the field after the road to Tallinn, but overall the first game was good. We knew that the opponent was showing good hockey and we didn’t expect an easy game. They play smart hockey. We took the lead 4-2, but followed by two stupid mistakes that allowed the home team to equalize. We pulled out the win in extra time. The scoreboard was balanced for a long time in the second game, although we had good moments that we should have taken advantage of. There were a lot of rejections by both teams that made the game tight. The calendar is such that sometimes we play every other week, but sometimes every weekend. Experienced hockey players sometimes can’t get into the rhythm, but the games are frequent for the new players, and we had to play a JAHL game on Sunday as well after returning from Estonia,” emphasized “Kurbads” head coach Tom Bluk.
