20.02.2012: GEC Ritter Nordhorn - CRE Salzgitter Icefighters 4:5

Regionalliga Nord

Ice Rink, Nordhorn (Germany)

(Pentax K-5 with Tamron SP AF 17-50mm 2.8 XR Di II LD Asp IF and Sigma AF 50-150mm 2.8 EX DC APO HSM II)

Already in beforehand the game of GEC Ritter Nordhorn against the CRE Icefighters from Salzgitter was handled as a top game of the Regionalliga Nord which was not promised too much. The call was followed by 1642 visitors and so a new record on number of viewers could be celebrated during this season. Many visitors were expected but finally due to the huge press of people the game was delayed by 20 minutes as long rows were in front of the ticket boxes.
Directly from start of the Ritter wanted to show that they are the favorite in this game and quite rightly were playing to win the championship. Already after 8 minutes the high pressure made an impact and Christian Synowiec was able to score the lead. Salzgitter was not very impressed and fought bravely back. The game was like the game against Wolfsburg a very physical one and in minute 14 Salzgitter was very lucky in not getting a penalty shot against them. Lukas Hausmanninger picked up the puck in the center area and went alone towards the Salzgitter goalie Radka Lhotska when he was brought down by Daniel Borchers. But a huge issue of this evening already started during the first period. Again and again the Nordhorn players got unnecessary penalties so that Salzgitter was able at the end of the first period to play with two players more than Nordhorn which luckily for Nordhorn led to nothing. So they went to the cabin with a lead by 1:0.
During the second period there was mainly only the direction of playing towards the Icefighter goal but it did not lead to anything countable. In minute 29 Adrian Matula had to go to penalty bench and directed some comments against the referees leading to additional 10 minutes penalty. Because of playing with one player more the Icefighters in person of Thorben Franke were able to score equal. Nordhorn was not very impressed by that and was able to take the lead again in minute 33 by a power play goal by Ludwig Synowiec. Only 14 seconds later Alexander Zimbelmann made an impressive long-range shot hitting unsavable for goalie Lhotska the goal corner. Due to this the game could have become a no-brainer but it came completely different. Out of all reason the Ritter continued to take unnecessary penalties which were also to some extend related to the unluckily habit of the referees. From that point onwards there were no longer periods of time where both teams played at full strength. Just before the second period ended it was up to Patrick Geppert who received a 5 minutes plus game misconduct due to an ellbow check. Otherwise nothing more happened and so it went with a 3:1 and a power play for the Icefighters into the final period.
Salzgitter got stronger from minute to minute due to the penalties against Nordhorn. In minute 44 it was Christian Pelikan who was able to make use of the 5 minutes penalty against Geppert to get one back. Just shortly afterwards it was getting cozy on the penalty bench of Nordhorn (at some points during the game up to 6 Ritter had to sit there at the same time) and Dennis Zapfe could use a 3 to 5 power play to equalize. The Ritter were now shaking and naturally Salzgitter was increasing the pressure further on. Nils Blankschyn was able to firstly score the lead for the Icefighters in minute 52 after a great solo run. Only 4 minutes later the next solo run towards Marek Hanisz could only be stopped by a foul. The resulting penalty shot was net quite easily by Christian Pelikan and so it was 5:3.
Ireneusz Pacula now threw everything he had into the balance and took shortly before the end the goalie from the ice to have an additional 6th fielder on the ice. Unfortunately 9 seconds in front of the end of the game the 4:5 by Christian Synowiec could be scored. The following bully led to the situation that the Salzgitter player simply layed down on the puck blocking it what resulted in an escalation of the situation on ice. It came to three fights on ice where especially two players of the Ritter stood out extremely negative. To attack a player who wents after the fight towards his player's bench from the back by heavily punching with glove protected hands against the unprotected head is an absolutely unexcusable behaviour as well as continously hitting the head of a player lying on the ice whilst he is only able trying to protect his head. On the other side the behaviour of the Salzgitter team afterwards into the direction of the Nordhorn fans could also not be called ideal. These scenes led to 3 game misconducts against the Icefighters as well as 2 game misconducts and a match penalty against the Ritter. In the end it was an absolutely deserved victory of the Salzgitter Icefighters who could thank their extremely good playing goalie who was able to keep their team in play. On the other side they could also thank the GEC Ritter who weakened themselved by many unnecessary penalties nearly all the time. Last but not least also the referees did their bit by some very doubtful decisions. Final score related to penalties: GEC Ritter 158 minutes, CRE Salzgitter Icefighters 103 minutes. So this has been the first regular defeat of the Ritter in this season (against Langenhagen they had lost after overtime).

Score:

GEC Ritter Nordhorn - CRE Salzgitter Icefighters 4:5 (1:0 / 2:1 / 1:4)

8. / 1:0 / Christian Synowiec

30. / 1:1 / Thorben Franke

33. / 2:1 / Ludwig Synowiec

34. / 3:1 / Alexander Zimbelmann

44. / 3:2 / Christian Pelikan

49. / 3:3 / Dennis Zapfe

52. / 3:4 / Nils Blankschyn

56. / 3:5 / Christian Pelikan

60. / 4:5 / Christian Synowiec

Weblinks:

	GEC Die Ritter Nordhorn Homepage of the German icehockey team GEC Die Ritter Nordhorn.
	CRE Salzgitter Icefighters Homepage of the German icehockey team CRE Salzgitter Icefighters.
	Eishockey Regionalliga-Nord Homepage of the German icehockey Regionalliga-Nord.
	Ice Rink Nordhorn Homepage of the Ice Rink at Nordhorn (Germany).

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