*Finn Lions – German Eagles 12-5*, 27.1.2024

We played another game against the German Eagles. We opened the scoring with a goal by Aleksander Navarrete. Then we fell into passivity, like in the first game, which led the Eagles to score three goals. Then we scored, but again, the Eagles scored 4-2. This was the result before the break. We had a small team talk according to which we need to start working harder, giving easy passes and shooting, and also blocking the shots better. The German Eagles can shoot the ball very well, which was seen on the scoreboard after the 1st period.

In the second period, we found our game—very straightforward, easy passes, and shooting effectively to the net. In the beginning of the 2nd period, we quickly scored 2 goals—4-4!. Then we hit the gas big time and scored many others. Juha scored a hattrick in the 2nd period, and Vesa Nevalainen scored a couple of beautiful ones as well. Ossi Granat also scored two nice goals. Vesa and Ossi have both had outstanding performances in their first games. Elias, Amol and Maksim were also doing a good job in the defense lines: blocking shots and passing the ball to our players and to our goalie. We took a 12-5 victory—no confusion about the better team in the rink. We got some very important practice on slippery ice. With some accuracy in passing, keeping the tempo up, and shooting more, we are going to be a very difficult team to beat, whether on runny or slippery ice. When we get more confident in passing the ball, we can also take the defensemen to support our attacking.

Scores:
Juha 5+1
Vesa: 3+2
Jari 0+3
Sasha N 2+1
Ossi 2+1
Maksim 0+1
Matti A 0+1

I’m very proud of the team, and I’m looking forward to playing again with you guys. Tästä on hyvä jatkaa!

*27.1.2024 Finn Lions – Disney 7-6*

*Masters of the sticky ice – learners of the slippery one.*

Today we played our second game of the season against Disney. The lineup was

Goalie: Matti A

Defenders: Elias, Amol, Maksim

Centre Forwards: Juha, Ossi

Wingers: Jari, Vesa, Aleksander N

The first notification was that the ice was not slippery this time: it was semi-runny ice. That helped us a lot: we ran hard, we passed easy and straight passes, we controlled the ball, and most importantly, we scored very effectively. We went 6-0 against Disney in the first period! Before the break, we accidentally scored an own goal by passing to the goalie in a situation where we shouldn’t (the goalie wasn’t expecting a pass because he had just thrown the ball to our defenseman).

In the second period, we started to slow down and get passive. In addition, the ice got very slippery. Disney took advantage of this and scored two goals in the second period. Being passive, we didn’t manage to shoot towards the Disney goal at all. In the 3rd period, we started improving our game but still lost 3-1. The last goal shouldn´t have counted, though (made by Disney), since the ball wasn’t over the goal line. However, the Disney players went yelling at the referee, who accepted the goal afterwards. According to any game rules, a referee can’t whistle and point out a goal if he doesn’t see that the ball was inside the goal. That is the feedback we gave to the referee. The ref didn’t blow the whistle and accepted the goal afterwards. Ridiculous, but the most important thing is that we won the game 7-6.

Comments: Luckily, the first period was good enough to beat Disney. However, we need to learn to play our own game on slippery ice as well. We need to keep the tempo up, give simple passes, and shoot more when we have a chance to shoot. We can win only if we shoot enough. Matti played an outstanding game as a replacement goalkeeper and made some really important saves during the game. A special mention goes to our new defenseman, Maksim, who played an excellent game and shaded the best player at Disney all game long.

It was a great pleasure to have our Finn Lions legends, Aleksander Navarrete and Jari Jumpponen, with us today. Both played with experience and helped us a lot on the ice.

Scores:

Juha 3+0
Aleksander N 1+1
Vesa: 1+2
Jari: 1+1
Ossi: 1+1