*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

20.1.2024 FINN LIONS – DISNEY 3-7 – after the 1st period, a decent starter!

The stats:

A.Kozlov 0+3=3
Granat 1+0=1
Filatov 1+0=1
Loan player 1+0=1

20.1.2024 FINN LIONS – DISNEY 3-7 – after the 1st period, a decent starter!

Today we played against Disney at the Kuzminki ice rink. As we knew, the ice would be very slippery and we would face a very strong opponent on the ice.

We had another challenge - many of our players were out of the city and we also had some injuries which made our roster very narrow. Due to this, we didn’t have any certain game plans thought in advance, and we changed the player positions during the game to understand how we should play in the future.

The first period was difficult. Our attackers way too often slipped far away which gave for team Disney an opportunity to have 3-2 attacks towards our net. We lost the first period 0-4. In the second period, we made some changes. Sergey F changed to attacker postion from a defenseman position, and Heikki V replaced Sergei’s Place as a defenseman.
We also had a team talk according to which we will always have 3 defenders (2 defensemen + the center forward). That made Disney’s attacking game much more difficult and we started controlling the ball way more. Sergei F scored our first goal, then Disney scored two more. Our second goal was made by Ossi Granat, who played his first broomball game – a very promising performance. Amol – our new defenseman had his first broomball game as well, and he did some good job on the defending lines as well! The result of 2nd and 3rd period was 3-3, which lead to the final score 3-7.

Even though we lost the game, we had some very promising performances on the ice.

Ossi Granat played a very solid game as a center forward: he blocked an amazing amount of passes in the mid-ice, causing us the opprtunity to turn the game quickly. Sergei F caused trouble to the opponent team with his heavy slapshots and he scored our opening goal. (he could have scored 1-2 goals more with some more accuracy), and Savely played a typical solid game as a forward as well. We had 2 German substitutes and one of our substitutes scored our 3rd goal.

About the next games

The roster

Goalie: Alexei

Center forwards: Juha Heikkinen, Ossi Granat,

The important job is to be the third defender with good positioning on the mid - ice section and make the opposite team´s attacking difficult: cut passes, quick delivery to our wingers. If possible, the center forward will actively support the attack, pass and shoot the ball. The center forwards are expected to score goals as well.

Wingers: Savely, Sergei F, Alexander Navarrete, Jari Jumpponen, Elias, Jussi, Fabian, Heikki/Vesa

The main idea is to attack. Do not overrun on slippery ice out of the situations! When there is an opportunity to strike, do it in a determined way. If the opponent player will have time and you can`t pressure them, take a good defensive position to make the opponent’s passing via the boards difficult. When you give the pressure, always block the board side first! This makes the enemy player to open and pass the game in the mid-section, which should be blocked by our center forward and one of our defenders. When we lose the ball, immediately come down and support our defense by back-cheking. You need to run, run and run!

If you have a good position for shooting – shoot like hell. If your friend is in a better scoring position – pass. If we can keep the ball control by giving the ball to defenders on the ”blue line”, pass the ball.

Defencemen: Matti, Amol, Heikki/Vesa

Defend by good positioning! Block the shots. Give the first easy passes, and under the pressure (even small pressure) deliver the ball to our goalie. Use your voice to guide our players (nobody sees the ice better than you and the goalie)!

Captains: Juha C, Matti A, Ossi A

THE GAME PLAN

Making the game as difficult as possible for our opponent

maintain the ball control
3 defenseman system supported by wingers
Scoring the necessary goals.

The ball control:

Easy passing: if you can’t shoot or attack or pass the ball to a forward, give the ball back to the defender who can drop the ball back to our goalie. This is very frustrating for the team we are playing against.

The defenders should always give the ball to the goalie if they’re under pressure. If this is not possible, another option is to clear the ball away or give a precice easy pass to our player. If you’re not under pressure, turn, raise your head, and open the game by giving an easy pass.

3-defender system with the assistance by the wingers.

We should always have 3 players between the ball and our goalie. The center forward can support our attack, but he needs to be very sure that the support is needed and will not cause dangerous 3-2 attacks towards our net.

When the opponent has the ball on their own end, the wingers need to pressure by blocking the board sides so the opponent team needs to open in the middle section. Wingers need to be ready to do back-checking and attacking immidiately when we get the ball back.

Another notifications:

Block the shots! The less the opponent scores, the less we need to score as well. Every blocked shot helps our goalie with his work.

Use your mouth on the ice.

”TURN!” ”TIME (”you have time”), ”GOALIE” ”I’M HERE” ”BACK” ”FORWARD”

The more we support each other on the ice – the better decicions the ball holder will make.

Quicker changes: a couple of times our players were too tired on the ice. Pass the ball to our goalie and let’s chance some fresh men in.

Despite the loss today, I saw a lot of promising performances.

I wish the best weekend for all; see you on the next Saturday!