A thriller ended with the visitor’s win on penalties

01 October 2018

Created by Tornado Luxembourg

The game got a festive start as the prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, made the first puck drop. This was very nice gesture from Mr. Bettel to come to our season opener. He also came to inspire the players in the locker room before the game. Thank you Mr. Bettel!

The game itself started with an even puck possession. Both team had their chances, but it was the away team Elans Champigny who got the puck first into the net, after 7 mins of playing. The Tornado players took it as an accident as they felt that they were well in the game. Nevertheless, three minutes later the visitors scored again and the situation got a bit more difficult.

Tornado’s power play wasn’t good but still at the end of the first period David “Shorty” Müller scored an important first goal for Tornado on power play. After the first period, it was 1-2 on the scoreboard.

In the second period, Tornado had a big plan to tie up the game and take it over. The plan seemed to work as our new comer, Henri Öörni scored his first goal in the Tornado jersey. Unfortunately, only three minutes later Champigny managed to score and the game was 3-2 to the visitors. This remained the score until the end of the second period.

When the third period started, it was clear that this hockey evening will be very exciting until the end. Tornado was pushing hard and finally at 53.09, the Kockelscheuer arena exploded in joy when Shorty Müller scored his second and the game was 3-3.

Tornado’s plan to chase to the game winning goal became a difficult task as the team took 6 penalties after Shorty’s goal. The team together with goalie Gilles Mangen fought well on shorthanded and Champigny couldn’t score their forth one. Only two seconds before the end, Shorty Müller had a chance to score his third goal of the game after Ossi Uotilas cheeky pass, but unfortunately his shot was stopped by Champigny’s goalie. The game went to a nerve racking overtime.

The beginning of the overtime was also a survival battle for Tornado as they had to play the first 3 minutes shorthanded. Again Tornado manage to stay alive and since no goals were seen during the overtime, it was time for penalties.

Penalty shots are a coin flip. Both teams were meant to have three shooters. But as both of Champigny’s first two shooters managed to score and when Tornado’s shooters didn’t, Champigny collected two points and left only one to Luxembourg.

What a thriller it was. And such a pity that Tornado couldn’t award all people who had come to the game with a victory. Especially, the Tornado players want give respect to rivals Beaufort Knights as their team came to watch the game together with their new coach John Birchen.

As coach Fical said in the interview, the team needs to be more committed and work harder to be able to take the step to the next level. 

Now, with more sponsors, good media coverage and more people finding their way to our games, maybe it’s time to change our slogan. It might not be necessary to get #biggertogether anymore but definetly #bettertogether.