Penguins at the end

After the easy victory of Neman Grodno in the opening match, in a nice atmosphere at the Eishalle Bremerhaven the Pinguins face Ertis Pavlodar remembering the victims in Paris. Fans prepare a warm welcome for the other teams, but on ice is immediately clear the reception won’t be so friendly.

Nice reception by Penguins fans

A shot by Mlynarovic deflected by Benjamin Meisner opens the fire, but are the hosts to score first: on power play the Ertis defense is not perfectly placed in front of Pinc so Jaroslav Hafenrichter can advance and beats the Kazakh goalie. But Ertis it’s a good and skilled team and immediately prove that equalizing the game at 04:20: the puck quickly passes between the forwards opening the defense and finding Tomas Vak ready for the decisive one-timer. Penguins have immediately the chance to score on power play but Bjorn Bombis incredibly misses the open net. On the opposite side Meisner stops the finalization of Vorontsov finishing a counter-attack. Again the Penguins goalie deflects with the mask a shot by Svitana. Penguins have a good chance with Hooton but Pinc blocks the point-blank shot. In a good momentum for Penguins Ertis scores again on counter-attack:  nice long-pass by Robert Huna for brother Richard and easy finish. Bremerhaven falter and Peter Fabus prefers to shot on Meisner instead of passing the puck for a teammate better placed. Ertis close the period crescendo, forced Meisner to two difficult saves on Mlynarovic.

Also In Bremerhaven victims of Paris are remembered

Second period opens with same plot: Ertis has immediately two chances with Hujsa – his wrap-around doesn’t find a deflection – and Vorontsov: shot deflected by Meisner. While Pinc  has no danger for the first part of period, Meisner has a lot of work to face the Kazakh forwards. But fortune smiles to hosts when an error during a power play allows Timothy Miller to run towards Pinc and scoring with a nice move. The goal revives the fans and the player on ice, changing suddenly the trend of the game: Patrick Kloepper has a great chance but Pinc denies and at 30:40 fan favorite Bjorn Bombis overturns the score. Ertis reacts: Meisner deflects on Fabus while the hosts wastes another great chance with Kopecky. Pinc is fantastic in blocking Marius Garten  at 35 and Hooton with a spectacular dive at 39. Bremerhaven finishes period on power play with an incredible mistake by Cook with the cage open.

Ertius kills the power play and earns one at the begin of third period: the best chance is for Tryassunov, Meisner blocks and then deflects on Grman and Chovan. Ertis produces the best effort in this part of the period and Meisner has work to stop the active Svitana and the shot from the distance by Cakajik and Tryassunov. But  as happened in the second period,

While should be logic the goal of Ertis, it’s Bremerhaven to score, the shot of Andrew McPherson passes between the leg of Marek Pinc. It’s really a red flash in a blue and white dominance, Ertis continues to control the game and scores the deserved third goal with Andrei Troshinski. A very nice move isn’t finished by Bellus due to the key save by Meisner. The last five minutes see just a team on ice: Penguins play only on defensive zone and the fourth goal by Ertis is a logic consequence: the shot of captain Sergei Miroshnichenko isn’t irresistible, Meisner deflects but the puck gets in the net. Finally the goal awakes the Penguins and the game is more balanced, Ertis continues to control and again Bremerhaven scores with Marjan Dejdar finishing with a shot in front of Pinc cage. Coach Julius Penzes obviously pulls the goalie but is too late. Penguins win a key game in a strange way, letting the opponent controlling the game and scoring exactly when necessary. Ertis is probably stronger the Bremerhaven but tonight definitely lacks the killer instinct for Penzes’ team.

In the mixed zone Miroslav Zalesak tries to explain the defeat: "it was a good game, up and down, a lot of chances with a great atmosphere, it's a big disappointment for us, I think we played bad in the second period where they were better."

Defender Ryan Martinelli praises his team: "They coming out really strong, they are flying, we try to face the storm in the first and playing hard in the second and the third and it works out for us. But they are a talented team, good skaters, nice movement of the puck, they will be dangerous"

MVP: Tim Miller – Richard Huna