A victory with regret

Looking for a miracle in tonight game between Kurbads and Narva, GKS Tychy completes its duty by beating young Donbas Donets’k in a game with some thrilling in the central period, showing the superiority of the roster, today on ice without Belarusian defender Ilya Kaznadei and forward Mateusz Bepierszcz, both injured. Also Donbas, that closes the participation with the possible best result ever, 3 points from game with Narva, hasn’t Ivan Savchenko in the roster.

The first period has a slow pace at the beginning, with Donbas trying to slow down the game, aware that it is the only chance for not suffering the superior skills of opponents. After a good chance for Radoslaw Galant, the game has to be stopped for about three minutes due to an injury of a linesman, hit in the leg while attempting to stop a fight.

The forced pause ends up benefiting Tychy that manages to open the score with a bit of luck at 13:34 when the shot by Filip Komorski is just touched by goalie Dyachenko, slowly gets in to the net. The goal takes away the pressure on Polish team and marks the end of the Donbas resistance: at 16:18 a beautiful one-time combination between Galant, Kalinowski and Witecki opens the cage for the easy score. Before the first siren also Mike Cichy leaves his mark with a classy assolo shorthanded in the middle of a defenceless defense The central period is opened by the goal of Vitali Lyalka, back on ice after 10 minutes of penalty. Tychy seems fell the punch, players are particularly nervous and in a 5vs3 situation Sergei Kuzmik manages to score the second goal for Donbas. Incredibly Tychy leaves space for the opponent, not controlling the game anymore and same Lyalka has the chance to tie the game firing on Lewartowski the pass from Kuzmik. The last period offers thrilling moments just in the last minute, when Donbas, on power play, pull the goalie looking for the tie goal, but, despite the double superiority, the only real attempt is a shot from long distance deflected by Lewartowski. In the following action is Patryk Kogut to score empty-net to seal a complicate success for Tychy that leaves the competition at second round, after the brilliant campaign two years ago, when team reached the superfinals. Late consolation, the award as best forward of the tournament for Mike Cichy. On the other side, it’s sad to witness the decline of once a superpower as Donbas, today a team of promising kids

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