BREMERHAVEN, Germany – On the third day of some grueling and often very physical ice hockey action, the host Fischtown Pinguins (as they are affectionately known in Bremerhaven) were able to win Group B of the Continental Cup in an exciting final that was first decided by a Brock Hooten power-play goal with two-and-a-half minutes left in the game.
His third point of the night, Hooten was able to blast in a one-timer from the left faceoff dot on the heels of an excellent cross-ice pass from Bjorn Bombis. Showing just how tired the combatants were, the goal’s celebration was only a moderate one, as it was clear to both teams that the last two minutes were going to be quite intense – and intense they were.
Belfast put on the pressure with the goalkeeper pulled for a sixth skater, and some hefty action in Bremerhaven’s zone was first ended as the game wound down and an empty-net goal by Jan Kopecky, his second of the game, with just one second to play finished put the icing on the cake.
The day’s MVPs for each side were Bremerhaven’s Jan Kopecky, who had two goals and an assist, and Belfast’s former DEL and DEL2 veteran Mike Kompon, who scored both of the Giants‘ goals. All in all, the two teams featured the tournament’s top-five scorers and eight of the top ten scorers. Bremerhaven’s Brendan Cook led the way with five goals and two assists, tied in points with teammate Brock Hooten, who had one goal and six assists.
Like the other representatives, namely the Tilburg Trappers and CSKA Sofia, the teams were finishing up their third game in three nights. It was a noticeably strenuous tournament that demanded a lot form the players, and they left everything on the ice. Even before the game, Bremerhaven’s Canadian-born coach Mike Stewart talked about the physical demands being placed on his team: “This third game against Belfast is the third game in three nights and our fourth game in five nights. Our fitness level will be tested tonight. Belfast has a very experienced team; a very talented team. The key for us tonight will be to use our team speed to wear them down over 60 minutes.”
And that’s ultimately what the team did, seeing it first pay off in the dwindling minutes of the game. For Bremerhaven, which is a smaller northern town once of great naval importance for Germany, their ticket to the Continental Cup came thanks to having won the 2013-14 DEL2 championship in Germany’s second highest men’s professional league.
Entering the tournament against CSKA Sofia, they were able to break a close game open in the third period and ended up winning convincingly 6-2. Brendan Cook’s hat trick in that game made him the day’s hero. On Saturday night, the team encountered a very rough and tumble Tilburg Trappers team and had their hands full in eventually winning 4-0, thanks again in good part to Brendan Cook, who tallied two goals and an assist.
Belfast’s march to the take-it-all final began with a physical 4-1 victory over Tilburg, a game in which the team wasn’t able to throw out three whole lines. Defenceman Jeff Mason’s two assists led the way offensively. The team’s second match against Sofia was a more difficult one in which a close 3-2 lead was finally confirmed in the 47th minute on a Mike Kompon goal. The team went on to win 6-2, setting up a final between the tournament’s two undefeated teams.
Thus, the event was seen very positively from the Giants’ vantage point. “We’ve had to deal with some injuries this weekend. Guys really showed their true colours by playing through the pain. Even though we didn’t get the win tonight, I felt like we outplayed them and that’s hockey. We’re happy we get to move on to France,” said Mike Kompon after the 4-2 loss.
A number of Belfast supporters were in attendance in Bremerhaven and made themselves heard loud and clear, very excited to see their boys in this international competition. “I’ve definitely been proud of the boys. I wasn’t sure what type of play to expect and was worried that there wouldn’t be as much hitting as back in the EIHL, but it’s been quite physical,” stated Belfast fan Richard Young.
Although Belfast might seem a bit off the beaten path for some in the ice hockey world, the team has enjoyed a good deal of success in making the sport popular in Northern Ireland. “Over the years, the crowd has been growing and growing. There are more and more people coming through the doors each night. A little over a week ago, we had even more fans at a Giants game than the rugby team got, which is a traditionally much more popular sport in Belfast. So hockey is really big in Belfast at the minute,” explained fan Nigel Dixon.
These fans and the organization will be able to continue enjoying Continental Cup play as Group C results and the drop-out of the expected Ukrainian representative Kompanion Kyiv have led to a situation in which both Bremerhaven and Belfast move on to the next leg of the event. The Belfast Giants had the better record than Corona Brasov, the second-ranked team and host of the other group.
Kompon continued: “With the support we had here, with our fans making the trip down here, we really wanted to win it for them too. But you know what, we played hard and the reward is that we still get to go to France.”
For the departing teams, different lessons were to be taken from this event. A club like CSKA Sofia plays in a small league that only has a somewhat minor fan interest. This event was big for them and their investors thought it’s big enough to bring in some more noticeable Russian and Ukrainian players to bulk up the roster after winning the championship last year, with former NHLer Oleg Kvasha being the most noteworthy. Still, these players couldn’t make the difference for a team that simply has little homegrown talent to lean on.
Captain Juraj Dusicka explained: “The sport is unfortunately not very popular in Bulgaria. There are only two ice hockey rinks in Sofia and the country only has four semi-pro teams. Ours is the only competitive one of them. There just are not enough hockey players there and in order to get better, they need to build more rinks, otherwise the situation will continue to be like it is.”
For the Tilburg Trappers, who played with only one import player and brought exactly three lines to the event, the Continental Cup was an excellent opportunity to test their mettle against international competition as the team has plans moving forward. Particularly the game against Bremerhaven was used as a true measuring stick, because the organization will be joining Germany’s Oberliga West next autumn, the third level of hockey in the country, with its eyes set on DEL2 play at some point down the line.
In their third game of the weekend, they managed to beat CSKA Sofia in a very dramatic fashion, coming back from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits in the third period, ultimately scoring four third-period goals to win 5-4 late in the game. Captain Diederick Hagemeijer was fully elated: “This was a good experience. It shows that we can play with these teams. I think the Dutch league and Dutch teams are ready for the next step. We did a good job here and had a real good game against Bremerhaven. The move to the Oberliga West next fall is going to be a good one. We’re a small country with a small game and we need to do something like this to get to the next level. Germany is an excellent country for this step.”
At the end of the three-day weekend, organizers, players and coaches alike were full of praise for the level of play, the excitement and also for the organization of the event by the Bremerhaven organization. “We’ve been happy with the way the set-up has been in Bremerhaven. The rink has been unbelievable. Our travelling fans have been fantastic. The Fischtown fans have been as well. It’s been a great experience for guys who haven’t seen European hockey,” said Coach Thornton.
DEL2 President René Rudorisch was also on hand for the event with his family and thoroughly enjoyed the high-class of sport that was offered. “It’s been an absolute honour for the league to not only take part in the event, but also get to host a leg of it. I feel we’ve seen a very high level of ice hockey enjoyment and quality over the course of the three days and are even now getting to see what I feel are truly the best teams play in a championship-style final in the last game, one that features the hometown Pinguins.”
Tournament chairman Hans Dobida summarized his feelings on Bremerhaven’s running of Group B play: “All of the prerequisites have been fulfilled just as hoped. The arena in Bremerhaven is just wonderful. Not all of the participants in the Continental Cup can feature such a building and well-run establishment. The organization has been top flight. Everything from the locker rooms to the catering to the lodging of the teams is in line with what we hope for and we’ve had nothing but praise for the organizers. We definitely congratulate them for their excellent hosting of Group B play.”
For the Continental Cup itself, players had some pretty clear opinions of what it can mean and how much they enjoy it. Tilburg’s Steve Mason, a Dutch player of Canadian decent whose father is not only the coach of the Dutch national team, but is also currently active in Austria after many years of coaching at the DEL level in Germany, mentioned: “This tournament is an opportunity to showcase yourself, for sure. There are people from all over the place here scouting. This weekend features teams from Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain and of course Holland and the hockey world is a small one. Everybody’s trying to show themselves. You never know who is watching. You’ve always got to play as if there’s someone important in the stands watching. That’s one of the ways you motivate yourself.”
Bremerhaven’s bruiser Ryan Martinelli, a guy known around the DEL2 as an offensive defenceman who nonetheless is no stranger to the sin bin, liked what he saw as well: "It’s been great for the city and the fans to see totally different types of teams and different styles of play. I kind of thought I’d play my career in Europe and try to experience as many different cultures and live in as many different countries as I could, so just being able to play against teams from other countries that I’ve never experienced has been very cool and an excellent experience.”
His teammate Sam Verelst, actually from Belgium and playing with a German passport, also had an interesting take on the event, especially in light of the fact that he also recently played with the affiliate Hamburg Freezers in Champions Hockey League play: “I’m proud to have played in both events and the experience has been very valuable for me as a young player. Even if we didn’t have much success with Hamburg in the Champions League, playing in Sweden and in England was just excellent. Now in the Continental Cup there are teams from more exotic countries, but being a Belgian, that’s nothing too out of the ordinary for me. I’m used to that aspect. But this event is still very special because in league play, you have the same opponents and there’s of course a totally different dynamic here. This is special and there’s a special form of excitement involved.”
Especially for members of teams coming from more exotic locations that are involved, the Continental Cup is the highlight of the season. “I think this is a great idea for the say second-level countries and teams in European hockey,” said Dusicka. “For us and the Spaniards, and of course countries like Serbia and Turkey, and even the Dutch, this is an outstanding event. That the winner of the Continental Cup will advance to the Champions Hockey League next year, that kind of thing is just an excellent idea. In all, this event is simply a good idea.”
Summarizing the type of things the tournament demands of a team and organization, Coach Stewart stated: “We prepared ourselves for this and had more players on our roster than usual. We wanted to be sure that we had 13 forwards and seven defencemen, because we knew this season was going to be long and tough. We knew that our schedule in our league is always rather exhausting, especially since we geographically travel more than any other team, so if you add in these extra games, it’s tough on a team. The other side of it is that any time you can partake in an international tournament, it’s a plus. So be it our Canadian players, our Czech players, our German players – none of them have ever played in anything like this before and thus, it’s a great experience for them.”
And it is an experience that, thanks to an undefeated weekend, Bremerhaven will be able to continue when they head to Ritten, Italy to compete in the third round’s Group D where they’ll face Ritten Sport (ITA), Yertis Pavlodar (KAZ) and the Herning Blue Fox (DEN).
Despite the dramatic loss for Belfast, the Giants will be moving on to the next leg of the event and their path leads to Angers, France, where they’ll face Belarusian champion Neman Grodno, hosts Angers Ducs and the other qualifier, HK Sanok (POL), in Group E action.
Both groups will play from 21st to 23rd November 2014. The Super Final itself will take place from 9th to 11th January with the best two teams of each group at a site that has yet to be decided.
CHAPIN LANDVOGT
Click here for scores and stats from Group C. Click here for the overview of the Continental Cup.
