Tornado ice-kockey team at the play-offs in Tours;

For Luxembourg's Tornado ice hockey team, the long-awaited play-off journey finally started in Tours on Saturday.

The date had surprised some players and they needed to change their holiday plans to be able to play the game. Despite some absences, Tornado managed to collect enough quality to their rosters.

The start of the game saw both teams being a bit nervous. Even Tornado had tried to do research from before the game about Tours; it is still difficult to anticipate only from stats what kind of team one is going to play against. Tours had a young and well-skating team, but Tornado appeared to be a bit ahead physically.

For the first 10 minutes, Tours controlled the game while Tornado was trying to get rid of their "bus legs". Even though the team managed some good preparation, the start is always hard after spending 8 hours in a bus. After 10 minutes of play Tours’ best scorer Mattis Boisse took a penalty and Tornado had a change on power play. In the beginning of the powerplay Tornado's efficient first line could put good pressure on Tours’ zone, without succeeding to score though. After that it was Tornado's second line’s turn to try. They also got the puck to the offensive zone and, after setting up, Ossi Uotila took the puck behind the net. He surprised both the opponents and own teammates with his no-look pass to the front of the net and Teemu Hinkula luckily managed to react first and shoot the puck into the net between goalie's legs. 1-0 for Tornado. Unluckily, less than one minute after the goal, Tours managed to tie the game and the first period ended 1-1 on the scoreboard.

During the break, Tornado's coach Fical convinced the team that we are on the good track and they should keep up the same effort.

The team, and especially Vesa Hirvonen, responsed on Fical’s challenge in positive way. Hirvonen did what he should do more often, the Flying Finn gained speed from his own zone and in the end of the coast-to-coast skating he shot the puck unbeatably to the top corner of Tours’ net. This gave a boost for Tornado and they took the full control of the game and scored two more goals within a couple of minutes (scorers were Uotila and Hinkula). In one point Tours managed to score their 2nd goal on powerplay but, despite that, the game was under Tornado’s control and the second period ended 4-2 for Tornado.

From the statistics it was possible to see that Tours takes lot of penalties. It was a bit surprising because the team did not seem to be so physical. But by the time it became clear what the issue was. As Tours could not challenge Tornado physically, they got frustrated and started to complain a lot. That broke their game even though Tornado were more penalised in the game, including Hinkula’s four minor penalties.

In the third period, Tours got many chanches to try their power play. Tornado has been fine-tuning their penalty killing and, with help of Gilles Mangen on the net, they managed to kill the penalties. Five minutes before the end, the frustration of Tours realised two penalties and Tornado got the chance to show their power play skills. First Teemu Hinkula shot his third goal of the game from Steven Minden’s clever pass on 5 against 3, and only one minute later, Shorty Muller decked Tours’ goalkeeper and the game was 6-2 to Tornado.

One and half minutes before the end, Tours scored their 3rd goal on power play so, after 60 minutes of play, the series is 6-3 for Tornado.

After the end of the game, one of the Tours’ players showed his frustration and shot the puck towards celebrating Tornado players. That was too much for coach Fical who ordered his men immediately to the dressing room. The happenings of the game left lot of tension but hopefully in Luxembourg Tornado can just focus on playing on the ice.

After this away game Tornado is in a good position to reach the second round of the play-offs. There they would meet the winner of the series between Caen and Nantes. That series is currently 3-2 for Nantes after the first game in Caen.

The second game between Tornado and Tours will be played on Saturday 10 March in Kockelscheuer. Even though things look good now, everything can happen in ice hockey. The team needs to be focused and stay committed to its system.