Since the St. Nicolas is such a big deal in Epinal, our game was moved to the Friday night because we feared there would be no fans at our game. Good thing it was changed because the 1300 fans we had saw one of the most exciting games (from what I hear) Epinal has ever played. Facing off against the 1st place power house Briancon, who had not lost since September 13th in Rouen, we knew our game had to be perfect, unlike our game against them earlier this year where we lost 11-3 in their building.
There is just something about our rink and our fans that makes it very tough for opposing teams to come to Epinal and leave with 2 points. Last year with only 2 games left in the season, Briancon was in first place. They came into Epinal and went down 3-0 early, then rallied to tie and send the game into overtime. Where on that night, with my family in the stands I was able to play hero and end the game on a slap shot on the power play! This year's game had some similarities.
Instead of us grabbing the early lead, we went down 3-0 in the first period and had many people thinking the game was already over. Besides the ridiculous amount of penalties Briancon took that allowed us back into the game, I strongly believe the key factor for our comeback was that we always "believed." Sure they were the best team in the league and they were up 3 goals on us early but we were not playing a bad game, they just capitalized on their chances. They were very undisciplined and put us on the power play 5 on 3 to start the 2nd period. There were were able to get ourselves back into the game with Ilpo Salmivirta scoring twice on that power play. The first on one of our set plays "Slap Pass" as I take a slap shot right to his stick and he deflects it through his legs. Then Petrak set him up backdoor for a tap in. We scored 2 more power play goals in the 2nd period and found ourselves down 5-4 heading into the 3rd period. Briancon's 5th goal came at the end of the period and actually went right off my face before crossing the line and into the net. I went down to block the backdoor pass, when it deflected off our goalie Stan's stick and shot up into my face. Good thing for my mouth guard, but bad break for our team.
In the 3rd period neither team had any great scoring chances, but with just under 4 minutes left to play, off a face off, Guillaume Chassard tied it up with his 2nd goal of the night. That was the life we needed but just as we were gaining momentum, our Captain Jan Plch was sent off for 2 minutes on a terrible call by the referee. Even after watching the video, I still have no clue what the penalty was for? It was then that our 6th man (Les Supporters) took over, booing and whistling during the whole penalty, as Briancon struggled to get anything set up. When Overtime started we still had 12 seconds left to kill off, then we went to work. Jan Simko with his blazing speed broke down the wing and was almost in alone when he was hauled down, drawing one of many penalty calls in the game, sending our lethal power play to work once again.
Many shots were fired but nothing was connecting and just as the Briancon player was stepping out of the box, Jan Plch set me up for a one-timer and I finally got a hold of one, blasting it into the top right hand corner, right under the crossbar. Almost a carbon copy of my goal last season in Overtime against the same Briancon team. I didn't have anything really planned in terms of a celebration, so on the video you can see me jumping up and down like a little kid on Christmas morning when he realized Santa has brought him a WWF Wrestling Ring (Gervais Family Christmas 1991).
I called my mom right after the game to tell her about it, because she, along with my brother Andre and sister Elise were at the game last year against Briancon. I said on the phone "mom it was just like last year." She responded "oh really, you guys beat them again, oh that's so great." I said "Ya it is great, but I don't think you understand, it was EXACTLY like last year." Then there was a bit of a pause "What.....no......you didn't... Steph? Did you....you got the goal??? Come on....Steph???" Yes mom, I scored the goal, it was a great game for our team and once again our fans (Supporters) were just amazing, and so loud, geez I thought the roof was going to collapse in our old rink, or at least some of the glass windows shatter from how loud it was.
Also I just found out that the local TV station (Images Plus) shows some highlights of the game and even replays the whole game sometimes. So if anyone wants to see some clips of the game and our great win against the best team in Ligue Magnus, follow the link below! You can watch it in full screen too!!!!
http://imagesplus.org/emission.php?id=6&idVideo=1544
