February saw the curtain come down on the club indoor season for many in Europe with winners confirmed in Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Poland and Switzerland featured here.
Denmark
Copenhagen HC (pictured above won both the Danish men’s and women’s national indoor titles last week, taking the laurels at Slagelse Hall in front of healthy crowds.
They took the laurels in the women’s competition ahead of Gentofte 4-2 in the final with Katja Christensen getting the top scorer award from the competition.
On the men’s side, Copenhagen edged out Slagelse with Jesper Jonasson to the fore on the goalscoring front. They did so in thrilling fashion, coming back from 4-1 down to prevail 5-4.
For Slagelse, the event was a significant one as Mikkel Steinmetz hung up his stick after 34 years playing for the club during which time he won 17 Danish championships and 15 cup titles.
Spain
Earlier in February, Sanse Complutense did the double as they won both the men’s and women’s titles, both via Madrid derbies with wins over Club de Campo de Madrid.
For the men, it was tight throughout the final, 1-1 at half-time and then 3-3 at full-time, leading to a shoot-out in which Complu won 9-8 in an epic finale.
The women’s final followed a similar pattern. Club de Campo began by taking the lead with a goal from Begoña García and later, Sanse equalized, led by Sara Carmona – the subsequent top scorer.
The second half was very even and reached 3-3 by the final whistle. Then, Sanse won 3-2 in the shoot-out.
Croatia
HAHK Mladost were the men’s champions were 8-4 winners over HK Zelina in the final against HK Zelina, transforming a close-run 2-0 half-time lead into a big win with Vitali Kalinchuk the star man.
In the women’s competition, HK Zelina beat Mladost 5-3 with a strong performance, building a 3-0 lead in the first half and they kept their rivals at bay in the second half.
HAHK Mladost
Poland
WKS Grunwald Poznan celebrated the men’s crown when they defeated KS Pomorzanin Toruń 3-0 in the final with a couple of goals from Waldermar Rataj and one from Mikolaj Gumny. It was tight at half-time, 1-0, before single goals in the third and fourth quarter stretched out the scoreline for the army team.
KS Hokej Start Brzeziny enjoyed a dream February as they won the Polish title in addition to the EuroHockey Club Challenge I. They closed out their campaign with a 3-2 win over UKS SP5 Swarek Swarzędz and then saw off UKS Orient II Łozina 3-1. It gave them the perfect record in the competition, finishing 11 points clear of their nearest rivals.
Switzerland
Rotweiss Wettingen made it a double as their women won their final game 5-0 against HC Olten, while the men took the laurels from a tighter game, 2-1 against GC Zurich.
You can check the following posts to see how other national championships were determined already:
– Update one
– Update two
KS Start Brzeziny
