Viva Men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy (Vienna, Austria)
Post SV left it late to claim their place in the promotion pool in front of their home crowd as they won twice on opening day in Vienna.
In Pool B, OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa have the advantage on seven points, knowing a draw or better will see them advance when they play Denmark’s Slagelse.
But they were denied a direct path through to the top four with Irish Hockey Lambersart’s last second equaliser against them meaning all four team – including LKS Gasawa – are all still in the hunt.
Morning session
Pool A
Three Rock Rovers scored four times in the last seven minutes to earn a 5-5 draw against AD Lousada, coming back from 5-1 down.
Ricardo Teixeira’s first half hat-trick had the Portugal champions racing clear with Vasco Ribeiro also on the mark before Rovers held sway in the final quarter with two Ross Canning goals underpinning their comeback.
Hosts Post SV were too strong for Gaziantep Polisgücü as they recorded a 7-2 win to begin their campaign for promotion. They led 3-1 at half-time and got the next three to kill the game off with Bartosz Szmidt scoring a double.
Pool B
Slagelse grabbed a 5-5 draw in the tournament’s opening game as they fought back late on against Iris Hockey Lambersart, coming back from 4-2 and 5-4 down.
Simon Gauthier had done the majority of goalscoring for Lambersart to edge them in front at half-time and then going into Q4 but Oscar Birch-Hald, Julius Lund and Rasmus Westrup got the all-important strikes for the Danish club.
Volodymyr Kaplinskyi’s quartet of goals powered OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa to a 6-3 win over newcomers LKS Gasawa, scoring twice in both the second and fourth quarters to see his side pull away.
The Polish side had led in Q1 and were level in Q3 at 3-3 before the Ukraine outfit pulled clear.
Evening session
Pool A
AD Lousada succumbed to a big comeback for the second time today as they Gaziantep Polisgücü snagged a 6-6 draw to get off the mark in Pool A.
The Turks had led earlier 3-1 before Lousada scored the next four to build a 5-3 advantage and then move to 6-4 with three minutes with Vasco Ribeiro’s fourth goal of the game. But Ali Akin Özkiliç and Nehuen Ayala struck at the death for two points each.
Post SV, meanwhile, made it two wins from two as they defeated Three Rock Rovers 4-3 but only thanks to two goals in the last 60 seconds.
The win puts the Austrians through to the promotion group with Rovers having to settle for a losing bonus point.
Ross Canning put Rovers in front at the start before Bartosz Szmidt and Peter Kaltenböck made it 2-1 to Post in the eighth minute. That was how it stayed until four minutes from the end when Three Rock turned things around to lead 3-2 via Luke Madeley and James Walker.
But the Austrian hosts won a stroke in the final minute which Kaltenböck netted and then Szmidt won the day in the final seconds.
Pool B
For a second time on Friday, Slagelse fought back to earn a draw, this time recovering from 2-0 behind to finish 2-2 with LKS Gasawa, ending the day on four points with the Polish side on two.
For Gasawa, Korneliusz Nitka put them in front in the first minute and they were two up when Robert Gruszczyński doubled up in the 25th minute. But Markus Hansen struck twice to turn the tide.
A final second Arthur Golliot goal saw Lambersart draw 4-4 with OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa, a result which denied the Ukraine side direct passage into the top four pool but, nonetheless, in pole position.
Nip and tuck throughout, the French side led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 at different stages before Volodymyr Kaplinskyi and Oleksandr Solomianyi seemed to have turned the game Vinnitsa’s way.
Golliot, however, completed his triple for 4-4 which gives Lambersart second spot overnight, knowing a win over Gasawa will put them through.
