Western Wildcats and Slagelse have the momentum of two wins out of two following the first day of action at the men’s EuroHockey Club Challenge I in Puconci, Slovenia.
They are followed by a trip of clubs on six points, all of whom will be looking to get into position for a title charge on Saturday.
Cardiff & Met pulled off a great comeback from 3-0 down in the first 15 minutes to defeat Three Rock Rovers 6-4 in the day’s opening game.
Two Ross Canning goals had the Irish side seemingly clear but the Welsh champions shared the goals between six different players to get the full five points.
There followed two one-sided affairs with Italy’s Valchisone enjoyed the perfect debut as they proved too strong for SLF Mesaicos, winning 15-0 with six goals from Agustin Ceballos.
Denmark’s Slagelse then scored the same total with a 15-1 win against HK Triglav Predanovci, Hector Nørgaard leading their charge with five goals.
Western Wildcats then entered the fray with a lively 6-5 success against Cardiff & Met in their second game of the day.
This time, Cardiff did take an early lead through Jonathan Fleck but a Fraser Moran double saw the tables turn in Q2 with the Scots leading 3-2. They stretched that to 6-3 after Q3 before the Welsh side fought back once more but ended a goal short.
Three Rock moved level with Cardiff on six points overnight when their last quarter comeback yielded a 4-3 win over Valchisone.
A Ceballos triple had the Italians in good shape but Ross Canning and newcomer Rex Dunlop switched things around, aided by last minute Shane Davey save.
Slagelse ran up their second big score of the day to defeat SLF Mesaicos 18-0, Markus Hansen this time the man to score five.
The Wildcats then concluded the day with an 8-1 win over Triglav Predanovci to lift them into a share of first place with Slagelse on 10 points.
| Teams | Scoreline |
|---|---|
| CARDIFFMET – THREEROCK | 6 – 4 |
| VALCHISONE – MESAICOS | 15 – 0 |
| PREDANOVCI – SLAGELSE | 1 – 15 |
| CARDIFFMET – WILDCATS | 5 – 6 |
| VALCHISONE – THREEROCK | 3 – 4 |
| SLAGELSE – MESAICOS | 18 – 0 |
| PREDANOVCI – WILDCATS | 1-8 |
| Rank | Team | Pl | W | D | L | Goal Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slagelse HC (DEN) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 10 |
| 2 | Western Wildcats HC (SCO) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 |
| 3 | HP Valchisone ASD (ITA) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 6 |
| 4 | Cardiff & Met (WAL) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 | Three Rock Rovers (IRL) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 6 |
| 6 | HK Triglav Predanovci (SLO) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -21 | 0 |
| 7 | SLF Mesaicos (SWE) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -33 | 0 |
