Eagles complete Korean sweep

The Eagles have been perfect this season. Winning all seven of the games they've played. They've shown little sign of faltering. Their shot totals vary from game to game, but they've been consistently out shooting their opponents. When their opponents pour it on, the Eagles pour it on even heavier.

Sunday night against Anyang Halla, the Eagles appeared as if they were a team possessed. They were first, and usually second, to the puck. When they were on the penalty kill they were aggressive, even scoring short handed, or drawing penalties multipe times to even things out. If the Eagles are able to maintain this intensity for the entire season, they're going to be an extremely tough team to beat.

The Eagles started the scoring last night with Halla looking to do the same. Takahashi scored a strange short handed goal. As he moved in on the he fired a shot that went high and bounced off the underside of the keeper's helmet. As the puck came down it found its way across the line. Three minutes later Kuji fired another one in to the disappointment of the Halla fans.

The second period saw a rather odd misconduct called against Dong-hwan Kim. He battled with an Oji Eagle player and was called for roughing. He looked at the ref as he skated to the box and made a short comment and was immediately called for misconduct. Saito got another goal for the Eagles and at the end of the second period an Eagle was knocked to the ice along the boards, no call was made, but he appeared hurt. The buzzer went a few seconds later and as Don-ku, the perpetrator of the hit skated towards door to exit the ice an Eagle attacked him from behind with several cross-checks to his lower back. This caused both teams to swarm as players had started to exit the bench. The Eagles player lay on the ice for some time as the rest of the team stood around him. He eventually left the ice under his own power.

The third period started with Don-ku in the box for charging, and Kuji in the box for roughing. It is unclear when Don-ku charged, as there was no penalty signalled by either ref after the hit on the player. The revisionism by the referees in this league is absolutely deplorable. Halla showed a spark a few minutes into the third period as Seung-yup picked up a rare rebound and buried it in an almost open net. For a couple of plays momentum seemed to favour Halla, but then the Eagles Ogawa scored, making it 4-1 and then Halla took a penalty, sapping their strength.

 

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