Halla comes from behind to defeat High1 at home

Both Halla and High1 were in a bad place before last night's game. After coming on strong, Halla faltered in the last few games losing four in a row in Japan. High1 lost all four of their games in Japan. The only thing guaranteed in tonight's game was that a Korean team would finally win. High1's last game in Japan saw the Eagles come from behind in the third to defeat them. Halla had been shut out in two of those four losses. Radunske had been having a bit of a dry spell during that run. His last goal was October 6 in a win over the Ice Bucks, but he didn't score a single goal during the trip to Japan. Lots of assists, but he struggled to find the back of the net. Last night he finally lit it up. It was raining heavily in Anyang last night, but the rink was still fairly full.

Former Halla Dong-hwan Song got things started for High1 early in the first with a goal just two minutes in which disappointed the home crowd. Min-ho Cho tied it up a few minutes later, but High1 was energetic and eager to win. They came on hard in the opening period with Hyung-joon scoring late in the period and Barney scoring on the powerplay with a second to go. High1 had 3 power play chances in the first, and didn't waste them getting 2 goals.

In the second High1 continued to come on strong, scoring just over a minute into the period to make it 4-1. The fans were quiet until High1 started to get into some penalty trouble. A hook by Hyon-ho gave Halla a powerplay and Jackman scored on his first of the night. A few minutes later with players in the box for holding and clipping Jackman scored at the 9 minute mark on the 5 on 3 making it 4-3. Halla wasn't out of the woods, but at least they were making a game of it. The fans were back in it and the players seemed more energetic. There were four coincidental minors in the period as the game became much more physical. At 35:38 Woo-sang took a kneeing penalty to put Halla on the defensive, or so High1 thought. On the ensuing power-play Sang-woo Sin got a hold of the puck near the Halla blue line and tore down the ice. High1 was a bit flat-footed and turned to chase him but he raced down the ice and blasted a shot by netminder Inoue tying the game 4-4. At the end of two periods Halla out-shot High1 31-18. There was a scary moment for Derlago in the second when a puck shot by a High1 player flipped up and hit his face mask. The mask shattered and either the puck or pieces of the mask cut him around his eye. He was taken off the ice, but returned quickly wearing another players helmet until his could be repaired.
 
The third period saw Halla finally take it to High1. Three minutes in Jackman completed his hat trick with another powerplay goal. Three minutes after that Woo-sang scored for Halla and then a minute later Min-ho added his second of the game driving High1 back on their heels. High1 called a time-out to calm things down, which seemed to work for them as a minute and a half later they scored, but not without controversy. With the puck laying in the crease and the goalie trying to cover it, everyone crashed the net with several players piling up. The goal light flashed briefly and a moment later the referee blew the whistle and signalled a goal. The replay showed the puck laying more than halfway to the front of the crease as the players began to pile up, but sight of the puck was lost and it's unclear how the puck got from there to across the goal line. Halla protested the goal, but after a quick consultation with the goal judge, the goal stood. Halla did not show the replay from their above the net cam. After Young took a slashing penalty Radunske finally got his goal on the powerplay making it 8-5. Immediately following the goal, Barney received a 10 minute misconduct penalty for what appeared to be unsportsmanlike conduct. The game came to a close with Tae-hwan and Swift exchanging blows, both were given double minors for roughing and misconduct penalties.

Jackman had 3 goals on the night, but oddly no assists. Derlago got 4 assits and Radunske had a goal and 3 assists for Halla. Hyung-Joon had 2 goals while both Swift and Ishioka had 2 assists for High1. Swift had an opportunity to get High1 back in it, but shot wide on a big break-away. Halla out-shot High1 51-30. It's very difficult for a team to win games whne being out-shot by such large margins. The teams will meet again tomorrow night.
Fukufuji continued to shin for the Icebucks since his return. Despite being outshot 40 to 27 Fukufuji shut the Cranes down and got them the win. The Bucks gave him a little support getting goals from Bonk and Uchiyama. No doubt tense at the end, Ueno scored an empty net and the game ended with coincidental minors being given to Takahashi and Eizenman for crosschecking and roughing.
Bonk had a goal and 2 assists, and Yakura a couple of assists for the Bucks.

 

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