Txuri Urdin and Crvena Zvezda advanced in Continental Cup

22 Sep 2019Davide Tuniz»

The first round, played in the weekend, promoted the favourite teams

The first round of 2019-20 Continental Cup promotes Spanish Txuri Urdin San Sebastian and Crvena Zvezda Beograd to second round.

Both teams won their respective groups with a perfect record.

In the Group A, played in Istanbul, Turkey, the Serbian and IHL champion Crvena Zvezda had no problem to leave behind host Zeytinburnu Istanbul, Irbis Skate Sofia and Skautafelag Akureyri. The Icelandic team was the sensation last year winning the group at debut, but this season, without imports in the roster, had no chances. Crvena will travel to Brovary, Ukraine, for the second round at mid October.

In the Group B, played in Mechelen, Belgium, Spanish champion Txuri Urdin opened the weekend with a stunning victory 7-1 against KHL Zagreb, while host HYC Herentals had to go after HC Bat Yam, leading 3-1 after the first period in the debut game, before the final 7-4 with an hattrick by Canadian Nathal Pancel.
In the decisive game Txuri won easily 5-2 against Herentals. Surprisingly Israelian champion Bay Yam, hammered 12-4 by Zagreb in the second day, played to the death against Txuri, with Basque team earning the final victory just with 20 seconds to play with a goal of Spanish-American Luis Joshua Gimenez. Txuri will travel to Collalbo, Italy, in Group D