HK Zemgale silences the Pole Sud Arena in Grenoble

With a game played in a very intelligent way, avoiding penalties, not throwing the puck away and always maintaining pressure on the opponents, Zemgale achieved almost a feat, and certainly an unexpected result, beating the hosts of Grenoble, encouraged by almost 4000 fans, on the first day of the Continental Cup semi-finals

The first period began, as expected, with the hosts very aggressive, with a lot of work for the expert goalie Rihards Cimermanis, even if Zemgale never gave the impression of not knowing how to react, a characteristic that remained throughout the match. The Latvians proved to be an experienced team, with many players with a history in top-level leagues. So during the period they had some chances, the most sensational with a crossbar hit from close range. Zemgale was unable to take advantage of a double power play at the end of the period, well defended by Grenoble and Czech goalkeeper Stepanek.

In the central period Grenoble did not maintain the same intensity and the Latvians immediately took advantage of it: at 21:09 Martins Porejs managed to beat Stepanek. The hosts reacted angrily and Cimermanis took center stage with some excellent saves, including one of pure instinct from a direct shot from Bachelet. Two minutes from the end of the period Grenoble's equalizer came with an unfortunate own goal by Krumins: Sacha Treille's pass hit Gustavs Krumins' leg and beat an faultlessy Cimermanis. The Zemgale goalkeeper redeemed himself immediately afterwards with a decisive save on Aurelien Dair

After four minutes in the last period Zemgale silenced the Pole Sud arena again, with Daniels Andersons scoring the second goal with a deflection in front of Stepanek's cage.. The home team's reaction was vehement but confused, often missing the decisive pass or the best shot. And so at minute 55:33 a lethal counterattack by the Latvians is brilliantly finished by Rinalds Vutkevics

Tweets by @eurohockey