To observers standing in the parking lot beside the Kockelscheuer arena, the outcome of last Saturday’s game might have seemed obvious when the Dijon bus pulled up bearing only 10 players.
“When a match team that size faces 18 skaters with the same or even higher skill level, it won’t be enough,” opined Tornado forward and publicist Teemu Hinkula.
Playing hockey in the Grand Region is a long-distance sport, with teams and rinks widely separated. Dijon is three hours away by road. Sometimes the amateur players, who usually have day jobs, just don’t have the energy or willpower to travel. In any case, this match, held in front of a good-sized crowd, ended with an easy 8-0 win for the Tornadoes, who compete in the French 3rd division.
After only four minutes of play, Marcus Eriksson started off the scoring with a shorthanded goal (the Tornadoes had managed to pick up a penalty almost immediately). After that, Jusse Lampsijärvi pulled off his first goal of the season after making what Hinkula called “approximately two thousand attempts”. His goal was followed by one from Ossi Uotila and another from Eriksson again. As Dijon players were really in no position to provide a stiff challenge to the Tornadoes, the rest of the game was “a comfortable ride”.
Even though the game’s outcome was clear, the fact that it was a shutout was a big individual achievement for the Tornadoes’ young goalie Jesper Miquel, who enjoyed his first shut-out playing at the seniors’ level. Almost everyone in the stands would have seen his joyous “celebration” moves after the game and also noticed from the game interview how big a relief it was for him to reach this milestone. Hinkula emphasised that Jesper “has improved a lot” during his two seniors’ seasons, adding that ”the whole team feels it can rely on him in the net.”
During the last period everyone on the Tornado side got a bit of a shock when the team’s scoring leader, Henri Öörni, was slashed by a stick wielded by a Dijon player. Because of the incident, Öörni had to go to the hospital to get 9 stitches, but the good news soon emerged that Henri was capable of continue playing, despite, or maybe even thanks to his stitches.
Another good thing for the Tornadoes was that many of the team members got their names on the scoresheet as the Tornadoes’ other five goals in the game were scored by Uotila, Cannon, Hinkula and Müller. This will probably give the team some more self-confidence, but it’s important to realise that next Saturday the team will face a much more challenging opponent when it travels to Paris to play against Champigny. Champigny is only 3 points behind Tornado and has played one fewer game than them. The Champigny team also won their first game on a sudden death shootout. So probably this will be the Tornadoes most important game on the way to the playoffs.
After the away game against Champigny, Tornado will play their last home game against the ACBB Tigers on 2 February, which will settle the final position in the 3rd division and determine against who the Tornadoes will start in the play-offs.
Hinkula called for the team’s fans to come to their games, congratulating them for doing so at the Dijon match. “You were numerous and sometimes loud in this game and we really need you in the future as well. Please bring along your drums!”
