Warriors 3 in epic victory over Cyclones
On Sunday 23rd July, our development team welcomed Nottingham Cyclones’ development team to Planet Ice for a challenge game.
This was our development teams third game of 2023. Having lost their two previous games against slightly mis-matched opposition, we hoped that this game would be an even and competitive contest.
1st period
The Warriors took a while to settle into the game and got off to a slow start, as the Cyclones went into a 0-2 lead within the opening five minutes.
Undeterred, the Warriors kept battling and got their reward with an unassisted goal from David Gorog in the 12th minute. Game on!
David Gorog
Opened the scoring for the Warriors
With the Warriors’ confidence increasing, they battled hard for the equaliser. It took five more minutes to come, but Matthew Dudley scored the levelling goal to make it 2-2, with the assist coming from Gorog.
Matt Dudley
Scored the Warriors 2nd goal
Having exerted lots of energy to bring the score level, the Warriors were tiring and unable to stop the Cyclones from scoring their third on 18 minutes. 2-3 to Cyclones.
Warriors 2 Cyclones 3
2nd period
With the score 2-3, it was all to play for in the second period.
With only two minutes elapsed in the period, the Warriors grabbed the equaliser. Gorog with his second goal of the game, from a Kieran High assist. 3-3.
Kieran High
Assisted Gorog to make it 3-3
The second period was an end-to-end game with both teams trading chances. Unfortunately. the Cyclones weren’t giving up and battled themselves back into the lead, making it 3-4 to the away team on 26 minutes.
Again, the Warriors had to pick themselves up and battle to get back on level terms.
Six minutes later, Warriors’ Gorog scored his 3rd goal of the night to make it a hat-trick and tie the game. The assist coming from Adam Tomlinson. 4-4.
Momentum was now with the Warriors. The team pushed hard and their efforts paid off on 37 minutes when Wayne Higgins put the Warriors into the lead. The assists coming from Stella Giswisser and Tomasz Molanda.
Stella Giswisser
Assisted Higgins for Warriors 5th goal.
The Warriors were now ahead for the first time in the game at 5-4. But unfortunately this was short lived as the Cyclones equalised in the final minute of the period.
Warriors 5 Cyclones 5
3rd period
With the score all square, it was all down to the final 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, with only four minutes elapsed in the period, the Cyclones restored their lead. 5-6.
But, straight from the face-off, the Warriors raced up the ice and equalised. That man Gorog coming up with the goods again. An unassisted goal, making it four goals for him. 6-6.
David Gorog
Warriors top points scorer with 4+1
With the clock running down and no-one wanting to make a mistake that would cost their team the game, things became tense.
In the final ten minutes of the game the Warriors valiantly killed off four minutes of penalties to stay in the game.
In the final minute, the Warriors broke free and were through on goal, only to be illegally stopped by a Cyclones player. Penalty shot to Warriors! The clock was at 59:48, so there was only 12 seconds of the game left when Ivans Lebedjoks stepped up to take the penalty shot.
The team had one final chance to win the game and the pressure was on Lebedjoks.
Thankfully, he managed to score and secure the win! The Warriors bench was ecstatic.
Ivans Lebedjoks
Scored the game winning goal
The team had spent most of the game either behind or level, so to win the game at the death was dramatic.
Warriors 7 Cyclones 6
Points scorers:
David Gorog 4+1
Wayne Higgins 1+0
Ivans Lebedjoks 1+0
Matthew Dudley 1+0
Kieran High 0+1
Stella Giswisser 0+1
Tomasz Molenda 0+1
Wayne Higgins
Warriors’ player of the game
David Gorog
Captain’s player of the game
Player of the game for Warriors was #77 Wayne Higgins, who scored Warriors 5th goal.
The Captain’s player of the game was #81 David Gorog, who picked up 5 points in the game. Well played David!
Photos provided by: Claire King
