Men’s EHL Ranking Cup
M10: Mannheimer HC 2 (M Schachner, G Peillat) Hampstead & Westminster 2 (M Guise-Brown 2), Mannheim win shoot-out 2-0
Mannheimer HC stunned Hampstead & Westminster with a shoot-out win after a crazy closing to normal time ended with three goals coming in the last two minutes.
Indeed, Gonzalo Peillat scored with six seconds to go to send it to that shoot-out where Jean Danneberg managed to keep out all of the London club’s efforts, leading to a 2-0 success.
For a long time, it was defences on top with Hampstead & Westminster taking the lead in the 14th minute via corner gun Matt Guise-Brown.
James Sutcliffe’s amazing diving stick – covering behind Toby Reynolds-Cotterill – denied Jan-Philipp Fischer from a brilliant chance while Linus Muller also saved off the line at the far end.
From there, it was tight and intense with both defences holding up well until two and a half minutes from the end as neither side were able to make full use of their corners.
Eventually, Mannheim got level from a scrappy one, Mario Schachner cleaning up in front of goal after a mistrapped effort was worked around the circle, offering a couple of bites of the cherry for Justus Weigand and Paul Zmyslony.
That was far from the end of the drama as Guise-Brown shot a rocket through the Mannheim corner defences with 100 seconds to go. No matter, Peillat stepped up even later with a low push to make it 2-2.
Into the shoot-out and it was goalkeepers on top with plenty of good saves. Peillat was was the only man to score in the first four rounds via a stroke won by Raphael Hartkopf as Danneberg and Reynolds-Cotterill made block after block.
And eventually Guido Barreiros put the result to bed with goal two in the fifth round for a 2-0 success.
It puts Mannheim into a fifth place playoff with HC Minsk on Sunday while Hampstead & Westminster will face Three Rock Rovers for 13th overall.
Umpires: M Dutrieux (BEL), A Fedenczuk (SCO)