Pinoké and HC Bloemendaal will contest the Dutch men’s Hoofdklasse final next week after they got the best of SV Kampong and Rotterdam in the semi-final second legs.
For the former, they produced the surprise of the week when they got the best of a Kampong side that had topped the regular season table, winning both legs of their encounter.
On Thursday, they were 3-1 winners; an exchange of goals between set-piece guns Alexander Hendrickx and Jip Janssen was following by a beautiful Miles Bukkens deflection and then some brilliant tenacity from Marlon Landbrug that led to the third.
And they did early damage in Sunday’s second leg with goals from Sebastien Dockier and Florent van Aubel either side of a Janssen strike.
It made it 5-2 overall with nine minutes gone and that was the way it remained as Pinoké advanced to their second successive Dutch championship final.
For Bloemendaal, they overcame Rotterdam with a 6-4 aggregate win. The first leg looked comfortable with Arthur van Doren and Dennis Warmerdam putting them in control but a last minute Joaquin Menini goal kept things interesting going into game two.
Tim Swaen stretched the overall lead to 3-1 but quickfire strikes from Pepijn van der Heijden and Jeroen Hertzberger put the tie back in the balance at 3-3 overall.
The crucial phase came either side of half-time when van Doren scored twice, building a 5-3 advantage, and his side stayed clear despite another Hertzberger goal with Roel Bovendeert putting the result to bed.
Those results confirm the three EHL Men’s entries for 2023/24 with Kampong destined for the KO16. Pinoké and Bloemendaal will battle for the national title with the winner going straight through to the FINAL8 and the runner-up into the KO16.