Games We Play: Bat Yam II wins in tragic circumstances
Overshadowed by the death of Golubovich, Bat Yam II beats Maalot in amateur ice hockey league.
By LIONEL GAFFEN
In a night overshadowed by the death of Bat Yam II player/coach Alexander Golubovich, Bat Yam II beat Maalot and Haifa defeated Metulla 3-0 in the amateur ice hockey league.
Ma'alot managed to hold off Bat Yam II in the opening period of a 4-1 loss, and passed the halfway point in the second, before Michael Nikolsky of BY II managed to finally lace one past Leonid Zalizlyak at the 33 minute mark.
He was followed in rapid succession by Edouard Tokar and Vlag Agapov, each of them coming three minutes apart to finish the scoring for the stanza.
Vitaly Panov scored for Bat Yam II five minutes into the third frame, and, with less than five minutes to go, Slava Golodnitsky finally beat Stats Nikolay, BY II's second goaler, who had replaced Alexander Loginov between the pipes at the 34 minute mark.
Bat Yam II had the look of an ordinary team, without key playmaker Avishai Geller was away taking part in a triathlon in Eilat and Golubvich who had retired to the dressing room at the end of the second frame.
Boris Mindel, coach of the Metulla team, said of Golubovich: "Without him, they're just another team in the league - he beat us in the last game."
In the first game of the night, Haifa, managed a hard fought shutout against the up and coming young Metulla team, thanks to superb goaltending of national team goaltender Boris Amromin.
Eddy Ravniaga fired what turned out to be the winning goal past Eden Nemenoff in the sixth minute of the opening period. And less than ten minutes later, he ably assisted Artium Korotin in scoring his first of a pair, ending the scoring for the period.
Korotin nabbed his second at the thirty four minute point, closing out the game scoring.
While the third period was scoreless, it wasn't for the lack of effort on the part of the Metulla team, who had two power play opportunities, owing to penalties meted out to a couple of Haifaites.
While out shooting Haifa by a 9-4 differential in the period, they weren't able to finish off their scoring chances.
In all, Haifa outshot Metulla by a 25-21 margin, and the experience of the Haifa team around the net made the difference.