The ice hockey players of GIJS HEPRO Groningen led for a long time against UNIS Flyers Eredivisie, but eventually lost in overtime: 6-5. GIJS therefore drops to ninth place.
The match in Thialf, the northern ice hockey derby, even though this language team is not the Flyers’ main force, only started late. Neither team scored in the first period.
GIJS seemed to be well on his way
Immediately after the first break, Guy Kunst broke the ban. He scored 0-1 on behalf of GIJS and when Zahir Hup signed for 0-2 shortly afterwards, the Groningers seemed to be well on their way against Flyers, who started the match a position lower on the Premier League ladder.
But the home team showed a lot of resilience. Derek Seguin and Paul Berisha tied the score again. Toms Breikss then put GIJS at 2-3 and Joop Uchtman increased the gap again to two (2-4), but now the Frisians had an answer. The young Gys Vollmann scored 3-4 and veteran Tony Demelinne made it 4-4, all in the second period.
No blow to the neck
In the final period, GIJS hoped that Björn de Haan’s 4-5, who scored after an assist from Carsten Smit, would really be the final blow for the Flyers talent team, which has been supplemented with a handful of veterans.
But that wasn’t it: three minutes later Demelinne scored the 5-5. The Frisians still took the win in overtime. Seguin scored his second goal of the evening behind Danylo Douma after just 43 seconds.
Goalie Douma directly to Schiphol
Immediately after the match, the young GIJS goalie was delivered by father Fré to Schiphol, where he flew to the World Cup in Scotland with the Netherlands U20 on Sunday morning.
Due to the defeat, GIJS drops to ninth place, Heerenveen is now 8th. After the regular competition, the best eight play the play-offs for the Dutch championship. GIJS can take immediate revenge on Saturday: Flyers will then come to Kardinge.