Spectacle in the last three seconds at GIJS, Groningers qualify for semi-finals play-offs, but then have to miss Niels van der Vossen due to a match penalty

GIJS won the home game against the Domstedelingen before another sold-out Kardinge 7-2, actually never got into trouble and didn’t even have to go to great lengths to secure the semi-final. After the 2-1 victory that the Groningen team had already achieved on Saturday evening in the ‘first leg’ in Utrecht, Utrecht no longer harbored any illusions.

Last three seconds

But afterwards it was not so much about the seven goals that GIJS scored, but mainly about the first of the last three seconds of the game. Utrecht had made the score a little bit more bearable four seconds earlier via Broderick Black (7-2) and so the face-off had to be taken.

In addition, Utrechter Teun Landzaat, who had already gone wild in a fight on the ice, went crazy. At the face-off he immediately mowed down GIJS forward Patrick Kiezebrink and lay on top of him as if he were free wrestling. Van der Vossen immediately rushed to free Kiezebrink and literally flew into Landzaat from behind, after which a considerable commotion ensued and the game came to a standstill for a long time. In the end, Landzaat and Van der Vossen were allowed to take a shower immediately.

match penalty

Van der Vossen received the heaviest punishment from referee Jos Korte: a match penalty, which means that he is suspended for the next two games. ,,Niels should not have allowed himself to be provoked”, Van der Vossen’s Groningen teammate Guy Kunst thought afterwards, when things had calmed down a bit and GIJS celebrated its nineteenth victory in a row. ,,While it was so logical to come to the aid of a teammate. But actually he duped his team. Utrecht just wanted to lure us out of the tent.”

GIJS coach Csaba Kercso was also not amused with the absence of his chastened international. ,,It was very logical and understandable what Niels did, but he really should have held back in those last seconds. Now, after Sebastiaan Snijder’s broken leg, we have one less player on the ice.”

Suspended for two games

Van der Vossen, who won the BeneLeague with UNIS Flyers and was a regular player for the Orange for a long time, will in any case have to miss the first two matches in the semi-final against Tilburg Trappers. GIJS will play the first game against the Tilburgers at home on Saturday evening, followed by the away game in Tilburg on Sunday. If both teams win once, the decisive game in Kardinge will follow on Saturday, March 18. Van der Vossen can therefore participate again in that duel.

Hopefully for GIJS the final has already been reached. And that it can be achieved, everyone at GIJS firmly believes in that. In fact, a championship of the premier league is increasingly being taken into account. ,,The belief that we can really become champions”, said Kunst (23), who himself played for three years as a talent at Tilburg, ,,is increasing. you saw it, for example, in the final phase of the match against Dordrecht, when we really did everything we could to get even and get that overtime out of the fire. Watch the game against Leeuwarden. This team has grown together enormously in recent weeks.”

Kercso thinks so too. But first Tilburg. ,,Tilburg is of course a team with much more structure than the idiots from Utrecht have”, says Kercso. ,,Tilburg has really good ice hockey players who will really turn it into an ice hockey match and don’t just want to lure us out, like Utrecht. Let me put it this way: we have a good chance.”