The Coupe de France surprise finally comes from Annecy | General France – Ice Hockey
Since 2008/09, the only year in which all the top division teams had qualified, the Coupe de France has always given rise to surprises. There have even always been several a year for the past seven seasons. But this year, we waited a long time to witness a feat…
A Tuesday without surprises
As in the first round, the hierarchy did not shake at the start of the round of 16. The closest will have been Tours, facing the tenant of the title Angers. At the quarter of an hour, Matthew Newbury replied in 30 seconds to the opener of the Angevin joker Joey West (who will finally return to play for Amiens after this match!), But two minutes later, Téo Sarliève gave another definitive advantage to the Dukes. The score did not change until two minutes from the end when Philippe Halley made it 1-3, but Frank Spinozzi was not abandoned and took his goalkeeper out to take advantage of a breakdown by Kevin Dusseau . Elie Raibon reduced the score to 2-3 in a 6-4 situation.
The other Ligue Magnus teams on the move to D1 formations have not conceded a single goal. Quentin Papillon made 26 saves for Strasbourg in the Alsatian derby and Mulhouse won 4-0 with braces from Konstantin Makarov and Alex Berardinelli. But there too, local coach Daniel Bourdages released his goalkeeper when there was only a two-goal difference. It was very quick in Montpellier: Bordeaux scored three times in the first five minutes to finally win 5-0 with doubles from Kévin Spinozzi and Karri Forsblom.
With two divisions apart, in accordance, the difference was obvious. The meeting between the French Volants and Rouen was reversed due to the Bercy tennis tournament, and it was on Île Lacroix in front of 2,941 spectators that the Dragons beat the Parisian team 10-0 with three goals from Alexandre Mallet (title photo). Amiens beat Amnéville 16-1 with 3 goals from Tomas Simonsen and 2 from Ilies Djemel… two players who, along with Bruche, are the best scorers in the D2 group at Amnéville (probably for several more weeks) since their match with the Reserve.
The other card was curiously made between two teams of the same division. Épinal, winner only on penalties on Saturday in Morzine, took revenge for the lost point by crushing the Penguins 10-0 with in particular four goals from Dominik Fujerik. Shortly before the halfway mark, Lucas Mugnier was replaced by Matiss Bouvet after having already conceded six goals. In the Vosges cages, the Russian veteran Sergei Koroshun and the young Tristan Thévenot shared the bleaching with thirty minutes each.
No surprise either between D2 and D1. The ambitious Meudon was able to rub shoulders with a higher division team, Dunkirk, and held the 0-0 for 31 minutes. But when Lucas Besson opened the scoring, Daniel Svoboda and Lubomir Dinda quickly followed (0-3). Adrien Vazzaz pocketed the laundering.
For the twists, you had to see the clash between Division 2 teams. Reims seemed to wander for a long time, leading 3-0 then 5-1 against Wasquehal, but the Lions roared to come back to 5-4 and force the local coach Ivan Bock to take his time out. Les Rémois won 8-4 and Artyom Dmitrichev completed a personal quintuplet.
Suspense on late Wednesday
The Magnus League teams did not tremble more on Wednesday. At the Palais des Sports in Megève, last season’s finalist Gap was even crushing against Mont-Blanc by leading 11-1 five minutes from the end, for a final score of 11-3. The Gapençais captain Romain Gutierrez signed a triple in the process.
Two divisions apart, Anglet was relatively calmer winning 6-0 on the road to Toulouse-Blagnac, with braces from captain Thomas Decock and Aleksei Polodyan. Goalkeepers Mathew Robson and Julien Gaubert share the whiteout.
It was Neuilly-sur-Marne who delivered the best opposition in the Ile-de-France derby, thanks to two goals from Spanish international Bruno Baldris. Insufficient, however, to bring down Cergy-Pontoise, winner 4-2 thanks to 1 goal and 2 assists from Pierre-Charles Hordelalay, who knows the small ice of Neuilly well where he spent three years of his career.
The suspense was intense in the derby between two of D1’s best clubs, Nantes and Cholet. The Dogs took a two-goal lead in the first period thanks to goals from Ludovic Karsh and Feliks Morozov. The Amiens from Nice ended up responding. Rémi Thomas reduced the score late in the second period and Romain Carpentier equalized nine minutes from time. But on penalties, Michael Luba was beaten three times out of four Choletaise attempts (Mathieu, Svitac and Morozov). The Choletais therefore continued their winning streak against the Corsairs they had beaten in the semi-finals of the championship last year.
The D1/D2 clashes were extremely competitive. Valence led 1-0 then 2-1 against Chambéry through goals Quentin Rodriguez and Dmitry Dudkin, but Paul Siraudin and Léo Lesage equalized each time. Penalties against Lynx foreign reinforcements were expensive: Alexandre Desgagnés scored while Carl Månsson was in prison, then the expulsion of Alex Corvi (5’+20′ for projection against the boards) allowed Loris Delmas to give the Elephants a two-goal lead after two thirds. It looked bent, but Månsson and Stevenin canceled that gap in the space of two minutes, forcing Savoyards Quebec coach Pierre Bergeron to call his time out. It was only in the last nine minutes that junior Siraudin scored the winning goal. Joran Reynaud (in an empty cage) and Matias Bachelet gave a deceptive scale to the score in the last two minutes (4-7).
In Annecy too, the top division team slashed their two-goal lead. Marseille seemed well launched after the successes of Maxence Leroux and Maksim Makarov, before and just after the first break, but that was not enough. The scorers began to take penalties to “hang on”, and when Florent Aubé imitated them, Alex Gauze deflowered the nets of Kilian Guilbaut on the power play. Makarov returned to jail for obstruction, and Tom Combaz equalized 23 seconds after the Russian was released from jail. The Spartans regained discipline in the third period… but not in overtime, where Adam Gajarsky was penalized for “tripping”. Niklas Westerlund – former Marseille player – then scored the winning but that crucified his former club. There it is, at the very last match to end, the long-awaited surprise of the Coupe de France!
The French Cup results.