HC Erlangen loses to Hanover despite a strong performance

HC Erlangen went down to a defeat on the road at TSV Hannover-Burgdorf on Sunday afternoon. After leading for a long time and a strong first half, however, HC Erlangen did not reap the rewards for its fight and commitment and ended up losing by the narrow margin of 26:24 (12:15)

HC Erlangen got off to a good start and went 1:0 ahead through a goal by Steinert 1:0. The club from Franconia was well prepared for the home side’s offensive 4:2 formation in defense and kept on finding gaps, which it exploited uncompromisingly to add to its goal tally. The score shifted from 2:3 to 5:5 and then, in front by 7:8, HC Erlangen built a three-goal lead in the 20th minute: Christoph Steinert, who had already notched up five goals by then, added an impressive strike to make it 7:10. Goalkeeper Katsigiannis produced a highlight in the 23rd minute. With the score at 9:11, he saved the seven-meter penalty from Kastening and Steinert went up the other end to make it 9:12. The club from Franconia was compact in defense and also defended cleverly when short-handed. Backed by a stable defense, the HC Erlangen played out its attacks precisely and also chalked up a good scoring percentage. Both teams went in at the break with the score 12:15.

HC Erlangen picked up in the second half where it had left off. Johannes Sellin, who was in accurate shooting form, made it 12:16 after a pass by Büdel. The visitors attacked courageously with great fight and passion and was repeatedly able to find solutions. Link made it 15:18 and Johannes Sellin snapped up the rebound in the 43rd minute and stormed through to add another (18:21). Carlos Ortega called a timeout with 15 minutes left to give his team its final instructions for crunch time. After that, the home side clawed its way back to 20:21 and exploited a spell in which the HC was not focused. With ten minutes remaining, the home side tied the encounter at 22:22 with a seven-meter penalty. It then went in front for the first time in the 53rd minute while its opponents were short-handed. Hanover was now more offensive in defense and constricted the radius of action of goal-getter Steinert with man-to-man covering. After winning possession, Bissel commandingly scored on a fast break to equalize (23:23). Ugalde put the TSV back ahead again, but Büdel got his side level (24:24). Ugalde scored again on Hanover’s next attack (25:24). With 40 seconds left on the clock, HC Erlangen again had the chance to tie the encounter. However, the Kempa pass from Sellin did not find Nikolai Link, but instead ended up in the hands of a home player. TSV played out the remaining 30 seconds cleverly and made the final score 26:24 shortly before the end.