For their first home game of the season at Jean-Bouin in Ligue Magnus, Nice won (3-2) against Anglet. Despite a long period of chasing the score, Nice’s Eagles took flight in the third period before getting a scare at the end of the match.
Nice’s Eagles achieved 2/2. After an inaugural victory secured at Amiens in overtime on Tuesday (4-3), Nice’s Eagles played their very first home match of the season against Anglet. While the Basques were defeated at home against Bordeaux, the Nice players were fired up. Driven by their supporters who were waiting for the return of their heroes, whom they had left with the elimination in the final phases by Angers, the Azure team won by the same score as last year.
Despite clear control of the puck from the start and strong collective intensity, Nice conceded the opening goal against the run of play early in the match. Like last week at Amiens, the young Eagles cracked at the 3rd minute on a goal by Basque player Jesper Frisell assisted by Owen Pederson and Caden Brown. Marc-André Lévesque’s men demonstrated solid defense and maintained strong pressure in the opposing zone. While the Nice attack ran into a vigilant opposing goalkeeper, particularly during two power play situations (10th and 16th minute of the first period), the home team could count on an imperious Alexis Shank in goal. Author of a crucial save at the 10th minute on a lightning counter-attack and then a double decisive intervention at the 12th, the Nice goalkeeper kept his team alive to return to the locker room with just one goal down, 0-1 at the end of this first period.
Nice makes a comeback
Returning with more aggressive intentions in the second period, Anglet applied pressure right from the start. The Nice players safely navigated a power play disadvantage at the 4th minute before imposing a fast pace. In a period marked by intense physical engagement, tension and minor skirmishes that forced the referee to stop play twice, the visiting team continued to hold their own while conceding more and more chances.
The young Eagles pushed relentlessly, a shot on the post at the 12th minute even prompted the Basque bench to call a timeout to calm its troops. Despite another penalty conceded at the 16th minute and a succession of saves by the visiting goalkeeper, the Nice players never gave up. The reward finally came in the final seconds of the period. Teemu Loizeau found the back of the net on a lightning counter-attack just before the buzzer assisted by Nicolas Ruel and Samuel Regis. He brought his team back to 1-1 and sent the Jean-Bouin Sports Palace into raptures.
The third period saw the young Eagles finally capitalize on their dominance. At the 3rd minute, taking advantage of a power play, Nicholas Cherkowski gave the home team the lead with assists from Nicolas Ruel and Édouard St-Laurent (2-1). Galvanized, the Nice players sealed it at the 7th minute with a goal by rookie Édouard St-Laurent, perfectly set up by Fletcher Anderson and Hugo Nogaretto (3-1). Facing Anglet’s reaction, Alexis Shank once again proved imperious, making crucial saves particularly on a one-on-one at the 6th minute, then twice within ten minutes of the end. But the Nice goalkeeper could do nothing about the final push by the Basques who reduced the gap in the final moments of the match through Alexei Polodyan. Solid to the end, the Eagles won (3-2), secured three valuable points and climbed to 4th place in Ligue Magnus.
Teemu Loizeau: « To give this victory to the fans »
For tonight’s scorer, Teemu Loizeau, the slow start in the first period remains hard to swallow: « At home, it’s unacceptable not to show up from the start. We came away well at 0-1, but at halftime, we told ourselves we had to raise our level. It was a real battle, but we managed to find the solutions to give this victory to the fans. » A sentiment shared by his coach Marc-André Lévesque, determined to correct course before the next matches. « We enter the game without legs. We’ll need to fix that quickly because at this rate, we’ll burn ourselves out. These are small mistakes to eliminate, but there’s nothing alarming. We take the three points and the atmosphere was excellent for this first match at Jean-Bouin. We have two training sessions this week to fine-tune the details before heading to Cergy. »
Next match Tuesday, September 22 at 8:30 p.m. Nice’s Eagles will travel to Cergy Pontoise.
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