Ligue Magnus: Nice Eagles, the dominant team, fall to Gap

Three days after their convincing success against the Raptors at Jean-Bouin, the Nice Eagles failed to confirm. More enterprising for much of the match, the Nice team lost (4-1) Sunday evening at the Alp’Arena, penalized by their lack of realism against an imperial Thomas Scarfone in the Gap goal.

The hoped-for momentum did not last. Reinvigorated after their reference victory obtained this week against Gap (5-1), the Nice Eagles this time stumbled against more opportunistic Raptors. Beaten (4-1) in the Hautes-Alpes, Marc-André Lévesque’s men could have regrets given their statistical dominance. « What we lacked in recent matches was this physical intensity and this defensive solidarity. We proved that we were capable of doing it, now we need to repeat these performances in every match », Nice coach Marc-André Lévesque confided after Friday’s victory against Gap. A message that his players partially applied, but which was not enough to return from the Hautes-Alpes with points.

From the start, the Nice team indeed took control of the game. Taking advantage of local indiscipline, they regularly settled in the Gap zone and multiplied dangerous situations there. Yet it was the Raptors who struck first. After just two minutes of play, Canadian forward Zachary Tsekos took advantage of a rebound to open the scoring against the run of play.

Far from being discouraged, the Nice Eagles continued their offensives. Their perseverance was rewarded in the 15th minute when John Druskinis, already a double scorer on Friday, found the back of the net on the power play with a powerful shot, assisted by Louis Cirgues and Nicolas Ruel. A logical equalization for the then-dominant Côte d’Azur side.

Dominating is not winning

But the turning point of the match came in the second period. Despite several sequences of Nice pressure and a substantial volume of shots, the visitors came up against a Thomas Scarfone particularly inspired. The Gap goaltender finished the match with 34 saves against 35 Nice shots.

Conversely, Gap showed ruthless efficiency. In the 40th minute, Patrick Kyte gave them the advantage back on a shot from a tight angle, just before the second buzzer: 2-1. A tough blow for the Eagles, who had matched them well up to that point.

The Nice team tried to come back in the final period, but discipline failed them. Two successive penalties handed to Maxime Toukmatchev gave the Raptors a golden opportunity to break away. Daniels Murnieks did not hesitate and converted the power play less than five minutes from the end of the match, 3-1.

Forced to take risks late in the match, the Maralpins conceded a final goal by Patrick Kyte into the empty net in the final moments of the game. The Gap defenseman thus scored a brace and sealed his team’s success (4-1).

The score appears harsh given the nature of the match. More enterprising, authors of numerous sequences of domination and often settled in the opponent’s zone, the Nice team lacked realism in key moments against a Gap team that knew how to exploit each of its opportunities.

Despite this defeat, the Nice Eagles maintain their sixth place in the Magnus League standings with 18 points. For their part, Gap remain in the danger zone in tenth place with 12 units. The Nice team will need to quickly switch to their next challenge with the reception of leader Grenoble, Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Jean-Bouin arena. A team against whom the Eagles will have revenge to take after the 7-1 loss suffered in Isère ten days ago.