At the Jean Bouin ice rink, the Nice Eagles hosted the Cergy-Pontoise Jokers as part of the 39th day of the Magnus League. The Nice team was eager to get back on track after their rather logical defeat, 10 days ago against Rouen at home (5-2).
For both teams, the goal was clear: to stop the ongoing losing streak. Cergy had lost three consecutive games against Bordeaux, Angers, and Gap. The Eagles had lost two games in a row, and that night, they had the chance to move out of the Play-out zone in case of an unfavorable result from Chamonix.
Sébastian Ylonel on fire!
The Nice team, very aggressive from the start of the match, seemed to be having a very good night, multiplying actions from the very first minutes of play. Their efforts were eventually rewarded. They opened the scoring after nine minutes of play through Norbert Abramov.
The Nice Eagles did not slow down the pace and continued to press on Sebastian Ylonel‘s goal. Waves of attacks swept in one after the other, leaving no time for Cergy to breathe. Completely dominated, the red and white players managed to equalize to 1-1. Tristan Crozier, well positioned on Emils Gegeris’s cross, delivered a beautiful top-corner shot, unstoppable for the Nice goaltender. Just before the end of the first third, Nice could have even taken the lead again, by Ivan Esipov, who made a nice breakthrough but eventually saw his shot stopped once again by Ylonel.
The Eagles’ aggression finally paid off
The second third started on the same basis. Nice once again besieged the opponent’s goal. Three minutes into the game, the Eagles had already created two big chances, saved by Ylonel, still on fire. After dominating the game, while lacking finishing for a long time, Nice finally regained the lead halfway through the second third, thanks once again to Norbert Abramov (2-1).
Not wanting to relive the same scenario, the Nice team did not slow down the pace, though often missing the final touch. And as they had still shown nothing since the start of the 2nd third, Cergy tried to take advantage of their numerical superiority, three minutes from the end to get back into the game. The Nice goalkeeper, Conrad Molder, then made a fantastic save, allowing the Eagles to maintain their lead (2-1).
Nice approached the final third with the same intentions, well encouraged by the Testa Pelada in the stands. Marc-André Levesque quickly scored a nice goal through the goalkeeper’s legs (3-1), before Radek Cip sealed the match by scoring the 4th goal in the opponent’s empty net, securing this crucial victory for his team against Cergy-Pontoise (4-1).
Following Chamonix’s defeat (5-3), the Nice team is now ninth ex aequo. The next meeting for the Nice Eagles is this Friday, away against Anglet.
