By beating Rouen on Friday (2-0), the Brûleurs de Loups have definitely secured first place in the regular season three days from the end. They can no longer be joined either by Angers or by Rouen, who cannot hope for better than second place, which they will be fighting for bitterly until the last day. A relief and an objective achieved for the Grenoble residents, thus guaranteed to have the advantage of the ice for the duration of the play-offs. This is the opportunity chosen by Jyrki Aho to blow his team since no less than five players and not the least have been left to rest (Munoz, Koudri, Rouhiainen, Onno, Bisaillon). Their absence is added to those of the injured (Fabre, Jalasvaara, Tartari, Poukkula, Aurélien Dair) which means that Grenoble presents a very experimental team tonight with a lot of U20s. On the other hand Jakub Stepanek returns after having missed the three matches of last week. Anglet for its part is already condemned to the hen of maintenance. The Angloys have however recently obtained interesting results at the end of the season and remain in particular on two victories against Gap (7-5) and… Grenoble last week on penalties (4-3). The Brûleurs de Loups had won the first two meetings this season (4-2 at La Barre and 8-1 at Pôle Sud).
The start of the match was balanced with a team from Anglet who managed to match the locals. But a penalty against Decock allows the Burners of Wolves to settle permanently in the offensive zone. The puck circulates well on the power play, Bertein manages to block the long shots of Grenoble. But at the very end of the penalty and when Decock had just returned to the ice, the Brûleurs de Loups ended up finding the opening thanks to Sacha Treille (1-0, 08’36). Anglet tries to react in stride with a good occupation of the Grenoble area with an attempt by Jules Gallet then a deflection by Hugo Baron. The Angloys are present with a throw from Tarantino in the axis, pushed back with the pad by Stepanek then a good throw from Gegeris deflected from the toe of the boot by Stepanek. It takes a while for the Wolf Burners to get back into the offensive zone. After a good circulation of the puck, Lamarche takes a good throw hardly deflected by Bertein. The Grenoble residents follow up with a good offensive sequence interrupted by a foul from Treille which causes Frémond’s stick to “jump”. Anglet can evolve in turn in numerical superiority for the first time of the meeting. A great opportunity for Hormadi to come back up high but David Dostal’s players are struggling to settle in the offensive zone. After two minutes without great danger, the Isère boxplay ends up killing the penalty. Back at five against five, Tuppurainen takes Ranger’s butt in the face and struggles to get up. At the very end of the third, Treille took his chance closely and despite a confused action, the Angolan defense managed to get away. Decock tries to overflow on the left wing but Stepanek makes a nice mitt save. At the end of a balanced first period, Grenoble took a one-goal lead thanks to a numerical superiority.
Anglet sets the tone from the start of the second period with a mini breakaway from Nicolas Arrosamena who manages to present himself against Stepanek but the latter blocks the puck with his mitt. The Grenoble reply is immediate on a center set back from Fleury for Tuppurainen who takes the puck at close range but Bertein pulls out a big reflex save from the pad. A penalty is called against Grossetete, guilty of having hooked Ranger in his defensive zone. The Hormadi can evolve in numerical superiority but has difficulty installing the power play in the offensive zone. It is even Grenoble which gets a good opportunity with a puck given by Valier to Fleury who misses the puck by attempting a one timer. The Grenoble boxplay finally kills the penalty quite easily. But as soon as Grossetete returned to the ice, it was Lamarche who went to prison for having retained Ranger. Anglet can continue with a second consecutive numerical superiority, the third in all. This time the Hormadi players manage to install the power play in the offensive zone. Stepanek fends off a good shot from Garcia and the Grenoble boxplay ends up clearing. Decock takes the puck from close range against the slot but Stepanek makes a decisive save.
The Angloys continue to maintain their pressure in the offensive zone, Sweeney tries his luck from the blue line but Stepanek pushes the puck away and Grenoble ends up killing this second penalty. Back to five against five, the Burners of Wolves are back in numerical superiority. Champagne puts the puck in the cage, Bertein releases the puck but Treille does not manage to take advantage of it to push it to the bottom while he was dragging in front of the goal line. Grenoble regained control of the game in this second period. The Angloys remain dangerous on counter-attacks like Decock who arrives at the Grenoble cage to take a throw repelled by Stepanek. Grossetete narrowly misses rebounding against the Angloye cage. By dint of pushing, the Burners of Wolves get a penalty from Sweeney which trips Deschamps. This is only the second numerical superiority for Grenoble in this match. And even if they manage to install the power play, they have trouble finding good shooting opportunities. Anglet kills the penalty quite easily but barely returned to five, Vasilev is penalized for a cross throw. Second chance for the Grenoble power-play which is much more dangerous this time but Bertein makes the necessary saves to preserve his clean sheet in this second period. At the end of this second goalless third, the Burners of Wolves return to the locker room with still a small goal in advance.
Grenoble still has 39 seconds of numerical superiority at the start of the third period. From the start Hardy takes a big throw from the blue line but Bertein blocks between his leggings. Anglet comes back to five against five and brings the game back to the attacking zone, Polodyan takes a good throw without control, pushed back by Stepanek. The Burners of Wolves try to block Anglet players in the neutral zone and maintain play in the offensive zone. Lamarche takes a good shot from the blue line that ends up in Bertein’s mitt. Anglet did not give up, Pons took a good throw in the middle of the traffic but once again Stepanek was vigilant and did not allow himself to be surprised. The intensity drops in this third period with a Grenoble team which manages its lead and the Angloys who have difficulty approaching the Grenoble cage. Larroque is guilty of a slash on Fertin which allows Grenoble to evolve once again in numerical superiority. But the Angloye defense is doing a very good job in numerical inferiority to prevent Grenoble from permanently installing their power-play in the offensive zone. On a counter-attack, Treille narrowly misses the puck while Tuppurainen then takes a good throw deflected by Bertein. The Wolf Burners are quietly waiting for the clock to tick down without exposing themselves too much defensively. And on a fine counter-attack initiated by Baylacq and relayed by Valier, the latter serves back to Valentin Grossetete who scores his first goal in the Magnus League (2-0, 55’53). This goal definitely ensures Grenoble’s success. The Brûleurs de Loups only have to wait for the end of the match when Anglet has visibly given up since David Dostal does not even leave Bertein in the last minutes padlocked by the locals.
In a match without great intensity for which many Grenoble players were left to rest, the Brûleurs de Loups still manage to win and finish the regular season with an impressive record of 21 wins in 22 games at the South Pole, alone Angers having managed to win at the start of the season on Grenoble ice. Thanks to Stepanek who had a good recovery match, but also thanks to a serious and rigorous defense but also a very good discipline which has been a constant for a few games, the Isérois were able to muzzle a fairly limited English team offensively on a large ice. . The Brûleurs de Loups thus take their revenge on Anglet who won last week at La Barre after the penalty shootout. There are two games left in Grenoble before ending the regular season: Friday in Nice and Sunday for a good preparation match for the play-offs in Angers.
Anglet can be satisfied with his performance even if Grenoble was very weak this evening. Bertein performed well in front of his cage while the Angloye defense was serious and diligent throughout the match. Until the end, Anglet could have hoped to bring back at least one point from his trip to the South Pole but the attack lacked percussion and died out as the match progressed. There are three games left on the program in Anglet to end the regular season: tomorrow night in Briançon then two home games against Amiens and Rouen as a conclusion. It will then be time to start the play-downs with the objective of maintaining the line of sight.
Designated MVPs of the match: Julien Baylacq (Grenoble); Jacob Sweeney (Anglet)
(Photos by Philippe Crouzet)
Grenoble – Anglet 2-0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Mardi 1is March 2022 at 8:15 p.m. at the South Pole. 3410 spectators.
Arbitration by Benjamin Gremion and Pierre Dehaen assisted by Gwilherm Margry and Joffrey Yssembourg
Penalties: Grenoble 6′ (2′, 4′, 0′), Anglet 8′ (2′, 4′, 2′)
Shots: Grenoble 26 (7, 8, 11), Anglet 22 (9, 8, 5)
Commitments: Grenoble 27 (8, 10, 9), Anglet 24 (7, 7, 10)
Score evolution:
1-0 at 08’36: Treille assisted by Baylacq and Fleury
2-0 at 55’53: Grossetête assisted by Valier and Baylacq
Grenoble
Attackers
Jani Tuppurainen – Nicolas Deschamps (A) – Damien Fleury (A)
Sacha Treille (2′) – Joël Champagne (C) – Peter Valier
Flavian Dair – Julien Baylacq – Valentin Grossetête (2′)
Pierre Messin – Hugo Letellier – Loris Delmas
Defenders:
Kyle Hardy – Maxime Lamarche (2′)
Pierre Crinon – Antoine Fertin
Maxime Corvez – Sasha Djigaouri
Guardian :
Jakub Stepanek
Substitute: Loïc Corvez (G). Absent: Malo Ville (shoulder), Dylan Fabre (foot), Janne Jalasvaara (knee), Christophe Tartari (lower body injury), Markus Poukkula (arm), Aurélien Dair (foot), Julien Munoz, Adel Koudri, Jere Rouhiainen, Lucien Onno, Sébastien Bisaillon, Raphaël Garnier (rested).
Anglet
Forwards:
Tadeas Jaros – Alexei Polodyan – Anton Vasilyev (2′)
Elias Karvonen – Emils Gegeris – Jules Gallet
Nicolas Arrossamena (A) – Lionel Tarantino – Thomas Decock (2′)
Hugo Baron – Victor Ranger
Defenders:
C.J. Garcia – Jacob Sweeney (A) (2’)
Michal Gutwald – Mathieu Pons (C)
Arthur Larroque (2′) – Théo Frémond
Guardian :
Léo Bertein
Subs: Florian Hardy (L), Peter Hrehorcak Jr. Absent: Juho Mäkelä, Florent Neyens.
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