Day 6, Group A – Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 11-14
Missing four man-ups and hitting the post from a penalty in the first period wasn’t exactly a dream start for Dinamo. Indeed, this disastrous offensive performance combined with three fine goals from Hannover forced the hosts into a chasing game which they couldn’t handle.
Their best spell came deep into the second period – once they fell 0-4 and 1-5 behind, they managed to score three connecting goals in 90 seconds and trailed 4-5, but the Germans halted their run as Marko Macan put away a man-up (after well-timed time-out). Then in 48 seconds, fellow Croat Luka Lozina reset the three goal-difference with an astonishing centre-shot. Though Dinamo pulled one back once more, a lucky rebound in a 6 on 5 helped Waspo a bit to score another goal with 0:09 on the clock for a 5-8 halftime lead.
As it turned out, Dinamo’s last real chance came early in the third – Andrija Vlahovic hit one from action right away, then the Georgians earned an extra, but this time the post denied Vlahovic. Soon Linus Schuetze copied his last-grasp goal from the second period: the first shot wasn’t good from the Germans in a man-up, but they collected the rebound and Schuetze sent it home for a 6-9 lead. In 39 seconds, it was virtually over: Andrija Basic netted one from action for 6-10 and that broke the hosts somewhat. In the remaining time they were unable to get inside three goals – missed two more man-ups late in the third –, the pattern saw Hannover taking a four-goal lead, then the Georgians pulled one back, but could never reduce the gap further. At the end, Waspo managed to maintain the three-goal lead they had built in the first eight minutes till the very end.
