June’s club scene has seen another set of national outdoor titles decided; here’s a round-up from Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Lithuania
Šiaulių Ginstrektė – ŠSG won the Lithuanian women’s title for the 24th time in a row last weekend as they won their two final fixtures against Vilnioaus SM Sostinės Tauras (previously known as Vilniaus HC Žuvėdra).
They took the first match 6-3 before completing the title with a 3-2 success in game two.
Siauliai Ginstrekte. Photo: Alfredas Pliadis
And they did the double with the men’s side winning both of their final fixtures over Baltic Champs-Ježvitas
Šiauliai “Ginstrektė” raced to two victories, who won the first match at home 8-1 and then took the laurels over their rivals from Širvintos with a 3-1 result. Mantvydas Pocevičius was the best player of the championship and Povilas Sinkevičius, who scored 14 goals, was the championship top scorer.
Siauliai Ginstrekte’s men
Poland
KS Pomorzanin Toruń won the men’s Superleague when Maciej Zieliński’s players defeated WKS Grunwald Poznań 2-1.
After a scoreless first half, Wojciech Rutkowski made it 1-0 in the 42nd minute, and five minutes later Michał Dawid increased the lead.
After that, Grunwald began to dominate and Damian Jarzembowski scored a goal from the penalty spot to cut the gap but the Toruń hosts held on for victory.
A week earlier, KS Start Brzeziny (pictured above) became the champions for the 17th time in their history as they got the best of AZS Politechnika Poznańska in the final in a shoot-out.
Normal time ended 0-0, laying the stage for Anna Gabara to be the hero. The goalkeeper did not concede in the shoot-out either while her side netted twice to retain the national title.
KS Pomorzanin Toruń
Hungary
Építők crowned a memorable season with the men’s national title with the final series played at Mödling, getting by the challenge of Soroksári in an amazing shoot-out battle.
Normal time ended 4-4; Soroksári went into a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes with Sombor Ficzere getting both. The builders fought back with the next three goals, with Keith Bajada scoring either side of a Benedek Kozári strike for a 3-2 lead.
Ficzere equalised for 3-3 but Bajada seemingly had the game won in the 57th minute when he completed his hat trick. Ficzere, however, got his fourth in the final seconds from a stroke to make it 4-4 and a shoot-out.
Építők, however, prevailed 3-2 to get the gold, presented by EuroHockey vice president Walter Kapounek.
Építők
Austria
AHTC are the Austrian women’s champions for a fourth successive year as they won a shoot-out against WAC to end last weekend’s final series.
Both fixtures ended in draws with Saturday’s initial game concluding 1-1 with Leonie Pohl and Johanna Buchleitner exchanging goals.
In game two, the tie ended scoreless to send the title decision to a shoot-out where Aimée Pöschel made the vital save for AHTC and then young star Katharina Proksch netted the winning goal.
AHTC
Post SV ended SV Arminen’s reign as Austrian men’s champions with a breathtaking first leg 4-0 win laying the base for their overall success, winning the title for the first time since 2006.
In so doing, they have qualified for the EHL Men’s KO16 for the first time in their history having played in the EHL Ranking Cup in 2022.
They still had work to do in game two a day later with goal difference not coming into play and a win for Arminen would have led to a shoot-out. But Post prevailed once more with a 3-2 success.
Post SV
Switzerland
Rotweiss Wettingen did the Swiss double as their women won their title with a 1-0 final win over HC Olten having defeated Luzerner SC in the semi-final.
On the men’s side, Wettingen made it to the final with a 2-0 success over Grasshoppers Zurich and then defeated Olten 4-3 in the final. In that final, they had led 4-0 before a big comeback almost scuppered their hopes but they held on to win the crown.
Italy
Butterfly Roma won both of their Italian women’s final legs against Polisportiva Ferrini to become national champions earlier in June.
It earned their first scudetto as they won 3-1 in in game one before winning the second leg 4-0. Maria Vittoria Granatto ended as the season’s top scorer, netting one more than her sister Delfina whle Clara Ramon scored five times in the finals series.
Butterfly
HC Bra were the men’s winners when the Piedmontese team took the title after a thrilling final against Tevere. This is the third consecutive scudetto for Bra and the eleventh in their history.
Tevere won the first leg 1-0 on Saturday in Pisa but Bra bounced back with two goals from Andrii Koshelenko in the second leg earning a 2-0 victory in the game and 2-1 overall.
HC Bra
