East Grinstead HC 5 v 0 SC Stroitel Brest

The final game of the day would see the host club, East Grinstead, play the Belorussian team, SC Stroitel Brest in Round One Group D. East Grinstead finished as runners up in the English League, and were eliminated in the second round of last season’s EHL competition. They also included three players from the Great Britain team that finished fourth in the Olympics. Stroitel Brest are certainly the leading team in Belarus, being reigning champions in Belarus and have won the Belarus league 17 times since the league’s formation in 1993. They also have ten members of the Belarus national team, although they are only ranked 31^st in the world.

If this was expected to be a comfortable opening victory for the home team, it did not shape up that way in the early stages, with the first quarter very even, East Grinstead probably had the best chances to take the lead but the Belorussian side deserved to see out the quarter on level terms. It was in the second quarter where almost all of the meaningful action took place, as East Grinstead blew their opponents away with four goals in eleven minutes. Andy Piper opened the scoring on 23 minutes, before Mark Pearn doubled their advantage on 27 minutes. Glenn Kirkham added a third on 32 minutes, and two minutes later, Piper scored his second of the game to give East Grinstead a four goal cushion.

It was game over really, and they added a fifth on 45 minutes through Adam Jordan. Sadly the game really petered out after that, with little attacking intent from either side, as Stroitel Brest seemed to want to concentrate on damage limitation, and East Grinstead were happy with what they had, and the last quarter was a total non event, as East Grinstead probably knew they had done enough to qualify for the next round.