Brasov faced must win situation in a sold out arena in Nové Zámky.
After a high scoring fourth game in Brasov the teams traveled back to Nové Zámky where the home team could clinch the MOL league with a win. Brasov jumped out to a lead before the sold out crowd had gotten settled in their seats. Zsombor Antal made it 1-0 as it looked like he had missed the puck on the initial shot from right in front of the goal but he was able to put his rebound past a surprised Jan Chovan. After some hard hitting playoff hockey Nové Zámky pulled even as their top producing line in the playoffs came through again. From the left hand side of the goal Peter Polcik made a pass back to in front of the goal where Albin Podstavek took a shot from the slot that Patrik Polc was unable to save. The score remained 1-1 until the final seconds of the period when the veterans Marek Uram, Martin Frolik and Lubomir Hurtaj skated in on a 3 on 1, Frolik skated down the left wing and put a pass under the Brasov defender who was trying to block the pass, to Uram who had all day to flip the puck into the empty net, with one second left on the clock. “I made a real bad mistake there that they scored from” said Juha Hietamaki after the game.
In the second period both teams played a bit sloppy but neither team was really able to capitalize on the others’ mistake . However Brasov did do it once Martin Saluga skated in wide on the left and almost identically to what Frolik and Uram did Saluga made a pass back across the ice to Zsolt Molnár who put it past Chovan into the empty net to make it 2-2.
In the third period both teams skated hard, followed through on their checks and the arena air was filled with intensity. Also on an interesting note, leading regular season scorer Erik Weissmann did not travel with the team to Brasov for games two and three, supposedly because of illness. He was on the roster for game 5 but did not dress, he did come out for the third period, when asked why he did not play the first 40 minutes he just shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know, ask the coach”
With Marek Uram sitting in the penalty box for delay of game Brasov knew they had a great opportunity to take the lead. At 46:43 of the game Levente Zsók, the leading scorer in the playoffs put the puck in the cage for the power play goal and the 3-2 lead. Brasov was able to hold off the onrush of Nové Zámky, with 72 seconds left in the game the home team coach Robert Spisak pulled Jan Chovan for the extra attacker. For the remainder of the game Spisak sent out a big guns line made up of Uram, Polcik, Podstavek, Hurtaj, Miroslav Stefanka, and Pavel Kowalczyk but it was not enough and Brasov pulled out the win.
After the game Brasov defenceman Kevin Wehrs said that they are a simple team going up against a skilled opponent, “our goal was to win this game, get back home in front of our fans and and see where it goes from there, we need to get the sloppy wins, we need to play simple hockey and not let them score too many goals, they are a really skilled team”
Nové Zámky forward Peter Polcik said after the game “the game was sloppy, we had a plenty of chance but we couldn't finish, I had a couple of chances that I missed as well. its not enough when the first line scores one goal. if we lose in Brasov its not all lost, we will just have to do it on home ice.”
Nové Zámky-Brasov 2-3 (NZ leads best-of-seven series 3-2)
Szabolcs Závodszky @Zavodszky