Pressemitteilungen

When the week started there were a lot of unknowns that needed to be answered. "We went in with the goal to avenge some early season losses and prove ourselves as one of the league's elite," said Head Coach of the Blizz Rupert Keppler. GM Jordan Holthus after today's game said, "Our guys went into this thing confident, they played and executed well and they got the job done."

Determination Week kicked off in Omaha in a game vs the Kansas City Mavericks. The Blizz started things off strong with both a powerplay and shorthanded goal in the first period. The team never looked back, tallying six more goals in the next two periods, including another powerplay goal. The Mavericks did manage to slip one of their own past Vlastimil Lauko. The netminder for the Mavericks, Radim Travnicek, gave a valiant effort but when your team is outshot 35 to 11 it is hard to keep it all out of the net when under that much pressure. " This team is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, still working on chemistry and building the team, they will be solid and we look forward to the challenge they present," declared Florian Bradavka, who was the 1st star for the game. This was a stepping stone in the right direction for the Omaha Blizzard.

Game two of the week was played in Warriors Coliseum. In front of a packed crowd Omaha started things off right with an unassisted goal by defensman Michal Maksymiuk. However, the powerful offense of Fox Warriors was not about to let this game get away and with surging force the Warriors tallied three goals before the end of the first period. Again momentum would swing and it would swing hard and never change back for the Fox Warriors. A shutout was pitched for the remaining two periods by Vlastimil Lauko and the Blizz offense tacked on four straight goals to solidify a win on the road. The Blizzard were outshot and lost more faceoffs than won, but won the penalty battle 4-2 and were able to capitalized on two of the four powerplays which ended up being a huge factor in the game. " They applied pressure all game, we were lucky we found the net a couple more times than them and were able to capitalize on a couple of mistakes," stated Keppler, the Head Coach of Omaha. With the win Omaha was able to climb to #2 in the league.

The final game was back at Bluesky Airways Arena. DBN Thunder came in with something to prove, that they were #1 in III 14 and no one was going to show them up. With a record crowd and full arena Omaha again started early and added one goal in the first and another in the second. They thought they were comfortably in control with a two goal lead, the Thunder had other plans as they scored three straight goals, including a shorthanded marker, and had a lead early in the third period. Not even a minute after DBN took the lead Omaha tied it up with a clutch goal by Geleta and regulation would end in a tie. Overtime saw great chances on both sides but nothing could be determined and the game would require a shootout to crown a winner. After one attempt by each team it was still 0-0 in the shootout. The next two shooters for the Blizz would prove why they are part of the SO team as both scored and the Omaha Blizzard won the shootout 2-0. This game featured great goalie play on both sides, both only had save percentages in the 80's but there were very many clutch saves. Karel Paluba proved to be one of the toughest keepers that Omaha had faced all season but being under fire all game might have worn him out and been the difference in the shootout. " He is a very good goalie, he reads and reacts very well, he was tough to get anything by and their offense was very opportunistic and hungry, but we fortunately came out on top," said Geleta who scored both the tying goal in the third and the winner in the shootout. With the win Omaha inched to 10 pts behind DBN.

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