After a great victory (7-4) on the ice against the Homardi d’Anglet last Friday, Nice (9th) hosted Amiens (6th) at the Jean Bouin ice rink for the 41st day of the regular season.
The Nice team was eager to continue their winning streak with the possibility, in case of a defeat for Chamonix (8th) against Grenoble (3rd), to move ahead in the rankings and get closer to the Play-offs. On the Amiens side, Romain Bault and Jaakko Niskala, who were under concussion protocol following their collision against Rouen in the last match, were unavailable. The Eagles, on the other hand, were without their loyal defender Marc André Leveque.
The start of the match was difficult for the Nice team. Amiens stormed the red and black’s net. After seven minutes of play, the Gothiques were already leading (2-0) thanks to Justin Bergeron and Antonin Plagnat. Despite being poorly positioned, the Nice team managed to narrow the gap nine minutes before the end of the first period through Lucas Villain.
But once again, Amiens dealt a strong blow to the Nice team. Five minutes from the end, while both teams were playing in a penalty situation, T. Simonsen increased the lead for the Gothiques before Antonin Plagnat doubled it (1-4). Just as earlier in the game, the Eagles of Nice did not give up; they relied on their star scorer Norbert Abramov and came back to (4-2) in the last minute of the first period.
The Eagles dominated
The Eagles started the second period much better. Cip quickly restored hope for the Nice team (4-3). They even came very close to equalizing shortly afterward. However, Amiens finally took advantage of a Nice error in the sixth minute, capitalizing on the opportunity with a neat 2-on-1 executed by Simonsen and Leborgne (5-3).
In a very tight third period, both teams went back and forth without success on the Nice side. Amiens scored two more goals through Zachary Lavigne. The match ended with a score of (7-4) in favor of the Amiens team.
The next game for the Eagles is this Friday on the ice of Marseille for the Mediterranean derby.
