Abu Dhabi: The UAE needed overtime and game-winning shots to emerge winners against Kuwait in their last match of seeding round of the second GCC Ice Hockey Cup at the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink late on Wednesday night.
The match was closely contested one with both teams doing their best. They performed in a balanced way between defence and attack - which led to ending the first period without any of the teams founding the net of the other.
In the second period, Mishal Al Ajmai came to the rescue of his team and scored Kuwait’s both goals in the 2nd and 14th minutes, respectively. Juma Al Dhaheri, the UAE ace player, reduced the deficit after less than a minute after Kuwait’s second goal and Omar Al Shamsi levelled one minute before the end of the period.
In the third period, both teams failed to score despite several attempts and had to resort to play a sudden-death overtime period which yielded no goals with the two teams playing game winning shots with five shots for each of them.
Kuwait’s players failed to convert even a single of their five shots, while Al Dhaheri was the only one who found the target to give his team the first seed place. Kuwait finished second.Khalid Al Suwaidi of the UAE and Abdul Aziz Shtail form Kuwait were the MVPs of the match.
Oman defeated Bahrain 10-5 to takethe third seed,leaving the fourth to Bahrain, in the first match of the day. Oman’s player-manager Anad Al Bloushi scored a double and Khalid Al Bloushi added another while Ebrahim Al Dhaladari, Dawoud Al Asani, Ebrahim Al Ghabshi, Talal Al Bloushi, Maaz Al Siayabi and Ahmad Al Qatani scored one goal each.
Sam Hijazi scored a hat-trick for Bahrain while Salman Al Thawadi and Salaman Sualilbeekh added one each. Qasim Al Falahi from Oman and Sam Hijazi from Bahrain were the MVPs of the match. In the semi-finals of the competition, the UAE will play against Bahrain while Kuwait will face Oman.
