The SG Flensburg-Handewitt celebrated its second victory in its third away game of the year. It won 34:29 (17:13) at HC Erlangen on Saturday evening. The SG's top scorers were Simon Pytlick (8) and Emil Jakobsen (6/3).
It was a somewhat unusual sight on the bench: Aleš Pajović had Ljubomir Vranjes at his side as support, since Simon Hennig was unable to travel south for health reasons. After two missed shots, Lasse Møller and Simon Pytlick scored the first goals of the day for the SG. The 6:0 defense initially allowed itself to be outplayed in front of the large crowd in Nuremberg via the circle, but then only conceded one goal in ten minutes. Overall, neither team was a master of efficiency. It took a good 13 minutes for the SG to take the lead for the first time: Domen Novak finished off a counter-attack. Benjamin Burić followed up with a spectacular double save. He had been sitting on the seat of his pants for the second save. The two-goal lead only lasted a short time, but then the SG gained a certain amount of control over the game. The defense worked well. Benjamin Burić saved a seven-meter penalty. Niclas Kirkeløkke darted through a gap to make it 12:8 and complete a 4:0 run. The visitors had more energy just before the break. Johannes Golla asserted himself several times in the circle. Then a positional attack with seven field players led to a penalty throw, which Emil Jakobsen converted to make it 17:13 at the break.
Don't let anything burn
A good start to the second half is always valuable. Lasse Møller made it 20 and created the first five-goal lead. Benjamin Burić came out of the locker room in good form, so that the players in front of him attacked with even more momentum. It became even clearer. Emil Jakobsen scored from the left wing to make it 23:16. It had been the same score six days earlier in Hamburg, when a weak spell had made things unnecessarily tense. This time it was no longer close. The SG repeatedly put a damper on the atmosphere in the arena. Domen Novak ran in, received the ball and threw it into the net from close range to make it 28:20. Just a few seconds later, Simon Pytlick broke into the HCE box again and added to his tally. It was his eighth goal of the evening. "We've got everything under control," said Aleš Pajović during a team timeout and made a switch to the wing positions. And Thilo Knutzen came on for the last three minutes or so. He made it 34:27 and the game ended prematurely for Adin Faljić after his third time penalty.
