Cardiff & Met won an incredible final quarter shoot-out with SC Stroitel Brest to win the men’s Euro Hockey Trophy in Wettingen, Switzerland 4-3 after six goals came in the closing 12 minutes.
After a scoreless first half, Jack Rhodes broke the deadlock from a penalty corner five minutes into the second half, staying that way until a crazy final quarter amid a deluge of rain.
Aliaksandr Radzivinovich equalised from a corner before Jack Pritchard made it 2-1 to Cardiff within a few seconds with a clever corner deflection move.
Again, the lead only lasted a short while as a reverse-stick cross from the left fell to Vitali Zyschchyk at the back post to tap into an open goal.
He scored again in the 51st minute for 3-2 when Stroitel Brest stole the ball off the last defender, laying off the ball to Zyschchyk who used the wet pitch well to slide on the turf and into the goal.
Pritchard brought it back to 3-3 in the 53rd minute from a stroke after a slightly messy corner ended up hitting a foot on the line.
And the game was won with 106 seconds to go courtesy of Ieuan Davis’s low bullet into the backboard to make it 4-3.
Brest had three corners in the last minute but all were charged down and Cardiff had their victory.
Earlier in the day, Rotweiss Wettingen earned third place with a 4-3 win over OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa while Austria’s WAC beat Casa Pia Atletico Clube 2-1 for fifth.
In the first game, Glenanne beat Bohemians 9-3 with their last six goals coming in the last ten minutes after the side had been level at 3-3.
The impact of this on the EHL ranking table confirms France will have two clubs in next season’s Euro Hockey League while there will be one team for each of Russia, Ireland, Scotland, Belarus and Austria with Poland missing out for the first time.