Floorball Thurgau reach Champions Cup semifinal with extra-time winner
Florbal Mlada Boleslav won their Champions Cup quarterfinal home leg 4:1, but Switzerland's Floorball Thurgau advanced on aggregate after scoring the decisive goal in overtime.
The men's Floorball Champions Cup quarterfinal ties are decided over two legs using a points system, with three points awarded for a win and one for a draw. In the first leg played in Switzerland, Floorball Thurgau pulled off a somewhat surprising 6:4 win, putting themselves in a strong position ahead of the return match.
In the second leg, Czech club Florbal Mlada Boleslav hosted the tie and took control from the opening minutes. In the fourth minute, the home side went ahead when Adams Delong fed the ball out to the flank, where Simon Stransky finished with an unstoppable shot. The Czechs could not immediately extend their lead, and in the 13th minute Pablo Marioti leveled the score at 1:1 with a well-placed shot.
After the break, the hosts again seized the initiative. In the 22nd minute, Vojtěch Wiener used a clever spin move to shake off his marker before scoring into the near bottom corner, making it 2:1. Late in the period, a third goal followed as Delong won the ball deep in the opponents' zone through aggressive pressing and set up an unmarked Stransky, extending the lead to 3:1.
The score held through much of the third period, even as Floorball Thurgau gambled by pulling their goalkeeper for an extra attacker. The move failed to pay off — in the final seconds, Dominik Beneš fired the ball the length of the rink from in front of his own goal, making it 4:1.
However, the overall goal difference did not matter, since each team had won one leg. That meant a ten-minute overtime period would decide the semifinalist. The extra time was played cautiously until, in the seventh minute, the Swiss side worked a set piece from a corner that briefly left Marioti unmarked. Thurgau's leading forward converted the chance, scoring the winning goal and sending Floorball Thurgau through to the Champions Cup semifinal.
Mlada Boleslav's top scorers were Adams Delong (0+3), Simon Stransky (2+0) and Vojtěch Wiener (1+0), while Thurgau's scorers were Pablo Marioti (1+0) and Mika Hanni (0+1).
