In order to see Hungarian national team goalie Szilvia Sári again, I decided to visit the Hammarby versus Sala Silverstaden match as the final one of my October 2007 trip to
Sweden. Additionally, it happened to have a meet-again with Jennie Fahlberg and Caroline Gestrup, who had already umpired the AIK - Järfälla match in Solna at that day.
Just after three minutes, Sala, who played very offensively in the beginning, scored the first goal of the match. Sari looked unlucky in that one as the ball slipped through the five-hole. Hammarby did not
resign and hit the bar just afterwards, before it took them fourty seconds to tie the score after a beautiful breakthrough from behind guest's keeper Frida Fernqvist. In the following mintes, Sala
had more ball posession and time in the opponent's half, but finally, there were unable to gain scoring opportunities from that advantage due to a very concentrated Hammary defense. After Sari somehow managed to save a good
silver city team opportunity in the 12th minutes, she did not have a chance against a shot which was taken directly from the slot half a minute later. Hammarby now played more offensively and were awarded by tieing the score with 90 seconds
left on the period's clock, when Sara Atterno received a long pass from behind Hammarby's own goalline and managed to get through the whole guest's defense. Finally, the tied score after the first period
was quite lucky for the hosts, but nevertheless, the score reproduced the actual strengths of both teams: while Sala looked superior, Hammarby had the better
opportunities.
It was Atterno again who scored just at the beginning of the second period by fighting through Sala's defensive lines. In the following minutes, both teams acted well in defense so that there have been no noticeable opportunities on either side - even when
Hammarby had to play in man-disadvantage for two minutes. When Hammarby raised the lead to two goals after a fast break, Sala tried to play forechecking, but also checked their opponents, so that one Sala player had to be sent off with a minor bench penalty for roughing (ellbowing). Summed up, Hammarby meanwhile
was the better team after fourty minutes and thus deserved the lead.
In the third period, both teams tried their best to save the lead or to turn the match. Nevertheless, the match was thrilling, but not that attractive to watch as there were too many mistakes and too
few opportunities to score. Each team had a powerplay opportunity, but they failed. After Sari showed a great reflex and nipped the ball to the bar in the 56th minute, she got beaten by an easy looking low shot. On the other side of the rink,
Fernqvist prevented the decision by a wonderful save against Rebecca Reis just afterwards. Both teams acted quite nervous now, but Atterno, who was very likely
Hammarby's best player that day gave a great show in the final minute and was able to keep the ball for nearly half a minute to give Sala the chance to play with six field players for just 20 seconds.
Finally, Hammarby nipped over Sala in a stunning battle to keep up with the best-ranked teams in the table.
As there has been no online match report when I closed these words, my report of the match is rather poor.
