There were two big questions prior to the last weekend of Baltic Handball League’s regular season. Who will finish top of the table and who will take the last spot available in the Final Four? The latter one was answered already on Saturday with Cocks Riihimäki securing fourth place.
The winner of the regular season was clear late on Sunday after Serviti Põlva beat Cocks at home and thus finished first due to better results in games against SKA Minsk with both collecting 15 points.
SKA finished with win
Title-holders SKA had only one match to play and they finished in style beating fellow Belarussians from HC Meshkov Brest by clear margin of 37-26 (21-13), even without using all their key players. Mikita Vailupau from SKA was in unstoppable form, scoring 13 goals for the winners, while Artsiom Selviasiuk’s 10 goals did not help HC Meshkov too much.
Serviti also had a “domestic affair” on Saturday, as they welcomed HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper to Põlva. The visitors did take a 2-0 lead, but after these first minutes they did not manage to go in front anymore. Serviti was 17-13 ahead at half-time and despite Kehra managed to cut the deficit to a minimum in the second half on few occasions, it was hosts’ 8-0 sprint at the start of the final ten minutes, which decided the match and Serviti moved two points from SKA with a 32-23 win.
Andreas Rikken scored 6 goals for winners, but Kehra’s Ukrainian Dmytro Yankovskiy had the highest score of the match with 10. “We played a good game, especially considering our low average age at the back and on the line,” admitted Serviti’s head coach Kalmer Musting. “But perhaps this youthful energy, speed and especially great emotional charge brought us the desired result?”
STANDINGS:
| 1 | Põlva Serviti | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 294:253 | 41 | 15 |
| 2 | SKA Minsk | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 328:275 | 53 | 15 |
| 3 | HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 266:253 | 13 | 12 |
| 4 | Riihimäen Cocks | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 261:264 | -3 | 9 |
| 5 | HC Meshkov Brest | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 271:291 | -20 | 8 |
| 6 | VHC Šviesa, Vilnius | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 255:339 | -84 | 1 |
Musting surprised by the regular season win
On Sunday, Põlva welcomed Cocks to town. The Finns had a long trip to Vilnius the previous day securing their place in the Final Four, but they did not come to lose. As the day before, Serviti did not get off the starting blocks very well, falling 3-1 behind. But after this the defence hold Cocks without goals for ten minutes and Serviti took a 13-9 half-time lead.
In the second half, at best Cocks could only get at a two-goal distance and a 26-22 win for Serviti meant the Estonian club had won the regular season! Ardo Puna scored 7 goals for Serviti, while Andrei Buciuman and Mykhaylo Krivchikov recorded 6 for Finns. “As usual, the match on the second day of the weekend is of a bit lower quality,” said Musting. “Cocks had taken a good win the day before and both teams changed players more often than usually, but it turned out to be a good match.”
Serviti’s long-serving coach was genuinely surprised by winning the regular season. “We started in autumn with two defeats and it did not look very good. But these remained our only losses, so I guess we did something right. However, I would not overestimate the position in the table, as this season all four teams are very, very equal and it’s going to be difficult Final Four in any case,” concluded Musting.
Cocks forced to fight hard for the fourth place
Returning to Saturday, an important match took place in Vilnius, where local VHC Šviesa was not about to let Cocks qualify to Final Four too easily. Despite having collected just one point during the whole season, the Lithuanians put up an excellent fight. They led some part of the first half, lost it by 13-11, but bounced back in the second half again.
At best Šviesa was 19-17 ahead and with five minutes to go the score was 24-24. Cocks finished better and took a hugely important 29-25 win. Kristo Voika scored 11 goals for the winners, while Skirmantas Pleta was Šviesa’s best with 6 goals. As earlier in the day SKA had beaten HC Meshkov, it meant the Finnish champions had secured 4th place for them.
“I am surprised Šviesa has only one point in the table – although young, they are a strong team, play interestingly and I am sure we will hear more from them,” paid Cocks’ head coach Kaj Kekki compliments to opponents. “I believe it was our experience which turned the game to our favour in the end.”
Despite having no chance to move up from 4th place, Cocks still took Sunday’s match against Serviti seriously. “I have been coaching 28 years and never gone to a game to lose, so I tried to motivate my players as best as I could,” said Kekki. “Yes, we had to limit some players’ time in order to keep them fit for next weekend’s EHF Challenge Cup, but it was a serious battle, from which Serviti came out on top.”
In the other game on Sunday, Šviesa lived up to Kekki’s praise and put up a good fight again, this time against HC Kehra. Just as the day before, Lithuanians were in lead several times during the game, but the end of the match belonged to visitors and Kehra took a 32-28 (15-15) win. Jürgen Rooba scored 9 goals for Kehra and Tomas Bernatavičius 7 goals for the hosts.
Final Four will take place in Kehra on 11-12 April with semi-final pairings being Serviti – Cocks and SKA – Kehra.
