Gantoise win epic Belgian men’s final

Gantoise completed an historic season as they won the Belgian men’s title to go along with the EHL title, edging out Royal Léopold in a shoot-out after two epic battles over the weekend.

Léo won the first one 3-2 with three goals from José Basterra helping them come back from 2-1 down.

The result was reversed a day later with Gantoise earning the 3-2 scoreline. They wiped out the Léo advantage through Charles Masson but Tom Boon quickly put his side back in front.

Alex Hendrickx levelled the aggregate score in the third quarter and another rocket in the fourth period had them flying high.

That was until Basterra deflected in the dying seconds to level at 5-5 overall, sending it to a shoot-out.

There, though, Gantoise produced a perfect set of five shoot-out goals while Nicolas Poncelet saw his effort come back off the post for Léo.

“It’s completely crazy,” admitted Pascal Kina, the Gantoise coach. “During the first leg, despite the narrow defeat, we had already shown good things. But we knew we were capable of much better.

“This last goal that really came out of nowhere, that’s sport. But we showed tremendous character, as is often the case, to bounce back.

“I don’t want to think about next season and our future goals yet. I’m going to celebrate first and then we’ll get back to work on Tuesday.”

The result means Gantoise will play in the EHL Men’s FINAL8 next Easter with Royal Léopold going to the KO16 in October.

The post Gantoise win epic Belgian men’s final first appeared on EHL.