After finishing eighth place in the regular season, the Epinal Dauphins have reached the Ligue Magnus finals after a huge win in game seven at Angers. Epinal will play the first finals in team history against the Rapaces de Gap.

by Nicolas Leborgne

The fourth-seeded Angers Ducs led their semi-final series with the Epinal Dauphins 3-1 but couldn't finish and fell at home in game seven against a determined team.

After Nicolas Leonelli an early goal for Epinal, the home team Angers managed to tie the game on a power-play goal by former NHLer Sebastien Bisaillon. But Epinal was huge in the second period, scoring two goals. Michal Petrak gave his team a 2-1 lead on the power play, and three minutes later Grégory Beron extended the lead to two goals off the rush on a Maxime Moisand feed. Vincent Kara closed the scoring late in the game with an empty-net goal.

Slovenian goalie Andrej Hocevar had a terrific game with 26 saves. Ironically, Angers let Hocevar go in 2012 because "he wasn't consistent enough in key games."

Epinal showed some character in this series. Trailing three games to one, les Dauphins came back and will play in the league finals for the first time in team history. Former national team great Philippe Bozon, who was named coach at the beginning of the season, has already exceeded expectations.

"I told the guys before the game that, whatever the result, they should have no regrets," the former NHLer said. "That's what they did, all the players worked hard. We started well with a goal, but I thought it could turn bad in the first period after that. But we played very well in the second and the players gave everything."

The final series against the Rapaces de Gap seems to be wide open. Epinal have never won the championship, and Gap haven't won since they claimed back-to-back titles in 1977 and 1978.

Epinal's strong attack is led by Jan Plch (4 goals, 14 assists in 16 games), Michal Petrak (8 goals, 9 assists) and Grégory Beron, who was a force during the semi-finals (5 goals, 10 assists). All three players currently leads the playoffs in scoring. French national team defenceman Maxime Moisand was equally impressive with 3 goals and 10 assists during the playoffs.

"It wasn't easy and we had to manage something we hadn't managed before. But as the game went on, we felt like we closed in on them. Everybody sacrificied himself, and it's just awesome. We remember a few weeks ago we were at the bottom, and now... We live for moments like this, with all our fans who came here to see us play," said Moisand, who played the World Championship with France last year in Minsk, to newspaper Vosges Matin.

Gap, who finished third in the regular season, haven't been as productive offensively in the playoffs as Epinal, despite Radim Valchar's 6 goals and 5 assists in 10 games. But les Rapaces have played fewer games and their stingy defence has been flawless during the first two playoff rounds. Clément Fouquerel, loaned by Chamonix before the playoffs, has a .927 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average in 12 games, including two shutouts. Fouquerel was very good against Dijon, eliminating them in five games.

"It was a trench war vs Dijon, with all that was at stake. Dijon played a great game five but defensively, we didn't concede much. We were a little stiff on offence, but there was a lot of maturity and poise. Two goals on the power play, and Fouquerel was terrific at the end with two huge saves. I'm happy for the players, they worked hard all summer and it paid dividends," coach Luciano Basile said to newspaper Dauphiné Libéré.

Gap will have home-ice advantage in this seven-game series and Basile could have a huge impact. He lead the Briançon Diables Rouges to the title last year in a seven-game thriller against Angers. That win got the Red Devils into the Champions Hockey League this past season, and a spot in the CHL is on the line in this year's finals as well.

The series starts Tuesday night in Gap. If it goes the full seven games, it will finish on Sunday, 5 April.