Anglet came from behind to beat Gap 4-3 in Ligue Magnus on Tuesday evening. The away side took all three points at home ice, leaving the hosts still searching for their first victory of the campaign.
I was watching from the stands and remember minute twenty clearly — the game had settled into something tighter than anyone expected. We'd given the home side a 52 per cent chance of winning, but by then the match was already slipping away from that forecast. And here's the thing, the table goes out of the window in these games.
Gap had looked sharp in their previous outing, a 5-2 win over Amiens, but form means little when you're both sitting on zero points. To be fair, Anglet didn't come in with much confidence either — five defeats and counting. The visitors worked the channels and found a rhythm the hosts couldn't match.
Three goals for Gap sounded comfortable on paper, but the visitors saw it out after falling behind. The academy graduate marked his first start with a goal, though that detail doesn't change the fact that Anglet turned it around after the break. The hosts bottled it when they should have closed the game out.
Both sides remain winless after five games, which tells you nothing about the season so far. Fourth place with zero games and zero points means the table has just started and says nothing yet. What matters is that Gap have not won since the opening weekend, and Anglet finally broke their streak.
The result doesn't shift anyone's position in the standings, but it breaks a pattern for the visitors. Five losses and now one point on the board — that's the kind of turnaround that matters more than the numbers on the page.