HONG KONG—Back from the end of year break, the two top teams, Macau Aces met South China Sharks, faced off in the first match of the evening on Thursday Jan 5, 2017.
Warriors dominated in the first half season to lead the standings by 3 points at the half-way stage of the season. So this was a top match to test the leaders. In their 3 previous 3 encounters this year Warriors were leading the battle 2 matches to 1 with Aces winning 9-3 in their first match and then Warriors picking up 2 wins with 6-4 and 5-3 wins. In this new match Aces edged a goal by Magnus Berglind to finish the first period at 1-0. In Stanza 2 Aces pushed further ahead with goals by Jeff Ceccacci and Lokel Wong before Keith Tsang got Warriors on the scoresheet ending the session at 3-1. Warriors were beginning to struggle for fitness after the layoff but were still in the game. But Aces topped out in the final session picking up goals by Fenton Garvie, Matthew Lee, Whitney Olsen and a second by Lokel Wong to finish at 7-1. Closing the gap at the top to a mere 1 point, at 13-12.
