Pune: Dark horse Odisha almost lived up to the billing before Haryana bested them through a new penalty shootout 3-2 after the two teams were locked 2-2 at the end of the regulation time in the 1st Hockey India Junior Men’s National hockey championship at the Balewadi Sports Complex astro-turf here on Thursday.

The new penalty shootout format wherein a player starts from 30-yard line with the goalkeeper under the bar and 8 seconds to beat was introduced for the first time in the Nationals. Both the teams were new to the format, but Haryana was lucky to take their chances after Odisha that gave the northerners some leeway to plan.

When Odisha’s captain Stanli Victor Minz and Amon Mirash Tirkey failed to put the ball in, Haryana went 1-0 through Manish Rana’s goal. Odisha rallied into the match through Mikhal Barla and Bikas Kujur and even as Haryana missed through Siddhant Gautam, Ranjit Singh and Naveen Antil made sure they had the last laugh.

In the regulation time, it was Odisha that took the lead early in the match through Ignacius Toppo, who scored in the 6th minute. Up by a goal the easterners played textbook hockey through excellent passing and set plan.

Haryana kept finding the gaps in vain even as their short-game came unstuck as Odisha defence led by Dilip Toppo and Deepak Kullu stood firm. It took the 17th minute in the second half for Haryana to get their bearing together when Manish Rana scored an equalizer. As they came back into life, prolific scorer Ranjit Singh put Haryana in the lead three minutes later.

Down by the reverses, Odisha withdrew into their half, but that silence was only just for a while. Mikhal Barla and Bikas Kujur upped the ante as the time wore on before their efforts got rewarded one minute from close.

On a move set up by Barla, Odisha captain Minz scored a blinder to give them some more time to make a game.

The 15 minutes of extra-time, however, failed to break the ice even as it was Odisha who controlled for most part while Haryana was always in the hunt for penalty corners. Referee obliged them thrice, but their stoppages were shoddy to say the least.

RESULTS Final: Haryana 2 (Manish Rana 52nd, Ranjit Singh 55th) beat Odisha 2 (Ignacius Toppo 6th, Stanli Victor Minz 69th) - Penalty shootout Haryana 3 (Manish Rana, Ranjit Singh, Naveen Antil) beat Odisha 2 (Mikhal Barla, Bikas Kujur).

Third-place match: Punjab 6 (Sukhmanjit Singh 22nd, Sukhdev Singh 24th, Mandeep Singh 33rd, Varun Kumar 40th, Harsahib Singh57th, Gaganpreet Singh 66th) beat Jharkhand 1 (Rajin Khandulna 15th).

The Awards Best Goalkeeper: Subodh Tirkey (Odisha)

Best Defender: Kiro Xess (Jharkhand)

Best Mid-fielder: Pardeep Mor (Haryana)

Best forward: Manish Rana (Haryana)

Player of the tournament: Mandeep Singh (Punjab)

Fair play trophy: Mizoram.