ET - Luleå HF with a four game winning streak

This Friday evening another European Trophy marathon ended with all but two teams competing in a total of 15 games. Last week the teams met in Scandinavia and Germany, now they had to travel south where the teams from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland and Austria had the right to play at home.

North Division

Swedish side Luleå HF earned the expected three points in the North Division meeting against bottom team HC Kometa Brno from the Czech Republic. After a three-goal lead in the first period the guests took one foot from the gas and were punished with a double of Miroslav Holec right before the first break. After a goalless second period, the Fins in the Luleå roster - Toni Koivisto (2) and Joonas Vihko - added another three for a solid away win. Now the Swedes are one of only four teams in the competition to stay without a single loss and the only won to have a four-game winning streak what lets them be first in their Division and a serious contender for a Red Bull Salute qualification. On the other side Kometa with three heavily losses can already bury their hopes for the final stage.

Second in the North Division stays Eisbären Berlin who confirmed their ambitions in the match between the first two European Trophy winners by defeating EC Red Bull Salzburg away 4-1. Late in the first Jamie Arniel had scored in a power play for the Germans, who extended their lead in the second through Rankel and Sharrow. Despite a superiority in creating scoring chances, Salzburg was only able to score the consolidation goal with 1:35 left prior to the final whistle. Sharrow with his second even regained the three-goal lead in the last minute of play. Berlin now has a 3-0-0 record and 9 points while the Austrians are only 6th in the group.

For HC Mountfield and Hamburg Freezers it was the third ET game each. The Czechs earned their first three points while Hamburg had to give up points for the first time in their first ET match outside Germany. After an even first period the result was 2-2 before Lukas Kveton decided the game in the middle period with a double - both times with the man advantage. In the third David Wolf cut the lead by the Half but Mountfield defended the close result.

In the last match of North Division Finnish side Kärpät Oulu likely has already missed a top-2 spot by losing in Plzen 2-3 in overtime. The Czechs earned their first two points but it was a lot of hard work. They led twice but with 50:00 played Julius Junttila in PP scored the equalizer for the guests. With the very first try in OT it was Ondrej Kratena who ended the game action after 60:35.

East Division

Tappara from Finland defended their East Division lead by winning 3-2 after shootout in Switzerland against Fribourg-Gottéron. The home side tried everything to get their first ET points and even was 2-1 in front by "halftime" after Jeannin and Vauclair had turned around the initial away lead through Antti Erkinjuntti. With only 3:06 left on the clock Jussi Makkonen tied it for the guests and extended the game to overtime. After this one stayed goalless the shootout had to bring a winner and there it was Erkinjuntti who was the only scorer for the Tappara extra point.

Another Finnish away win happened in Bern where the Swiss vice champions were beaten 1-4 by TPS Turku. Christoph Bertschi had opened the score early for the SC but Ville Vahalahti earned the equalizer within two minutes. After that the guests took the initiative and made it 1-3 by the end of the second period. With two seconds to go Marko Anttila added an empty-netter for the three-goal difference getting TPS to the second spot while Bern - with two points in three games - will face trouble in the attempt to qualify for Red Bull Salute.

Swedish champions Brynäs IF failed again to keep a lead, today even twice. A 4-1 in the middle period was by far enough for home side Pardubice to make useless the initial goal by Andreas Thuresson. Jan Stary and Jan Kolar added another two in the third to keep the Czechs (6 points) in fighting distance for one of the two positions in their Division.

Bili Tigry Liberec received the Swedish Allsvenskan participant Djurgårdens IF who had a perfect record with two wins prior to this game. In the first period the guests failed to benefit from their many scoring chances before Liberec crushed them 5-0 in a horrible second period performance by the Swedes. With 6-1 after 40 minutes the match off course was decided and when Ludwig Blomstrand scored for the Stockholm-based DIF that had no real impact anymore. With their second straight home win Liberec keeps the hopes for a final round qualification alive.

South Division

In the top challenge of the South Division HV71 took over the group lead from Sparta Prague by bringing them down 7-2. The Czechs never found to their play as the Swedes were always one step ahead of them. Already after two periods everything was decided but the guests didn't show mercy and even added another three goals to win by a very large margin. HV71 now has a perfect 3-0-0 record while Sparta has collected 8 points in 4 matches.

For the Slovakian KHL newcomers Slovan Bratislava the home win against the current Finnish champ JYP was already the sixth ET appearance but only the very first three-point performance. Again Slovnaft Arena was filled very well with 6,853 fans in anticipation of the team's first ever KHL campaign that starts in September. After several disappointing matches recently, they showed all their class and defeated their opponents easily 5-0 to place themselves 3rd with 7 points - as one of the hosts for Red Bull Salute they are qualified for the tournament anyway.

Pirati Chomutov faced the 4th shootout in the 4th ET game and as in the season opener they lost it at home. Chomutov earned three times the lead against the Swedes of Linköpings HC but Andreas Jämtin (1 G, 2 A) and Mattias Weinhandl (2 G, 1 A) who both earned three points pathed the way for another shootout with participation of the Pirates. There it was Pär Arlbrandt who earned the extra point for the LHC. Both teams now have 6 points but Chomutov has played one game more.

Bratislava's co-hosts Vienna Capitals are also already qualified for the final stage but off course they want to represent the Austrian ice hockey well. Against Finnish side KalPa Kuopio they managed to win 5-3. After an early two-goal lead for Vienna, Sami Kapanen tied the game in the middle period. In the following time the hosts stayed the better team but had to see how KalPa scored the equalizer for the 3-3 still in the 2nd. In the end Jamie Fraser and Benoit Gratton decided the match for Vienna.

West Division

Watching an ET game of ERC Ingolstadt nowadays seems to be a guarantee for many goals. Against Swedish side Frölunda Indians they already had a 4-1 lead in the first period before they received the equalizer by the 34th minute. After Patrick Hager and Mats Rosseli Olsen for the 5-5 kept the result as close as possible, the Bavarians had a phenomenal finish with three goals in the last five minutes. With this 8-5 win Ingolstadt placed itself on top of the West Division with now 7 points in 4 matches while Frölunda received its first loss.

A strong finish in the third period let Swiss regular season champions EV Zug win 4-1 against Jokerit from Finland who had scored first through Markus Nordlund in the 13th minute but couldn't hold the small lead. Zug now is second in the Division with 6 points.

Roman Wick, with a double in the last 20 minutes, made possible another Swiss win on this ET evening against HIFK. Zürich (5 pts) and HIFK (3 pts) still have all chances for the Red Bull Salute left.

 

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