SonderjyskE claims regular season title
Denmark's Metal Ligaen just saw its last regular season games and in the end SonderjyskE came out on top again. Herning could secure home ice in the first round.
Eight days ago the Danish league had a
name written in first place you did not see a lot over the past
decade. The Frederikshavn White Hawks were about to take over the
reign in Denmark. But on the last meters SonderjyskE managed to
secure home ice until the potential finals.
In the direct match-up, that happened
last weekend, Scott Campbell scored the game-winner for SonderjyskE
with only 5 minutes left in the game before Kim Lykkeskov could
finalize the 3-1 victory for the champions to take over the lead in
Metal Ligaen again.
With one point ahead, they entered the
last working day of regular season and it was supposed to become some
hard work to defend that point as none other than the 3rd
placed team from Esbjerg was hosting. While Frederikshavn cruised to
an easy 8-3 win in Gentofte and obviously made their homework to keep
their shot at home ice advantage all the way through the playoffs
alive, the key was whether SonderjyskE could come out victorious.
And for a long time Esbjerg was helping
the White Hawks. Aaron Lee scored the go ahead goal just 6 minutes
into the game and carried the lead until midway through the last
period. After 47 minutes Thomas Spelling could finally even the game
and in the last minutes SonderjyskE pushed for a 4-1 win with goals
by Michael Eskesen, Darcy Zajac and Scott Campbell.
Esbjerg was set for place 3 long before
the puck dropped tonight and so the last important battle was for
place 4 between Odense and Herning. Similar to the battle for the top
position, the underdog (or let's make that Bulldog) celebrated a very
easy win. An 11-1 in Herlev put pressure on Herning.
When Kristoffer Lauridsen scored early
goal on the powerplay, it seemed to look good for the Blue Foxes. However,
Aalborg scored three consecutive goals until minute 45 to turn things
around. But Herning managed to answer. Again Lauridsen, Jordan George
and Ales Sova could secure three important points to claim home ice
in round 1.
The exact match-ups in the
quarter-finals, which will be held in a best-of-7 format, are not yet
clear as the Danish league has a special feature to offer. The
first-placed SonderjyskE will now have the right to choose their
first-round opponent among the teams in places 5-8, which will be
Odense, Rungsted, Rodovre and Aalborg. Afterwards second-placed
Frederikshavn may choose among the left teams and so on.