Ice Hockey 2018 - 2019 Discussion Thread

[phelps 8,341]

and the Playoffs Preliminary Round is over also in Sweden and Finland...

 

in the SHL, it only took 2 games to both reigning champions Växjö Lakers and HV71 to beat their rivals...

 

Växjö won 3-2 (after OT) at home and 4-2 on the road against Örebro HK, meanwhile HV71 took care of Rögle BK by winning 4-1 at home and 4-3 (after OT) on the road...therefore, no decisive games #3 were needed...

 

on Thursday, March 22nd, the SHL quarterfinals (best-of-7 series) will start with these pairings:

 

Färjestad BK vs HV 71

Luleå HF vs Växjö Lakers HC

 

meanwhile on Friday, March 23rd, the remaining 2 series will start:

 

Frölunda HC vs IF Malmö Redhawks

Djurgårdens IF vs Skellefteå AIK

 

 

in the Finnish Liiga, instead, both series of the Preliminary Round went to the decisive game #3...and in both cases the home ice advantage played a decisive role...

 

so, the 2 teams that qualified for the quarterfinals are Lukko (2-1 in the series against JYP, 4-1 the result of game #3) and Ilves Tampere (2-1 the series against SaiPa, 4-2 the final score of game #3)...

 

the Liiga Quarterfinals (best-of-7 series) will start tomorrow, March 21st, with the first 2 pairings:

 

Pelicans Lahti vs HIFK Helsinki

TPS Turku vs HPK Hämeenlinna

 

the remaining 2 series, instead, will start on Friday, March 22nd:

 

Kärpät Oulu vs Ilves Tampere

Tappara Tampere vs Lukko Rauma

 

 

p.s. last night, "my" Ambrì-Piotta was eliminated (1-4 the series score) by HC Bienne/Biel in the quarterfinals of the Swiss NLA...I'm so sad....I just can't stop crying...

[hckošice 15,663]

and it´s over HC Košice lost the 6th match in Poprad 4-2 and the whole series 4-2 as well. Congrats to Poprad, they remains our nemesis...

 

Another disapointing season for us, especially sad for our former NHL star Ladislav Nagy who wanted to finish his career with the national champion title he never won with his birth city Košice let´s hope he´ll have a better and much happier feelings after his very last ice hockey tournament in his career in May with our NT in his beloved Košice.

 

 

However, all quarterfinals series are over and we already know the semifinals pairings.The reigning champions and regular season winners Banská Bystrica will face now Poprad and Zvolen will face Nitra who eliminated Trenčín tonight also 4-2 in the series winning the 6th game in the Pavol Demitra

stadium in Trenčín

 

                                                                                          Quarterfinals                     Semifinals

 

 

 

[phelps 8,341]

last night was quite an interesting hockey night around Europe...

 

in particular, in the Swiss NLA the record for the longest match in the history of that league was broken, as SC Bern won game #6 of their quarterfinal series in Geneve against HC Servette 3-2 after 3 OT, with the game-winning goal coming after 117 mins and 43 seconds of play (basically, 2 full matches...just a couple of minutes less than that)...

 

p.s. SC Bern were leading 2-0 with 46 seconds to play in regulation and Servette made a miracle to score twice in 17 seconds to tie the game and force the OT..unfortunately, once again they couldn't complete their amazing comeback and they finally lost the entire series 4-2 and are out of the NLA playoffs...

 

details and highlights of this amazing hockey game, here:

https://www.sihf.ch/de/game-center/national-league/#/bestof//asc/page/0/2019/3002

 

meanwhile the series between HC Lausanne and SC Langnau Tigers is the only NLA Playoffs quarterfinal match-up going to game #7 (tomorrow night @ 8 p.m. CET)...

 

 

in the KHL, at the same time, the Western Conference semifinals both came to an end in 5 games only...

and this time no surprise happened...CSKA Moscow and SKA St.Petersburg were the heavy favourites and CSKA Moscow and SKA St.Petersburg are the 2 teams who are going to play for the Conference title...

 

Western Conference, Semifinals recap

 

CSKA Moscow (#1) b. Dynamo Moscow (#5) 4-1 (4-1; 0-1OT; 4-0; 2-1; 3-2)

SKA St.Petersburg (#2) b. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (#3) 4-1 (1-0; 6-1; 1-3; 3-1; 5-4OT)

 

and also in the Eastern Conference we have 2 series that today could end in 5 games only, with Salavat (#6 seed) surprisingly in the lead 3-1 in the series against the no.1 seed Avtomobilist and Avangard (4) also on the verge of upsetting the better seeded Barys Astana (2)...

 

and speaking of the Avangard vs Barys series, just look at this unbelievable goal by Maksim Chudinov of Avangard from behind the center ice line (but Karlsson...)...

https://video.khl.ru/events/876041?locale=en

 

[phelps 8,341]

as we anticiapted a couple of days ago, in the KHL also the Eastern Conference semifinals ended in 5 games only...

Avangard Omsk (vs Barys Astana) and Salavat Yulaev Ufa (vs the no.1 seed Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg), in fact, won their series against all the odds and now they are going to play for the Conference title...

 

Eastern Conference, Semifinals recap

 

Salavat Yulaev Ufa (#6) b. Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg (#1) 4-1 (1-0; 0-2; 2-1OT; 4-2; 4-1)

Avangard Omsk (#4) b. Barys Astana (#2) 4-1 (3-1; 2-4; 5-0; 3-1; 5-3)

 

Therefore, the 2 Conference Finals (best-of-7 series) are:

 

Western Conference: CSKA Moscow vs SKA St.Petersburg (all the action starting next Thursday, March 28th)

 

Eastern Conference: Avangard Omsk vs Salavat Yulaev Ufa (all the action starting next Friday, March 29th)

 

Fun fact: Avangard are having such a good season just on the year when their home arena was closed down due to structural problems and they are playing their home games in Balashikha (a city in the Moscow Region), something around 2700km (1665 metric miles) away from Omsk...

 

 

in the meantime, also the Swiss NLA completed the Quarterfinal series...

 

and all the top seeded teams went through to the semifinals without too many problems...even HC Lausanne, who was forced to game #7 by SC Langnau Tigers, didn't actually have to worry that much, since they've always been ahead late in the series and once they got to the series decider, they just thrashed out their rivals with a score of 8-1, which says it all about the kind of game that was played yesterday night in Lausanne...

 

Quarterfinals recap

 

SC Bern (#1) b. HC Genève-Servette (#8) 4-2 (0-2; 3-2OT; 2-3OT2; 2-1; 4-3OT; 3-2OT3)

EV Zug (#2) b. HC Lugano (#7) 4-0 (3-2; 5-1; 5-4; 5-4OT2)

EHC Bienne/Biel (#4) b. HC Ambrì-Piotta (#5) 4-1 (3-1; 3-2; 5-3; 1-2; 2-1)

HC Lausanne (#3) b. SC Langnau Tigers (#6) 4-3 (1-5; 3-0; 5-2; 2-1; 1-5; 2-4; 8-1)

 

and because of these results, now we have the following Semifinals pairings (best-of-7 series, all the action starting next Tuesday, March 26th):

 

SC Bern vs EHC Bienne/Biel

EV Zug vs HC Lausanne

 

 

Finally, breaking news from the EBEL, where the defending champions HC Bolzano/Bozen Foxies have been eliminated in the quarterfinals by KAC Klagenfurt (4-1 the series score), which means that in Austria we are sure to have new champions at the end of the playoffs...

 

 

[hckošice 15,663]

Also yesterday was played the last real 7th do-or-die match in the national championship play-out series. Michalovce a city from the east of the country won the 7th game in Žilina 1-2 and the whole serie 3-4 !

 

Michalovce qualified for the first time ever to the national championship (the closest of the top tier national league they were so far in 1985/86 when they won the Slovak zone of 2nd Czechoslovak league but failed in the final qualification play-off against the Czech zone winner Vítkovice)

 

In other side Žilina will be relegated from the national championship after 18 consecutive seasons.

 

[phelps 8,341]

time to celebrate women's Hockey, too...

 

 

Calgary wins Clarkson Cup

 

Three years after winning their first Clarkson Cup, the Calgary Inferno have done it again.

 

They defeated Les Canadiennes de Montreal 5-2 Sunday afternoon at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto to win the 11th edition of Canada’s premier women’s hockey championship.

Zoe Hickel scored twice for Calgary while Montreal’s captain, Marie-Philip Poulin, watched from the bench, unable to play because of an injury.

Calgary’s win in 2016 also came at Montreal’s expense, while a year later it was the reverse.

"I've been on other end of this," said Calgary forward Brianne Jenner, one of six players from the 2016 team to win again today.

"This is my third time playing in the Clarkson Cup, third time against Montreal, so there's definitely a rivalry there. In a couple of days a few of them will be teammates and it'll all be smiles, but it feels pretty good Calgary got this one."

Jenner is referring to Canada’s national team that will leave shortly for Espoo, Finland for the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship.

 

Indeed, more than 15 players in today’s game will represent North America (as well, the Inferno’s Venla Hovi will be there for the hometown Finns and Aina Mizumaki for Japan).

Les Canadiennes weren’t the same without Poulin, the CWHL’s leading scorer. "She was heartbroken," said Montreal head coach Caroline Ouellette about Poulin’s inability to play.

"She's the type of player that craves those big moments. Those moments where everything is on the line. She's our captain. She's our leader. She's the best player in the league, in my opinion."

"We didn’t play 60 minutes and I think we just ran out of time," she Ann-Sophie Bettez, the 31-year-old Canadiennes forward who scored twice today and who will be playing in her first Women’s Worlds next month.

"By the end of the second and in the third, we got momentum, but unfortunately we didn’t play 60 minutes."

 

The Inferno dominated the opening period.

Rebecca Johnston got a great chance early, ringing a shot off the post, and a short time later they connected.

Defenceman Kacey Bellamy wound up for a slap shot from the point, but noticing Hickel in front fired a beautiful slap pass to her. Hickel re-directed the shot perfectly past Emerance Maschmeyer at 7:59.

Five minutes later, Calgary made it 2-0 when Halli Krzyzaniak’s long shot went off the post and in past a surprised Maschmeyer. 

It was clearly a more determined Montreal team that came out for the second period, and they scored early to get back in the game.

Sarah Lefort got the puck in the Calgary corner and got the puck back to Bettez. Back to the goal, she whipped a quick backhand along the ice that went between the pads of Alex Rigsby.

The Inferno weathered the storm, though, and restored their two-goal lead later in the period.

Brianna Decker, on the power play, wired a shot between the legs of Maschmeyer at 12:42 to make it a 3-1 game.

Les Canadiennes struck for their second goal at 17:37 on a two-man advantage.

The play was keyed by a great pass by the side of the goal from Hilary Knight. Erin Ambrose at the point got the puck to Knight, who turned and made a back pass between her legs to Bettez on the other side of the crease. Bettez had an open net and made no mistake.

Montreal thought it had tied the game in the first minute of the third, but the referees ruled that Knight had interfered with Rigsby and nullified the score.

And sure enough, Calgary got another goal a short time later on a beautiful series of passes between Johnston and Hickel, Hickel finishing the play off at 6:24 to make it a 4-2 game.

Johnston added an empty netter with 22.9 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

The road to the finals for the two teams was equally difficult as both had to go the distance in the best-of-three semi-finals.

Last Friday night, the CWHL handed out its hardware.

 

 

Here are the winners:

2019 Awards

Angela James Bowl, Jayna Hefford Trophy, League MVP: Marie-Philip Poulin (Montreal)
Goaltender of the Year: Alex Rigsby (Calgary)
Defenceman of the Year: Erin Ambrose (Montreal)
Rookie of the Year: Victoria Bach (Markham)
Chairman’s Trophy: Calgary Inferno
Coach of the Year: Jim Jackson (Markham)
Humanitarian Award: Mike Bartlett

Two Americans on Calgary can add their names to an exclusive group of players to have won both the Clarkson Cup (CWHL) and Isobel Cup (NWHL): Kacey Bellamy won the former in 2013 and 2015, and the latter in 2016. Brianna Decker won in 2015 and then 2016.

 

Previous Clarkson Cup Champions

2008-09 Montreal Stars
2009-10 Minnesota Whitecaps
2010-11 Montreal Stars
2011-12 Montreal Stars
2012-13 Boston Blades
2013-14 Toronto Furies
2014-15 Boston Blades
2015-16 Calgary Inferno
2016-17 Canadiennes de Montreal
2017-18 Markham Thunder

[phelps 8,341]

Wisconsin win women's Frozen Four

 

Co-captains Annie Pankowski and Sophia Shaver scored the only two goals of the game and goalie Kristen Campbell recorded her second shutout of the weekend to lead the Wisconsin Badgers to a 2-0 win over Minnesota to claim the NCAA championship in women’s hockey. 

The Frozen Four finals weekend was played at the People’s United Center in Hamden, Connecticut, home of Quinnipiac University.

 

It was the Badgers’ fifth title, having previously won in 2011, 2009, 2007, and 2006.

 

All wins have come under legendary head coach Mark Johnson, the same Mark Johnson who led the U.S. to a Miracle On Ice gold medal at the 1980 Olympics. 

For the Golden Gophers, it was a disappointing ending to a great season as they also were looking for their fifth championship (2004, 2005, 2012, 2013).

The Badgers started the season winning 19 of their first 20 games and ended with only four losses in 41 games.

 

Minnesota was just as impressive, posting a record of 32-6-1 and advancing to the finals after beating Cornell, 2-0, in the other semi-finals last Friday.

In the playoffs, Wisconsin beat Syracuse, 4-0, Clarkson, 5-0, and then the Gophers, 2-0.

 

The win against Clarkson was particularly special because the Golden Knights had won the last three championships.

Wisconsin opened the scoring midway through the first period.

Presley Norby came out of the corner and made a move to go behind the Minnesota goal, but before she did, she sent a sneaky pass out front to Shaver, whose quick shot squeaked past Alex Gulstene in the Gophers’ goal.

Pankowski made it 2-0 midway through the second on a sensational individual effort. Campbell made a great save on a Minnesota power play, and as the puck went out to centre Pankowski got it. Surrounded by opponents, she skated into the offensive end on her backhand side and lifted a high shot from a bad angle over Gulstene, who was going down on the play. 

It was Pankowski’s fifth goal of the playoffs (i.e., of her team’s eleven goals) and third of the finals weekend. 

For fans of international hockey, Wisconsin claims several notable players including Pankowski and Grace Bowlby for the U.S. national women’s team and Canada’s Sophie Shirley and Emily Clark.

 

Those four will celebrate as teammates for a few days and then will face each other as rivals at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, which begins in Espoo, Finland on 4th April.

NOTE: Canadian Loren Gabel of Clarkson University was named 2019 winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the NCAA’s best women’s player.

The native of Kitchener, Ontario, beat out Pankowski and Boston College defender Megan Keller to win the prestigious honour.

[phelps 8,341]

CSKA Moscow won game #1 of the KHL Western Conference Finals...

after Dinar Khafizullin opened the scoring for the guests from St.Petersburg, Alexander Popov quickly restored the tie, still in the first period...

It was then Mikhail Grigorenko at 7.55 of the 2nd period to score the game winner...

after that, it was mainly a defensive struggle by CSKA and some not so effective pressure by SKA, so the score didn't change anymore and CSKA Moscow took the 2-1 win home, which means that now they lead the best-of-7 series 1-0...

 

game #1 highlights

 

game #2 is scheduled for tomorrow at 5 p.m. local time, once again in Moscow (3 p.m. CET)

 

meanwhile today at 7.30 p.m. local time (5.30 p.m. CET) in Balashikha, Avangard Omsk host Salavat Yulaev Ufa in game #1 of the Eastern Conference finals...

for those who want to watch the game online (paid official streaming, not for free):

https://video.khl.ru/events/877389?locale=en

those who have a satellite dish pointed at 7 and/or 10 degrees East, instead, will be able to find a service feed for the Russian TV for free (no encryption, crystal clear HD) later today, normally starting 30 mins before the first puck drop of the hockey game...

[phelps 8,341]

KHL Conference Finals

 

 

Western Conference: earlier today, CSKA Moscow confirmed their superiority over SKA St.Petersburg by winning 3-1 also the second game of the series, which now they lead 2-0...

the guests once again never seemed capable of putting any kind of pressure over CSKA...and when Kirill Kaprizov gave them the lead in the first period, it was clear that also this game and the whole series are clearly heading in the Russian capital's direction...

all the other goals of today's game looked just "cosmetic", as they never influenced the momentum nor the outcome of the match...

game #3 is scheduled for next Monday in St.Petersburg (7.30 p.m. local, 6.30 p.m. CET)...well'see if the home crowd can push SKA beyond their current (very visible) limits and give them a boost for the rest of the series...

 

Game #2 highlights

 

 

 

Eastern Conference: yesterday also the Eastern Final started in Balshikha...

and Avangard Omsk took advantage of the "home" ice and of a stupid penalty taken by Ufa's Artyom Sergeyev early in the OT to win the first game of the series by a score of 4-3 (Sergei Shumakov scoring the game winner @ 64.03 in power play)...

but it's not been easy for the home team, that had to comeback from a 2-3 deficit in the 3rd period and had to fight the entire game against a very determined and inspired opposing team...

now they lead 1-0 in the series and tomorrow they have the chance to play also the second game at "home" in Balashikha (5 p.m. local, 4 p.m. CET)...

 

Game #1 highlights

Edited March 31, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 8,341]

KHL Conference Finals

 

Eastern Conference: Avangard won also game #2 of the series against Salavat Yulaev Ufa...and this time they didn't even need to fight through the entire 60 mins and over, like in game #1...after a sleepy 1st period, in fact, they took the lead in the second and, apart from a few minutes at the beginning of the 3rd stint, when Ufa scored the temporary 1-1 goal against the game's goings, they led the contest without many troubles...

Salavat looked a lot more tired than the hosts after game #1 battle and didn't show that urgency and pride they showed 2 days ago...

finally, it was 4-1 for Avangard, who now lead the series 2-0...

so far, in both the Conference finals the teams with the better seed are dominating beyond any expectation...let's hope that the teams currently in troubles can get some boost by getting back to home ice, otherwise we're gonna know the teams playing for the Gagarin Cup earlier than expected...

game #3 of the Eastern Conference Finals is scheduled for next Tuesday in Ufa (7 p.m. local, 4 p.m. CET)

 

Game #2 highlights