Ice Hockey 2018 - 2019 Discussion Thread

[hckošice 14,899]

HK Nitra is the second finalist of national championship, Nitra won the 7th decisive match of the semifinal series in Zvolen against HKM Zvolen 1-4 and the whole series 3-4.

 

The 2018/19 Slovak Extraliga final will be contested between  HC´05 Banská Bystrica vs HK Nitra

[phelps 7,706]

KHL Conference Finals

 

Western Conference: the script was a bit different from the first 2 games played in Moscow, but outcome definitely wasn't...

this time SKA tried to play their game, to put CSKA under pressure, but Moscow isn't home and in the end they couldn't do anything against the Red Army once again...

Maxim Mamin's day of his life (he assisted Mat Robinson on the 1st goal of the game, once again in the last minute of the 1st period, and personally scored the second goal of the game, which basically killed SKA's hopes) and Ilya Sorokin's shutout, in fact helped the team from the Russian Capital to win game #5 of the western conference finals by a score of 3-0 and now they lead the series 3-2...

now SKA must win both the next 2 games (first at home, but the possible game #7 on the road), if they want to get back to the Gagarin Cup Finals after they already missed last year's decisive act...

game #6 is scheduled for Tomorrow in St.Petersburg (5 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. CET)...

 

game #5 highlights

[phelps 7,706]

SHL

 

The last top tier european league to end its quarterfinal stage was the Swedish SHL...

there's always a lot of balance in this league and this year it looks that there's no difference with the recent past...

despite that, no real surprise came in the quarterfinals, where all the better seeded teams won the series against their respective opponents...

 

Quarterfinals Recap

 

Färjestad BK b. HV71  4-3 (1-2OT; 3-1; 2-3; 3-1; 3-2OT3; 3-5; 3-2)

Frölunda HC b. IF Malmö Redhawks   4-1 (4-0; 2-3; 7-2; 5-3; 4-1)

Djurgårdens IF b. Skellefteå AIK   4-2 (0-2; 6-3; 3-1; 4-2; 2-3; 4-1)

Luleå HF b. Växjö Lakers HC   4-1 (3-1; 5-4OT; 4-0; 2-3OT; 4-1)

 

Semifinals (best-of-7 series) will start later Today, April 6th according to the following pairings: Färjestad BK vs Djurgårdens IF and Luleå HF vs Frölunda HC

[phelps 7,706]

KHL Conference Finals

 

Eastern Conference: compared to the fireworks, dirty hits and brawls of game #4, yesterday's game #5 between Avangard and Salavat was almost a sleepy one...

but only on a disciplinary point of view, because the players on the ice still put on a good show...

Salavat desperately needed a win...and finally they got it, but they had to fight hard until the 89th minute (around halfway of the second OT), when the Finnish dynamic duo Kemppainen & Hartikainen somehow found the way to beat a very inspired Igor Bobkov, whose many great saves in the end were not enough for Avangard to close the series...

the final score of game #5 is 3-2 for Salavat, meanwhile Avangard still lead the series 3-2 and tomorrow they have another "match point", even if on the hot ice of Ufa...

so, game #6 is scheduled for Tomorrow in Ufa (7 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. CET)...

 

game #5 highlights

 

 

Western Conference: SKA had their shoulders against the wall and needed to win game #6 at home to keep the series alive and give themselves at least a hope to steal the match up in Moscow next Tuesday...

and they put all of their energy to try and get that victory...they started as they never did before in the series, with Nail Yakupov finally showing some of his talent and scoring twice between the end of the first and the beginning of the second period...

but Mat Robinson is on fire in the last couple of games and even before the second interval, he answered Yakupov scoring 2 goals by himself...

at that point, it was anybody's game...the play, thanks also to the players being more and more tired, did open up and only a few great saves by Shestyorkin and Soroking kept the match tied...at least until Nikita Gusev scored the game winner in the 6th minute of the final period...CSKA tried to reply for the remainder of the game, but Shestyorkin denied the guys from the Capital all the times...

so, SKA won game #6 by a score of 3-2 and now the series is tied 3-3, waiting for "the mother of all games", an amazing 7th match than any hockey fan in the world can't miss...

game #7 is scheduled for next Tuesday, April 9th in Moscow at 7.30 p.m. local time, 6.30 p.m. CET...

 

game #6 highlights

Edited April 7, 2019 by phelps

[heywoodu 15,174]

On 04/04/2019 at 17:35, hckosice said:

 

 

this exactly remind me the story about the KHL journalist Ulyana Trigubchakova who promised to undress herself if Salavat Ufa will qualify to the Conference final, ofc after the team made it to the final, the captain of the team Grigori Panin immediately asked for execution of the promise

 

and she did it ... just visit her instagram

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

She said more would be revealed if Salavat Ufa made the final.

 

 

Spoiler

 

[hckošice 14,899]

6 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

She said more would be revealed if Salavat Ufa made the final.

 

well, honestly, rather first they have to do something with their arena to not travel some 2000km for home matches...Ulyana motivations may come later

[phelps 7,706]

14 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

well, honestly, rather first they have to do something with their arena to not travel some 2000km for home matches...Ulyana motivations may come later

 

but it's Avangard travelling 2700kms to play home games, not Salavat...

 

p.s. and if Ufa's fans are hot, well...their wags are even better!

[hckošice 14,899]

Just now, phelps said:

 

but it's Avangard travelling 2700kms to play home games, not Salavat...

 

p.s. and if Ufa's fans are hot, well...their wags are even better!

 

Right, dumb mistake

[phelps 7,706]

KHL Conference Finals

 

Eastern Conference: well, what to say about game #6 of this series?

I thought they were supposed to play hockey, not running an ultra-Marathon...

but basically it's what they did yesterday, when it took half of the 3rd OT to score the lone goal of the game, the series winner for Avangard Omsk...

the summary of the game, however, is very simple...moving players always more and more tired skating around like zombies and goalies absolutely on top of their game, almost unbeatable...

but at 9.18 of the 3rd OT, a shot from the blue line by Alexei Bondarev was unluckily deflected by a Salavat player into his own net and therefore Omsk won the game 1-0 and the series 4-2...

now they wait for today's showdown in the Western Conference to know who's gonna be their opponents in the Gagarin Cup Finals, set to start in the weekend...

 

game #6 highlights

[phelps 7,706]

Swiss NLA

 

the Swiss league completed tonight their semifinal stage...and after EV Zug, who dominated the series against HC Lausanne, also the no.1 seeded team, SC Bern, did reach the final series, which means that we're going to have a final act between the top 2 teams of the Regular Season...

Tonight's game #7 between Bern and EHC Bienne/Biel was quite disappointing, with the hosts that scored 3 goals in the first 13 minutes (and the 4th after only 51 secs of play in the second period) and basically closed the game even before it really started...

 

The final series (best-of-7) between SC Bern and EV Zug is scheduled to start already next Thursday, April 11th in Bern...

 

Semifinals Recap

 

SC Bern b. EHC Bienne/Biel  4-3 (2-4; 2-3OT; 6-2; 5-2; 0-2; 1-0; 5-1)

EV Zug b. HC Lausanne  4-1 (3-1; 4-5OT; 5-0; 2-0; 5-2)

 

 

p.s. more on the KHL tomorrow...as I still have to watch game #7 between CSKA and SKA (starting in a few minutes, after the end of the Soccer Champions League matches)...