Ice Hockey 2018 - 2019 Discussion Thread

[phelps 7,669]

among the European top-tier leagues, also the Swiss NLA has just ended their regular season...

 

and after 50 games, SC Bern were once again the best team in Switzerland with 101 points, followed by EV Zug with 97...

 

the remaining 6 teams qualified to the playoffs (starting directly with the best-of-7 series of the Quarterfinals) are: Lausanne HC (3rd), EHC Biel/Bienne (4th), HC Ambrì Piotta (5th ), SC Langnau Tigers (6th), HC Lugano (7th ) and Genève-Servette HC (8th)...

 

it's been a RS full of surprises, with the Lausanne + Bien/Biel + Ambrì trio ending up as high in the standings as no man would have even thought before the start of the season...the everlasting bottom of the table that unbelievably did rise to the occasion and got 3rd, 4th and 5th...amazing!

 

and not less surprising is the epic fail of the Zürich SC Lions, probably one of the richest clubs in Europe who couldn't even make the playoffs, finishing the season in a depressing 9th place...

 

final note...with more than 2 million spectators in total on the stands (6949 per game, +116 if compared to last year), this was the second most followed RS in the Swiss League history since the introduction of the playoffs system, behind only the record-breaking 2015/2016 season...

 

 

so, now it's playoffs time!

 

it all starts tomorrow, with game #1 of the quarterfinal series...

 

and these are the match-ups:

 

SC Bern (1) vs Genève-Servette HC (8)

EV Zug (2) vs HC Lugano (7)

Lausanne HC (3) vs SC Langnau Tigers (6)

EHC Biel/Bienne (4) vs HC Ambrì Piotta (5)

 

 

all Details, Results, Ranking and more...here:

https://www.sihf.ch/de/national-league/

 

 

p.s. and Let's Go Ambrì!!!

Tessin is always (and only) white & blue!

[hckošice 14,820]

Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia 2019

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mongolia repeats

 

 

Mongolia defended its IIHF Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia title after a 6-3 victory over the Philippines in the tournament final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Philippines had caused an upset in the group stage, defeating Mongolia by the same 6-3 scoreline and threatened a repeat in the final when it battled back from 0-3 down to tie the game before losing out in the third period. A hat trick from Bayarsaikhan Jargalsaikhan led Mongolia’s scoring, Gerelt Ider picked up 1+1 to finish as the tournament’s top scorer on 17 (11+6) points from five games.

Ider was part of the Mongolian roster that won in 2018 but injury forced him out of the decisive 5-1 victory over Thailand that saw his country claim gold in a round robin format. “I was really determined to come back, play to the end and get the medal,” he said after the game. “It’s a very good feeling because I’m here to represent my country. It was a really good game and I’m so happy to defend our title.”

 

That title defence got off to an assured start with Mongolia jumping into an early lead. Jargalsaikhan opened the scoring in the eighth minute after a solo rush from #22 opened up the Filipino defence. Just 30 seconds later, Mongolia had a second: Erdenesekh Bold took the puck out of the corner, fed it to Enkhsukh Erdenetogtokh at the point and moved to the slot to convert the rebound from the defenceman’s shot. Ider made it 3-0 late in the opening frame with a one-timer from in front of Paolo Spafford’s net off a Jargalsaikhan feed.

But the Philippines hit back. Julius Santiago’s 22nd-minute effort was the only marker in the second period; two goals in a minute at the start of the third tied the game up at 3-3. First, Carl Montano’s pass from behind the net was gobbled up by Jose Cadiz, then Jan Regencia stuffed home the rebound from a Benjamin Imperial shot. Montano and Regencia both had previous against this opponent, having scored two apiece in the group game; now they had thrown the final wide open once again.

However, as Ider explained, this Mongolian team never lacks for character. “The Philippines are a really good team, they played well throughout the competition,” he said. “But we play as one. Everyone works together, everyone wants to accomplish more. We love each other and when we come to a tournament we play as one man.”

Within a minute, Jargalsaikhan had restored Mongolia’s lead; 63 seconds later Ider set up Erdenesukh Bold to make it 5-3 and with 10 minutes to play Jargalsaikhan completed his treble to put the game beyond the Philippines’ reach.

Earlier on Saturday, the host nation took on Singapore in the bronze medal game. However, the home team was unable to finish with a medal thanks to a fine goaltending performance from Kenny Liang. He made 23 saves to claim a shut-out as Singapore skated to a 4-0 win. James Kodrowski scored twice, Bryan Lee had a goal and two assists, Jiaju Ryan Tan was the other goalscorer.

The tournament format saw four teams – Mongolia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore – contest the Elite group with three others playing in Division 1. After a round robin with each team meeting twice, Indonesia came out on top ahead of Macau and these teams progressed to the quarter-finals against the two lowest-ranked Group A nations. Oman finished third in a tight group; the Middle Eastern nation’s competitiveness was emphasized by a goal differential of -1 despite three losses in four games. Singapore and Malaysia overcame Indonesia and Macau respectively in the quarter-finals, but neither could progress through the semis. The Philippines beat Singapore 6-1 before Mongolia downed the hosts 12-6 to set up Saturday’s medal games.

The individual honours saw Mongolia’s Ider crowned leading scorer, although Malaysia’s Brandon Tan tied him on 17 points. Ider got the verdict due to scoring more goals. John Steven Fuglister of the Philippines was third with 15 (7+8) points. The Philippines also had the most effective goalie of the competition; Spafford stopped 91.2% of the shots he faced, a fraction better than Oman’s Mohamed al Balushi on 91.16%. Spafford was selected as the tournament’s top goalie, Tan was the best forward and Fuglister earned the MVP award. Batgerel Zorigt of Mongolia was the rated the leading defenceman.

 

 

 

Full Results HERE

 

[Olympian1010 7,971]

Somehow that mall in Malaysia is my favorite international hockey/Skating stadium

[phelps 7,669]

one after another...one by one...

 

this weekend 2 more top-tier European Leagues saw their Regular Season coming to the end: the Austrian Open Championship, the socalled EBEL and the Czech Tipsport Extraliga...

 

 

in Austria, once again Vienna Capitals proved themselves the best RS team with the surprising package, Graz 99ers following in second place at quite some distance...

 

KAC Klagenfurt (3rd), AVS Fehervar (HUN, 4th...the best among the foreign guests), Red Bull Salzburg (5th), HC Bolzano Foxies (ITA, 6th, the defending champions), EHL Linz (7th) and HC Znojmo (CZE, 8th) are the remaining teams qualified to the playoffs...

 

Playoffs that will start next Wednesday, March 13th with the quarterfinals (best-of-7 series) and these pairings: Vienna vs Znojmo; Graz vs Linz; Klagenfurt vs Bolzano/Bozen (one of the great "classics" in this league) and Fehervar vs RB Salzburg...

 

Full Details, Results, Rankings and more...here:

https://www.erstebankliga.at/

 

 

in the Czech League, instead, Bílí Tygři Liberec just edged out HC Oceláři Třinec (2nd) and HC Škoda Plzeň (3rd) in a thrilling finish...

 

Mountfield HK (4th), HC Kometa Brno (5th) and HC Olomouc (6th) also did qualify directly to the quarterfinals (best-of-7 series), meanwhile HC Vìtkovice Ridera (7th), BK Mladà Boleslav (8th), PSG Berani Zlìn (9th) and a very disappointing Sparta Prague (10th) will have to start their playoff campaign from the preliminary round (best-of-5 series: Vìtkovice vs Sparta and Mladà Boleslav vs Zlìn the pairings), which is scheduled to begin already later today...

 

once again, all detailed infos are available on the League's official website:

https://www.hokej.cz/

Edited March 11, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 7,669]

so, the KHL was the first top-tier European League to start their season and their playoffs...and now it's the first league also to have completed the 1st playoffs round...

 

no major surprise was registered in the Western Conference, where the top 3 seeded teams all reached the 2nd round and only Dynamo Moscow as the 5th seeded team were able to upset their slightly more credited rivals (Jokerit Helsinki, #4)...

 

Western Conference, playoffs 1st round recap

 

CSKA Moscow (#1) b. Vityaz (#8) 4-0 (4-0; 6-2; 3-1; 3-1)

SKA St.Petersburg (#2) b. Spartak Moscow (#7) 4-2 (0-2; 2-3; 5-2; 3-2OT; 2-1; 2-1)

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (#3) b. HC Sochi (#6) 4-2 (4-3OT; 3-0; 2-3OT; 1-3; 3-0; 5-2)

Dynamo Moscow (#5) b. Jokerit Helsinki (#4) 4-2 (4-2; 3-2; 2-3OT; 3-0; 1-2; 6-2)

 

and also in the Eastern Conference there was only 1 series where the higher seed didn't end up winning, but this time it was bit more surprising to see Salavat upsetting Metallurg in 6 games...

and out East, we also had our only series gone the distance, as Barys had to fight for 7 tough matches to beat Torpedo...

 

Eastern Conference, playoffs 1st round recap

 

Avtomobilist Ekaterinenburg (#1) b. Traktor Chelyabinsk (#8) 4-0 (3-0; 4-2; 2-1OT; 4-3)

Barys Astana (#2) b. Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (#7) 4-3 (4-1; 5-4OT; 1-3; 4-5OT; 3-1; 1-3; 3-2)

Salavat Yulaev Ufa (#6) b. Metallurg Magnitogorsk (#3) 4-2 (1-2OT; 4-1; 5-1; 1-2OT; 2-1OT; 3-2OT)

Avangard Omsk (#4) b. AK Bars Kazan (#5) 4-0 (6-0; 6-3, 4-1; 3-2)

 

therefore, following those results, now we know the Conference Semifinals pairings, which are: CSKA Moscow vs Dynamo Moscow and SKA St.Petersburg vs Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the Western Conference and Avtomobilist Ekaterinenburg vs Salavat Yulaev Ufa and Barys Astana vs Avangard Omsk in the Eastern Conference (all series, "best-of-7")...

 

all the action starts tomorrow, Wednesday March 13th (Western Conference going first)...

Edited March 12, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 7,669]

at the same time, in the German DEL, the preliminary round of the 2019 playoffs is also over and everything is ready for the Quarterfinals to start...

 

in both the very short best-of-3 series of the preliminary round, the lower seeded teams uset the higher ranked ones...

 

Thomas Sabo Nürnberg Ice Tigers beat the Bremerhaven Pinguine in 3 games, all won by the road team (3-1 for Nürnberg in game #1 in Bremerhaven, 4-3 in 2 OT for Bremerhaven in Nürnberg in game #2 and finally 2-1 in the 1st OT for the Bavarians in North West Germany in the decisive game #3)...

 

in the other series, the Eisbären Berlin swept 2-0 in the series their rivals (Straubing Tigers), 3-2OT on the road in game #1 and then 4-2 at home in game #2...

 

so, the Quarterfinals (best-of-7) series are as follows:

 

Adler Mannheim (#1) vs Thomas Sabo Nürnberg Ice Tigers (#10)

Red Bull Munich (#2) vs Eisbären Berlin (#9)...interesting re-match of last year's Playoffs Final Series

Augsburger Panther (#3) vs Düsseldorfer EG (#6)

Kölner Haie (#4) vs ERC Ingolstadt (#5)

Edited March 13, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 7,669]

and finally, also the 2 main European Leagues (after the KHL, of course) ended their regular season and are ready to start their playoffs campaign...

 

the SHL ( Swedish League) RS was won by Färjestad BK only because of direct match-ups against Luleå HF (both teams recorded 101 points in 52 games)...

 

recently crowned European Champions Frölunda HC (3rd), Djurgårdens IF (4th), Skellefteå AIK (5th) and IF Malmö Redhawks (6th) complete the top 6...all of these teams are already through to the quarterfinals series...

 

meanwhile reigning SHL champions Växjö Lakers HC (7th), HV 71 (8th), Rögle BK (9th) and Örebro HK (10th) have to look for their place in the top 8 by facing each other in the Preliminary Round (best-of-3 series)...

 

and these are the Preliminary Round pairings: Växjö Lakers vs Örebro  and HV 71 vs Rögle

all the action starts Tomorrow, saturday, March 16th   all Details, Results, Rankings and more are available on these 2 websites:   https://www.shl.se/   http://stats.swehockey.se/ScheduleAndResults/Overview/9171 http://stats.swehockey.se/ScheduleAndResults/Overview/9820     in Finland, instead, the Liiga RS champions are the guys from Kärpät Oulu...meanwhile Tappara Tampere ended up as the runner-up team, but with a big 29-point difference (137 to 108, all in 60 games)...   from the 3rd through to the 6th places, we can find the teams that are also already qualified to the quarterfinals: Pelicans Lahti (3rd), TPS Turku (4th), HPK Hämeenlinna (5th) and HIFK Helsinki (6th)...   meanwhile, Lukko Rauma (7th), Ilves Tampere (8th), SaiPa Lappeenranta (9th) and JYP Jyväskylä (10th) are the teams playing the Preliminary Round of the playoffs (best-of-3 series), according to the following pairings: Lukko vs JYP and Ilves vs SaiPa   also in FIN, all the playoffs action starts Tomorrow, Saturday, March 16th...   all Details, Results, Rankings and more, here:   https://liiga.fi/en/

[hckošice 14,820]

What a match ! what a drama ! HC Košice won against Poprad the 5th game by a goal at 76:15 in overtime to reduce the series to 2-3 now and we are still ALIVE ! After being down 0-3 in this series we finally won the 4th game and tonight it was one unbeievable show at the Steel Arena. Poprad scored in overtime but the video review showed that the net wasn´t at its place when the puck crossed the line...in a extremely dramatic overtime then we had to wait until the 16th minute to see the winning goal.

 

Košice-Poprad now 2-3, 6th match in Poprad Wednesday, it will be something unreal if we can turn this series after being 0-3 down. Only 3 times in all SVK ice hockey championship history a team won the serie 4-3 after being 0-3 down.

 

Let´s hope we will rewrote the history becoming the 4th club to achieve that

[hckošice 14,820]

The moment when Poprad scored the overtime winning goal and everyone thougth Poprad won the series 4-1 and qualified is at 10:15, but the video review showed that the goal was not at its place.

and then the winning goal..we survived

 

 

 

 

[phelps 7,669]

in the meantime, in the Czech Tipsport Extraliga, the playoffs Preliminary Round is over...

 

 

and once again there was an epic fail by Sparta Prague...they lost the series 3-1 to HC Vìtkovice Ridera, with game #4 ending in a depressing 1-5 and all the fans in the arena heavily booing the team (to say the least)...

 

the other match-up went to the decisive game #5, where BK Mladà Boleslav took advantage of the home ice and won 4-1 after an illusive 1st period lead for PSG Berani Zlìn, thus winning the series with a score of 3-2...

 

 

meanwhile yesterday night the quarterfinals (best-of-7 series) already started with the first 2 pairings on the ice: Mountfield HK vs HC Kometa Brno (who won 3-1 game #1 on the road) and HC Škoda Plzeň vs HC Olomouc (the home team thrashed out 8-1 the guests from Olomouc in game #1)...

 

the remaining 2 match-ups (scheduled to start their series tomorrow, March 20th) are: HC Oceláři Třinec vs HC Vìtkovice Ridera and Bílí Tygři Liberec vs BK Mladà Boleslav