Ice Hockey 2016 - 2017 Discussion Thread

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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016/2017

 

  NORWAY

STAVANGER OILERS

7th League Title

 

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Still Stavanger

Oilers win sixth consecutive championship

For the seventh time in eight years the Stavanger Oilers celebrate the Norwegian title with their golden helmets

 

The Norwegian GET -Ligaen has always been a league of dynasties, dating all the way back to the 1930s when Grane won four titles in five years. The early 1950s were Furuset’s time, the early 1960s Gamlebyen’s and in the late 1960s, the league was dominated by Valerenga as the Oslo-based team won seven straight titles, and eight in nine years but then had to wait for a decade for its next championship. Between 1985 and 1993, Valerenga won the league six times. The late 1990s were the Storhamar era, as the Hamar-based team won four straight titles (and five in six years).

We entered the Stavanger Oilers dynasty at the beginning of this decade, and they haven’t yet reached the end as the oiltown’s aptly-named Oilers won their sixth consecutive Norwegian championship, beating Frisk Asker Tigers 5-2 in Game 6 of the best-of-seven final.

The two games they dropped to the Tigers were also the only games they lost in the post-season, having swept Stjernen and Sparta Warriors in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, respectively.

The Oilers domination was complete as they also won the regular season title.

Pretty good for a team that played its first official game in 2001, in the Norwegian II division.

“This is unbelievably huge. It’s fantastic, we’ve been the best team from start to finish, and here we stand. It’s a great group of guys and I’m incredibly proud of them. This is wild,” said the Oiler’s 39-year-old coach Pal Kristian Guldbrandsen, who took the step from assistant to head coach this season, after five years as a player and then six as an assistant coach in the club.

“I think we were the best team, and played smart, except when we lost Game 2. This team is full of winners, and they proved it by rallying back in two straight games. Many people might crumble in situations like that, but not these guys. They refuse to lose,” he added.

The best team also had the top players. Stavanger’s goaltender Henrik Holm, the 2013 playoffs MVP, posted the best save percentage in the regular season and was the only goalie to start every single playoff game for his team. His goals against average in the 14 games was 1.93 and save percentage 93.0, up from 92.4 in the regular season.

The team’s American forwards Mark van Guilder and Dan Kissel finished first and second in both playoff and regular season scoring. Van Guilder won the regular season scoring race with 65 points in 45 games, Kissel was tied for first in goal scoring with 29 goals in 45 games. In the playoffs, they combined for 23 goals and 43 points in 14 games. They also led the plus/minus statistics in a convincing fashion. Van Guilder was plus-25 and Kissel plus-24 in the playoffs.

Both were voted into the First All-Star Team, and both earned contacts in Switzerland with NLB team EHC Visp.

One other key player also disappears, since the Oilers’ Christian Dahl Andersen, 36, has decided to hang ‘em up, having been a key player on the team during its entire dynasty. His eight Norwegian championships also include one with their 2017 opponent, Frisk Asker, in 2002.

“It’s fantastic to win the title with these guys. It’s great to win, but it’s sad that it’s over now,” he says.

He wasn’t talking about the Oilers era. We probably haven’t seen the last of them yet.

 

 

 

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Friendly Matches

13th April 2017

 

Mens

 

Road to World Championships

Czech Republic - Norway  6-3

Slovakia - Switzerland  1-2

Finland - Denmark  3-0

Russia - France  0-1 After OT

 

Again this disastrous shooting efficiency....another one of these typical our strange matches, clearly outshooting the opponent... but without scoring you can not win,

We absolutely need some strikers to come !!!

but well, the good side is it´s still only the preparation..but we clearly have big troubles with scoring, we can have million chances but we will not score goals even if the net will be empty, hopefully some scorers will arrive to help us at worlds..

next test match again against Switzerland Saturday in Žilina

 

and France  !!! totally shitty the whole season, but now suddenly they won last week against SUI and now they won in Russia   ...Team France seems finally found the right way

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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016/2017

 

  SOUTH KOREA

ANYANG HALLA

3rd Asian League Title

 

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Anyang defends title

Korean team wins Asia League again

The Anyang Halla players celebrate after beating Morskie Lvy Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from the Russian island of Sakhalin in three games to defend the Asia League title.

 

Anyang Halla has defended its Asia League title after beating Morskie Lvy Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 3-0 in the best-of-five final. It’s the third championship for the Korean team and it’s only the second time a club has won back-to-back championships in the Asia League after now-defunct Kokudo Tokyo in 2005 and 2006.

The nine-team league included four club teams from Japan, three from Korea, one from China and one from the Russian island of Sakhalin.

In the end it was the two teams that dominated the league who found the way into the gold medal series. Anyang had a 41-7 record in the regular season, Sakhalin was second with a 36-12 record followed by the four Japanese teams Oji Eagles, defending champion Tohoku Freeblades, the Nippon Paper Cranes and the Nikko Ice Bucks. The two other Korean teams High1 from Goyang and the Daemyung Killer Whales missed the playoffs as did the China Dragon.

Anyang Halla finished the post season undefeated after beating the Tohoku Freeblades 2-0, 6-2 and 4-1 in the semi-finals where Sakhalin eliminated the Nikko Ice Bucks also in three games.

Anyang had home-ice advantage for the first three games in the finals and made use of it. After defeating the team from Sakhalin 6-2 and 4-0 during the weekend, everything looked set for a championship party in Game 3 for the team of Czech coach Patrick Martinec, who was also part of the championship-winning teams in 2010 (as a player) and 2011 (as an assistant coach).

But it wasn’t that easy. Eric Regan and Sang Hoon Shin brought Anyang the lead twice but the Russians answered with goals from Timofei Shishkanov and Ruslan Bernikov forcing overtime. There Korean national team veteran Ki Sung Kim scored the championship-winning goal for Anyang Halla on the power play at 2:57 and became the playoff’s top goal scorer with five markers. His teammate Sang Hoon Shin was the scoring leader in the playoffs with ten points while Sang Wook Kim co-lead the regular season in scoring with Tohoku’s Matt Pope, both with 68 points, and was named MVP of the regular season. Former KHL player Ruslan Bernikov, who captained the team from Sakhalin, was the best goal scorer in the regular season with 36 markers.

Once dominated by North American imports, the top-five scorers of Anyang were Koreans this year followed by the likes of Mike Testwuide, Eric Regan and Alex Plante, who today received Korean citizenship and could potentially represent the country soon. Brock Radunske missed the last part of the season due to injury.

Anyang Halla also had the best goaltender in Matt Dalton, who had a 93.85 save percentage in the regular season – a number that even rose to 95.93 in playoff play and earned him a Playoff MVP award. For the Ontario-born netminder it was his third and strongest season in the Asia League. He has in the meantime obtained Korean citizenship and plays a key role on the Korean national team that will compete in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games on home ice and later this month in the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

With the season finished in the Asia League, it’s now time for the national teams. While Korea will compete for promotion to the top division in Kyiv from 22 to 28 April against Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Austria and host Ukraine, the Japanese national team hopes for an immediate return to the second tier.

Japan will play in the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in Belfast from 23 to 29 April against host Great Britain, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia and the Netherlands.

 

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Friendly Matches

14th April 2017

 

Mens

 

Road to World Championships

Sweden - Latvia  4-1

Belarus - Germany  3-1

 

Other Matches

Great Britain - Poland  1-4

 

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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016/2017

 

  FRANCE

LES RAPACES DE GAP

4th League Title

 

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Birds of Prey

Gap wins Ligue Magnus; dethrones Rouen

Despite a budget cut and many players leaving the Gap Rapaces improved and won the French Ligue Magnus.

 

For the second time in three years the Gap Rapaces won the French Ligue Magnus. Three straight wins against last year’s champions Rouen were the key to a 4-2 series victory and having entered the top-5 of most successful French hockey teams in history.

Located in the south-eastern part of France, neighbouring the Alps, Gap counts less than 50,000 inhabitants but its hockey team is working miracles carrying only the eighth-largest budget in the league (€1,3 million).

Having already overtaken Grenoble and Chamonix, the Rapaces (birds of prey in French) have expanded their territory and are now battling further up north where giants Rouen Dragons have been a dominant force with seven titles in the last decade and a budget twice a high as Gap’s.

Entering the playoffs as the top seed, Gap first disposed themselves of Epinal in four games and then outclassing Bordeaux in the last two games of the semi-final series. A tied series after four games was concluded with two convincing victories; 4-0 and 5-1 setting up a repeat of last year’s semi-final against third-seeded Rouen.

The Dragons delivered the first punch by winning Game 1 in Gap in overtime; 3-2. The exact same result was on the scoreboard in Game 4. After both teams had exchanged victories, the Rapaces evened the series with an overtime win and gaining a huge confidence booster ahead of Game 5 on home ice.

The all important fifth game was even for 40 minutes with both teams finding the net twice. Outshooting their opponents 19-5 in the third period, it was a miracle only Christian Isackson was able to put the puck behind a stellar Dany Sabourin. Yet the narrow victory came fully deserved.

The first period of game six was a true roller coaster for Rouen. The Dragons took a 1-0 lead after just 19 seconds thanks to a Marc-Andre Thinel forcing the puck across the line but then fell behind within 15 minutes and also saw goaltender Sabourin being expelled from the game with a game misconduct for a challenge of Maurin Bouvet.

The Canadian veteran was replaced by Quentin Papillon, who on this exact day was celebrating his 20th birthday. Although he played admirably well, the young French goaltender wasn’t given the birthday present he had hoped for.

Despite a ferocious second period in which Rouen limited Gap to just a single shot on goal, it was Gap forward Cedric di Dio Balsamo, who was lethal with the one shot. The goal restored the lead after Francois-Pierre Guenette had tied the game up midway the second period with a power play goal.

Entering the final period with a one-goal lead, Gap was playing conservatively while Rouen lacked the tools to break open the tight defence. In the dying moments with the net empty it was Christian Isackson again who put the dagger into the dragon’s heart by converting an empty net opportunity with 12 seconds left to play.

“We were too inconsistent this season,” admitted Rouen’s head coach Fabrice Lhenry. “We will have to improve in that area next season in order to be successful. Gap was a consistent force all season and deservedly has won this title.”

Gap forward Anthony Rech was voted the playoff MVP after already having won the same title for the regular season. In the post season he scored 11 goals and 20 points in just 14 games. Not awarded for his achievement but being influential for this year’s success was goaltender Clement “Fouky” Fouquerel. Not only did he post the best goals against average totals (2.45) but he also boasted the highest save percentage with 90.7%.

A third pillar behind the rise of the birds is not to be found on the ice but behind the bench. Italo-Canadian coach Luciano Basile is quickly making a name for himself in the world of hockey having now captured three French league titles in four years’ time. Twice he won the title with Gap (2015 and 2017) while he also led Briancon to its last title in 2014. Despite the success, Basile will be leaving the team as he had announced his departure earlier this season.

“The departure of 18 players of last year’s squad proved to be a blessing in disguise,” said Basile. “When working with a limited budget there’s no option to plan for the long term. It does allow me to rebuild and select young French players who believe in my project that is aimed to win. Add to that the special qualities of North American college and university players who always possess great leadership and determination to win and the foundation to a solid squad that plays a modern and aggressive game are set.”

The coach remains modest about his own achievements but is speaking his pride of his team that continued to perform despite the message that their coach would leave after this season.

“The players could have responded negatively, but there were no signs of the team being demoralized but they all showed character all the way until the end. This group has been given me so much pleasure to coach.”

While Gap’s top players like Patrick McEachen, Sean Ringrose, Fouquerel and Rech have signed or will most likely sign elsewhere, Basile does not yet know where he’ll be coaching next season.

Basile: “Time will tell. I do not regret my decision. I have always enjoyed working with a tight budget as it forced me to go beyond my limits.”

Birds were not given wings to sit in a tree and observe. They should use what was given to them to the fullest. The birds from Gap have shown what that could lead to.

 

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Friendly Matches

15th April 2017

 

Mens

 

Road to World Championships

Russia - France  6-0

Sweden - Latvia  3-4 After GWS

Finland - Denmark  2-3 After OT

Belarus - Germany  1-2

Slovakia - Switzerland  0-3

 

Once again the same ...we need desperately a scorer !!! this is the main problem of this preparation. we need some scorers to come, because this is just a tragedy, we play well, we outshoot opponents, but we can´t score even a single goal from million occasions..this is just frustrating...hopefully it will be better already in next camp.

Next week 2 test matches against Finland in Bratislava and Košice.

Looking forward to see who will be invited for the 3rd camp.

 

Other Matches

Great Britain - Poland  5-4 After GWS

Slovenia - Kazakhstan  1-2 After GWS

 

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Yesterday started the Slovak national championship final between Banská Bystrica and Nitra. Unfortunately HC Košice this year finished surprisingly their journey already in the quarterfinals...just the sign of a totally disastrous season

 

Banská Bystrica won 4-1 and is now leading the best of 7 serie 1-0. Today the second match again In Banská Bytrica (the regular season winner)

 

here the highlights of Game 1

 

 

and some vids about the atmosphere in Bystrica during yesterdays match

 

Spoiler

 

 

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Friendly Matches

16th April 2017

 

Mens

 

Road to World Championships

Italy - Austria  0-2

 

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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016/2017

 

  LATVIA

HK KURBADS

1st League Title

 

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Kicking the habit

HK Kurbads hoists first Latvian league title

 

Seemingly cursed for life as second best, HK Kurbads from the town of Ogre clicked into gear when it mattered the most to win their first Latvian championship trophy.

Losing out in three consecutive Latvian championship playoff finals series between 2014 to 2016, perennial silver medallists HK Kurbads looked destined to once again head down that same well-trodden path of disappointment in 2017.

Trailing 0-3 in games in the best-of-seven final series against Mogo Riga, this crop of HK Kurbads players proved however to be made of much sterner stuff that their predecessors as they staged a remarkable fightback to claim four straight victories to prevail 4-3 in the championship series.

The decisive game completing the turnaround saw HK Kurbads win 2-1 on the road on with head coach Peteris Ostosovs relying on three veterans leading the way to glory. A disciplined defensive display saw Martins Raitums being in inspiring form between the pipes, while team captain and blueliner Toms Bloks lead by example to fire his team in front on power play before the winner was scored by Edgars Brancis. HK Kurbads' Toms Hartmanis also stood out and received the Most Valuable Player award.

Based in the town of Ogre, home of 30,000 and 36 kilometres east of the capital Riga, HK Kurbads finished second in the standings behind Mogo Riga during the regular season in the seven-team strong Virsliga. En route to winning gold, they first eliminated HK Zemgale/LLU 3-2 in matches during a tricky semi-final series before Mogo Riga awaited in the finals.

Led by inspirational top marksman Elvis Zelubovskis, Mogo Riga raced clear to edge HK Kurbads during the first three close fought encounters (3-1, 3-2, 3-2) and seemed to be cruising towards their second championship in three years.

By the time game four came around HK Kurbads looked destined to once again wilt under pressure. In front of their home supporters and with the game locked at 1-1, HK Kurbads got themselves into double trouble. A Koba Jass misconduct penalty at 22:15 was followed by boarding call on Aleksandrs Galkins 25:13. Mogo Riga went going for the killer blow but hanging on by the skin of its teeth, HK Kurbads weathered the storm before stepping up a gear to hit four answered goals in around nine minutes before the second frame came to a close. Steaming ahead to win game four 7-4 following a sudden goal explosion shifted the momentum into HK Kurbads favour which they never relinquished.

They won game number 4-3 on the road, followed it up by a 4-1 win in front of their home fans and when crunch time came calling during the decisive seventh game, HK Kurbads powered ahead with the goal sealing the historical win arriving with 2:54 left of the game and scored by 31-year-old Brancis, who had returned to his native Latvia after starting the season in the MOL League with SC Csikszereda.

With Continental Cup hockey now awaiting HK Kurbads, its inaugural championship trophy comes at a time as changes loom around the corner for the club formed in 1996. A new ice arena set to be inaugurated during the close season will see HK Kurbads move into their new facilities further up the Daugava river in the Latgale suburb of Riga, as a new exciting chapter is set to start in the club's history as reigning Latvian champions and the team to beat.

 

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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016/2017

 

  KHL

SKA ST. PETERSBURG

2nd KHL Title

 

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Znarok leads SKA to Gagarin Cup

Russia’s head coach wins KHL for third time

SKA St. Petersburg is this season’s Gagarin Cup champion after wrapping up the KHL’s showcase series with a 5-3 victory in Game 5 at Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

The Army Men powered through post season, dropping just two games in four rounds of playoff action to regain the crown it won for the first time in 2015.

The final series, which pitted together the two most recent Gagarin Cup winners, was expected to be a hard-fought battle. Metallurg, led by the scoring phenomenon that is Sergei Mozyakin, faced a SKA team that had set new records for goals in the regular season. Expectations were high for a goal-feast that would go the full distance, but SKA had other ideas.

Mozyakin’s devastating partnership with Danis Zaripov and Jan Kovar was oddly muted: that powerful Magnitka line scored just two goals in five games in the final series as SKA had the edge throughout. That left Zaripov stranded on the 15 goals he scored in the first three rounds; one more marker would have set a new post-season goalscoring record for the league.

Instead, it was SKA’s troika of Nikita Gusev, Yevgeni Dadonov and Vadim Shipachyov that dominated the final. Shipachyov was the architect of much of the team’s most dangerous plays, Gusev was a constant menace around the net and Dadonov undermined Metallurg with four goals and an assist in the final series.

The forward admitted that this win was a bigger thrill than SKA’s success in 2015, especially after helping his team battle back to win game five.

“I can’t really say how much it means. For me, this is even bigger than when I first won the cup. Back then, I didn’t really know what to expect, but this time I knew and I wanted it even more,” he told championat.com.

“Today, it was tough to be down 0-2, but maybe it eased a bit of the tension around us and we calmed down.”

Despite SKA’s powerful progress to the cup, captain Ilya Kovalchuk was quick to dismiss suggestions that his team had it easy. “All the series were really tough, including the first one against Vityaz,” he told KHL.ru. “Maybe it looked easy, but the opening game was anything but. Lokomotiv fought hard, Dynamo was the same, then we faced Magnitogorsk, the defending champion and a team that had won twice in three years.”

While SKA became the fourth team to claim a second Gagarin Cup crown, head coach Oleg Znarok and his assistant Harijs Vitolins won the trophy for the third time – a KHL record. Vitolins, who continued as head coach at Dynamo Moscow after Znarok left to take over Team Russia, was reunited with his old colleague in the KHL this season and talked about the differences between victory in Russia’s two biggest cities.

“It’s our first year at SKA so we had to get used to this team and it’s very hard to do that quickly,” he told KHL.ru. “We gathered a skilful roster, but we had to get them playing our game, understanding what we required. It took a lot of work. And, of course, there was pressure – SKA is a club with a big reputation.”

For Metallurg, foiled in its bid to become the first team to win three Gagarin Cups, there was disappointment – and a sense that the series was closer than the scoreline suggested. Oskar Osala, who was denied a late equalizer on Sunday by a combination of Mikko Koskinen’s pad and the inside of the post, told KHL.ru: “It’s hard to pick out any one decisive moment in this series. Every game was tough. It was right at the end of each game that the outcome was decided.” Zaripov spoke up for his team-mates, insisting: “We can all look each other in the eye and thank each other for a good season.”