Ice Hockey Continental Leagues 2017 - 2018 Discussion Thread

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

3rd Round Group D in Rungsted (DEN)

Last Day Schedule (19th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

14:00  Sheffield Steelers    vs  Kurbads Riga

18:00  Rungsted Ishockey   vs    Yunost Minsk

 

 

3rd Round Group E in Ritten (ITA)

Last Day Schedule (19th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Bruleurs de Loups Grenoble    vs  Nomad Astana

20:00  DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc    vs    Ritten Sports

 

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

3rd Round Group D in Rungsted (DEN)

Last Day Results (19th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

14:00  Sheffield Steelers    4 - 2  Kurbads Riga

18:00  Rungsted Ishockey   1 - 2    Yunost Minsk

 

Final Standing

1. Yunost 9 pts Q, 2. Sheffield 5 pts Q., 3. Kurbads 3 pts., 4. Rungsted 1 pt.

 

 

 

3rd Round Group E in Ritten (ITA)

Last Day Results (19th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Bruleurs de Loups Grenoble    0 - 4  Nomad Astana

20:00  DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc    1 - 3    Ritten Sports

 

Final Standing

1. Astana 7 pts Q, 2. Ritten 6 pts Q., 3. Miskolc 4 pts., 4. Grenoble 1 pt.

 

 

Yunost Minsk , Nomad Astana , Ritten Sports   and Sheffield Steelers   are the teams that will play the Continental Cup 2017/18 Final Four in January.

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MEN'S

IIHF CONTINENTAL CUP 2017

3rd Round

Group D

 

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Yunost marches into finals

Steelers battle back for second spot

Belarusian team Yunost Minsk swept the Continental Cup Group D in Rungsted and will be joined to the final round by second-ranked Sheffield Steelers

 

Yunost Minsk and the Sheffield Steelers are qualified for the final stage of the IIHF Continental Cup.

 

Yunost Minsk won the tournament and the Sheffield Steelers join them into the final round as second-ranked team. Few would have anticipated that outcome after the first game of the tournament.

 

Friday’s action began with Yunost powering to a 7-1 victory over the Steelers. That paved the way for the Belarusians to sweep Group D, following up with wins over Latvian champion Kurbads Riga (4-2) and Danish host Rungsted Ishockey (2-1). Before tournament, Yunost forward Maxim Parfeyevets identified the British playoff winner as the team to beat; the opening game suggested Sheffield would do well to avoid embarrassment.

 

But Sheffield, looking to match the success of Britain’s Nottingham Panthers in this tournament last year, was about to follow a difficult path to the final four. On Saturday, the Steelers trailed 0-3 against Rungsted, then fell 3-4 behind after a spirited fightback. A late equalizer from Levi Nelson sent the game to a shootout, and Matt Marquardt potted the decisive marker. Now it all hinged on Sunday’s showdown with Kurbads, with the winner set to claim second place.

 

The Latvians, who had to qualify for this stage of the tournament, arrived with an 8-4 success against Rungsted and a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Yunost. But the loss of forward Martins Cipulis, ejected from the game in the 10th minute for boarding after a bad hit on Nelson, took its toll on Kurbads. Sheffield scored three on that major penalty as Jonas Westerling, Mathieu Roy found the net before Nelson proved his fitness with the third. Kurbads still had time for a short-handed goal from Gatis Gricinskis, and got back to 3-2 with Martins Gipters’ power-play marker late in the second, but the initiative was with the Brits after an opening frame littered with penalties.

 

Kurbads looked for a way back into the game, but both teams improved their discipline and goals were hard to come by in the middle stanza. As the men from Riga piled on the pressure in the third, they were defied by one of their own: Sheffield’s goalie, Ervins Mustukovs, was born in the Latvian capital, and he kept the Latvians at bay, blocking a flurry of shots during a power play midway through the final period. A late penalty against Nelson gave Kurbads one last chance, with 67 seconds of 6-on-4 play to try to salvage the game. The Steelers defended bravely, and wrapped up the win on a Ben O’Connor empty-net effort to spark loud celebrations from the sizeable traveling contingent from Yorkshire.

 

Head coach Paul Thompson, now in his fifth Continental Cup campaign, reckoned this was the toughest group he’d faced. “There’s some seriously good hockey clubs there,” he told the Steelers website. “Minsk is as good as any team we’ve played, including the Champions League. We’ll meet them again in the finals – hopefully in Sheffield – and we’ll try to show them a bit of what we’re all about. But Riga are a good team, Rungsted are a good team.”

 

Forward Robert Dowd, a seasoned international campaigner for Team GB as well as the Steelers, admitted that the opening defeat was tough to take. “After that first game, you start to doubt, but we had a tough travel day and the whole set-up wasn’t ideal for us,” he said. “It just shows what a good night’s sleep and some good food can do for a team!

 

“Minsk’s a very, very good side, you can’t take that away from them. I think they beat Frolunda in the Champions League last season, so they’re no mugs. But I think it will be a different game next time in the finals.”

 

While the Steelers did it the hard way, Yunost comfortably fulfilled its objective in Denmark. The Belarusian team arrived confident that it could compete and determined to help Belarus secure a second Champions League spot for next season. “I think the Continental Cup is really important, because the prize is a second place for Belarus in the Champions League,” head coach Mikhail Zakharov told the club website prior to the tournament. “You can see how the Brits have benefitted from having two teams playing there this season. For us, there’s no other way.”

 

Although hampered by injuries, Yunost could call on several players with experience of playing in the KHL, or the old Russian Superliga (the KHL forerunner). Defenceman Oleg Goroshko, who celebrated his 28th birthday with Sunday’s 2-1 win over Rungsted, was one of a contingent of Dynamo Minsk alumni; Daniel Corso, Alexei Yefimenko and Alexander Kogalev have also played for the Bison, while experienced forward Andrei Mikhnov includes stints at Ak Bars and Neftekhimik on his resume.

 

After topping Group D in style, hopes in Minsk are now high that January will see Yunost claim its third Continental Cup, matching the achievements of 2007 and 2011. For the Steelers, second place means a return to the final four after it reached the same stage in 2010.

On an individual level, Yunost dominated the scoring charts. Viktor Turkin’s seven-point haul was the best in the group, while Kogalev was the leading goalscorer with four. Dmitri Milchakov was the most effective goalie in a high-scoring contest, with a GAA of 1.5 and an SVS of 93.4%.

 

Kurbads Riga took third place in the tournament thanks to its 8-4 victory against winless hosts Rungsted.

 

The final tournament will be played from 12th to 14th January 2018 at the venue of one of the finalists that will be determined soon. Yunost Minsk (Belarus), Nomad Astana (Kazakhstan), Ritten Sport (Italy) and the Sheffield Steelers (Great Britain) are the finalists. Nomad Astana won the other group ahead of host Ritten.

 

Full Results HERE

 

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MEN'S

IIHF CONTINENTAL CUP 2017

3rd Round

Group E

 

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Nomad, Ritten move to final

Pair clinch progress in Continental Cup

Host team Ritten Sports altogether with the Group E winner Nomad Astana advance for the Continental Cup Final Four

 

Last-day victories in Group E lift Nomad Astana and host Ritten Sport to compete for the Continental Cup winners' plate in the final tournament.

 

The reigning champions of Kazakhstan, Nomad Astana, marked their inaugural appearance in the Continental Cup with a top-place finish of Group E. In the closing game of the tournament, hosts Ritten Sport rose to the occasion with a spirited performance to leapfrog Hungary's DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc in the standings courtesy of a fine 3-1 win to progress into their second consecutive appearance at the final stage of the competition.

 

Yunost Minsk and the Sheffield Steelers, who progressed from Group D played in Danish city of Rungsted, now await in the final round of the Continental Cup played between 12-14 January 2018 on a venue yet to be confirmed.

 

“All three games were tough for us. This is a huge experience for Nomad. With such international tournaments we will only become better. All games were tense and exciting,” said Nomad head coach Yuri Mikhailis.

 

Instrumental in Nomad Astana’s success was their prolific first line. Team captain Ilya Kovzalov, Yaroslav Yevdokimov and Nikita Mikhailis, who recently joined from KHL team Barys Astana, added offensive prowess with the troika finishing joint-top of the Group E scoring charts. At the other end Dmitri Malgin’s solid display between the pipes saw the team from the Kazakh capital only concede three goals in as many games.

 

Despite finishing top of the standings in Group E, the newcomers Nomad Astana overcame a patchy start to life in the Continental Cup.

 

Losing their opener after penalty shots to a defensively sound Miskolc team, they got into their stride during their second game.

 

Locking horns with the hosts Ritten Sport, the Kazakhs had gone behind after Ritten's Oscar Ahlstrom had skilfully tipped a Bretton Stamler feed past Malgin at 8:28. Nomad Astana replied soon after as their lethal first line introduced themselves on the scoresheet as Yevdokimov coolly slotted home a Mikhailis backhand pass to go level at 11:05.

 

Outshot 8-12 in the second period and with Ritten failing to convert on their chances and superior puck possession, Astana showed flashes of brilliance to convert when the opportunity arose. A 2-on-1 saw Alikhan Asetov feed 18-year-old Ivan Vereshagin on a two-on-one that finished high on the glove side of Ritten goalie Patrick Killeen as Astana went in front. With 4:57 left of the middle frame and the Kazakhs on the power play, their lead was stretched to 3-1. Yevdokimov’s one-timer from a cross-ice pass by Mikhailis was deflected into the Ritten net much to the dismay of the home crowd inside Arena Ritten.

 

When Simon Kostner failed to covert inside the first minute of the final period, it was to be a night to forget for Ritten. Racking up four straight minor penalty calls disrupted any realistic chance of an Italian fightback as Nomad Astana held out for their first win of the tournament.

 

An affiliate of the country’s KHL contestants, Barys Astana, and changing to its current name in 2013, Nomad Astana clinched their place in the final round with a clinical performance as a hapless Grenoble Bruleurs de Loups squad was blanked 4-0. Roman Rachinski had burst through the French rearguards to open the scoring with a shorthanded first-period goal. Working on a one-man advantage, Mikhailis once again picked out Yevdokimov as the Kazakhs doubled their lead at 6:55 of the middle frame.

 

With Grenoble heads down after Pierre-Charles Hordelalay had missed a penalty shot for the French at 7:49 of the third period, Asetov pounced on lax defending by Aziz Baazzi for 3-0. With 4:40 left of the game, Mikhailis added gloss to the victory when he closed the scoring on 5-on-3 finding a way past Lukas Horak’s right post from a tight angle.

 

“At the beginning they were strong and we had to defend well. But we stuck together as team until the end,” said Asetov. “The tournament was interesting for us because we haven’t played an international game for a long time.”

 

While Nomad Astana celebrated progress, a second straight chance for Continental Cup glory will come Ritten’s way. The hosts, who had blanked Grenoble 2-0 in their opener, now looked to bounce back from their defeat to Astana as they went head to head with surprise package Miskolc in the closing game of the tournament. Trailing the Hungarians by a point going into the game, the first frame saw Daniel Tudin force a fine save by Miskolc’s Attila Adorjan when clear on goal at 6:32, while at the other end Killeen denied Attila Pavuk with 4:26 left. The cheer rose from the 1,237 inside the Arena Ritten with 2:53 left of the frame as their home favourites broke the deadlock. Miskolc’s Peter Sakaris was serving a tripping call when Thomas Spinell picked out an onrushing Tommaso Traversa in the slot, who unleashed a shot past Adorjan on his blocker side.

 

An enthralling second frame saw the game open up with chances at both ends and Ritten’s second line enjoying a fine game. First Traversa flew past Ryan Ruikka to force Adorjan to a fine save five minutes into the middle frame before Thomas Spinell went close. As Miskolc pressed for the equalizer while on power play, livewire Spinell snapped up the puck as Miskolc’s Balazs Lada failed to control the puck, then charged through but was denied twice in front of Adorjan’s net. With Miskolc winning the shots 11-9, they were to rue missing opportunities with Nikandrosz Galanisz going close three times on the power play.

 

Needing a goal to keep their dreams of a place in the final four alive, the third period became an uphill struggle for the Hungarians. Ritten, which last January hosted the 2017 IIHF Continental Cup Final, needed only 2:10 of the final frame to double their lead. Kostner was the instigator from the right boards, with Oscar Ahlstrom deking Adorjan for the 2-0 goal. Penalty calls against Miskolc’s Galanisz and Kulmala in quick succession disrupted any chances of a Hungarian fightback. Working on a five-on-three, Ritten scored their third power play goal of the evening. Spinell picked out Roland Hofer, who boomed a one-timer past Adorjan to make it 3-0 with 5:30 left to play. Miskolc’s Sakaris sneaked up at far post with 53 seconds to convert on a Rasmus Kulmala feed to spoil Killeen’s bid for a shutout but not Ritten’s win.

 

Despite missing out on progress, Miskolc can take great credit from their highly disciplined performances and watchful defence. A sterling effort in their opener had seen them beat Nomad Astana in shootout with Adorjan saving all penalty shots. In their second game against the luckless Grenoble. Mikael Tisell's men saw Galanisz equalize before veteran Janos Vas surged through from the left on a Jarkko Leppanen pass to trundle home the overtime winner in their second game.

 

High-flying and currently top of the standings in the Ligue Magnus, Grenoble finished bottom of the standings. The “Wolf Burners” outshot all of their three opponents in Ritten, but missed a vital scoring touch. Having missed penalty shots both against Ritten and Astana, they finished with a paltry point and a Baazzi power-play goal against Miskolc being their only goal scored in their three outings in South Tyrol.

 

Full Results HERE

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Champions Hockey League 2017/2018

 

Semi-final picture complete

Czech, Finnish, Swedish teams battle for CHL title

 

There was drama, there were comebacks. On Tuesday night the two teams  Ocelari Trinec and Bili Tygri Liberec as well as JYP Jyvaskyla from and the  Vaxjo Lakers from qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions Hockey League.

In January the home-and-away semi-finals will be played between JYP Jyvaskyla and Ocelari Trinec, and between the Vaxjo Lakers and Bili Tygri Liberec. The winners will play the one-game CHL final on 6th February 2018.

Only one of the four semi-finalists managed to win both games. One week earlier Ocelari Trinec beat Brynas Gavle 3-1 thanks to three unanswered third-period markers. On the road in Sweden on Tuesday evening they added two more goals early in the game and eventually won 5-3. Brynas’ comeback attempt failed despite a 44-29 shot-on-goal advantage. Eight different players scored the goals for Ocelari in the two games.

JYP Jyvaskyla prevented an all-Czech semi-final clash by winning on the road in the country’s second-biggest city of Brno. The week before on home ice JYP and Kometa Brno ended up with a 3-3 tie. Three goals from just six shots on goal and a hat trick from Jan Suss gave Kometa the hope to rise to the next stage. But on home ice it was JYP that started like a comet. Jarkko Immonen opened the scoring after five minutes before Juuso Puustinen and Janne Kolehmainen added two more markers for a comfortable three-goal first-period lead. Kometa came as close as 3-4 late in the third period but an empty netter gave JYP the 5-3 win and a semi-final ticket.

Two teams that came back from a loss in the first game will meet in the other semi-final. Bili Tygri Liberec was the second Czech team to qualify after beating 2009 CHL champs ZSC Lions Zurich in shootout. The “White Tigers” had lost their home game 1-0 on an Inti Pestoni goal. In a defensive game in Zurich they had trouble eliminating that deficit until Lukas Krenzelok opened the scoring at 1:39 of the third period. With an aggregate score of 1-1 the teams went into overtime and eventually a shootout. There Martin Bakos scored the shootout-winner for Liberec.

Swedish teams won the last three editions of the CHL with Lulea HF in 2015 and back-to-back titles by Frolunda Gothenburg in 2016 and 2017. This time the Swedish league leader Vaxjo Lakers will be the only representative from the country in the semi-finals after a comeback quarter-final win against Swiss leader SC Bern. SCB had won the first game 3-2 before 13,629 fans one week ago but wasn’t able to defend the one-goal cushion in Sweden. The Swiss tied an early lead through Andrew Calof with a power-play goal from Mark Arcobello but three unanswered goals from Liam Reddox, Elias Pettersson and Robert Rosen settled the case and Vaxjo won 4-2. Arcobello scored the second goal for SC Bern with six minutes left to play but his team didn’t manage to come back and tie the aggregate score.

 

 

Results Thread

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Champions Hockey League continued today with the Semifinals first leg. 4 Slovaks played tonight in three participating teams, Tomáš Marcinko scored the last goal of his Třinec, and goalie Jaroslav Janus had a very good match for Liberec stopping 38 of the 39 shots of their opponents. The second leg is scheduled next Tuesday.

 

Liberec achieved a solid tie with Växjo 1-1, and Jyväskylä defeated Třinec 4-2.

 

 

Champions Hockey League 2017/18 Semifinals - 1st Leg

Bílí Tygři Liberec - Växjö Lakers 1:1 (0:0, 0:1, 1:0) 

Goals: 47. Jašek (Lakatoš) - 21. Reddox (Froberg)

 

JYP Jyväskylä - Oceláři Třinec 4:2 (0:1, 4:0, 0:1) 

Goals: 27. Rooba (Jaakko Jokinen, Turkulainen), 33. Mäenpää (Puustinen, Tuppurainen), 34. Mäenpää (Immonen), 35. Kolehmainen (Vainio, Saari) - 12. Adamský (Polanský, Krajíček), 43. T. Marcinko (Svačina, Martin Růžička)

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Tomorrow will start the Final four of the Continental Cup 2017/18. Last 4 remaining clubs (Yunost Minsk from Belarus, Ritten Sport of Italy, Nomad Astana from Kazakhstan and the Sheffield Steelers from Great Britain) in this competition will play in Minsk, Belarus this weekend a traditional round-Robin to decide about this years Continental Cup winner.

 

IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

Final Round in Minsk (BLR)

Day 1 Schedule (12th January 2018)

GMT +3

 

15:00  Ritten Sport    vs   Yunost Minsk

19:00  Nomad Astana    vs   Sheffield Steelers

 

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

Final Round in Minsk (BLR)

Day 1 Results (12th January 2018)

GMT +3

 

15:00  Ritten Sport    1 - 2    Yunost Minsk

19:00  Nomad Astana    5 - 1    Sheffield Steelers

 

Provisional Standing After Day 1:

1. Astana 3 pts, 2. Minsk 3 pts, 3. Ritten 0 pts, 4. Sheffield 0 pts.

 

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

Final Round in Minsk (BLR)

Day 2 Schedule (13th January 2018)

GMT +3

 

15:00  Nomad Astana    vs   Ritten Sport

19:00  Yunost Minsk    vs   Sheffield Steelers

 

[hckošice 14,899]

IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

Final Round in Minsk (BLR)

Day 2 Results (13th January 2018)

GMT +3

 

15:00  Nomad Astana     GWS3 - 2    Ritten Sport

19:00  Yunost Minsk     5 - 4    Sheffield Steelers

 

 

Provisional Standing After Day 2:

1. Minsk 6 pts, 2. Astana 5 pts, 3. Ritten 1 pt, 4. Sheffield 0 pts.