Ice Hockey Continental Leagues 2017 - 2018 Discussion Thread

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IIHF CONTINENTAL CUP 2017

2nd Round

Group B

 

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Successful debut in Riga

Kurbads triumphs on Continental Cup bow

 

Kurbads Riga sprang something of a surprise as it powered through Group B of the Continental Cup in fine style.

 

Celebrating its tournament debut by hosting the weekend’s games, Kurbads set the tone with a 5-2 victory over Poland’s GKS Tychy then followed up with an 8-1 demolition of Ukrainian champion Donbass Donetsk on Saturday.

 

That confirmed the Latvians’ progress to the next phase even before Sunday’s match-up with neighbouring Narva PSK of Estonia. That Baltic clash finished 2-1 to Kurbads, who completed the tournament with a 100% record and topped the final table ahead of the Poles.

 

Prior to the tournament, many in Latvia had identified the game with Tychy as the key clash – and Kurbads delivered a performance that threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the group. After surviving one early scare, when Bartlomiej Jeziorski fired over the top of an open net, the home team impressed. Martins Cipulis opened the scoring in the 16th minute, the first of five unanswered goals that put the game beyond the Poles.

 

Janis Sprukts, who arrived at the club just a couple of weeks ago, was also among the scorers: the 35-year-old centre tasted Continental Cup action last season with Italy’s Ritten Sport and brings a wealth of World Championship and Olympic experience from his time with the Latvian national team. Tychy grabbed a couple of late consolation goals through Jakub Witecki, but never threatened to change the outcome.

 

Home goalie Uldis Calpa, who also saved a penalty shot in the third period of that game, admitted that the Continental Cup brought higher stakes and a greater intensity to the action. But he felt his team did a good job of stifling a strong GKS outfit. “We knew that they would start the game well, and at the beginning they were playing at a very high level,” he said in an interview published on Sportacentrs.com. “But we were able to get back into the game and they seemed to fade a little bit. Maybe they are not used to being under pressure, and we knew were the underdogs.”

 

Next up came Donbass. The Ukrainian champion returned to Continental Cup action last season after the club’s progress was fractured by the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and was back for another campaign here. But Kurbads was on a roll, and inflicted a heavy defeat on the men from the Donbass region, proving too slick in decision making and execution with some fast-paced hockey in front of the Ukrainian net. Cipulis had two goals and two assists, Martins Lavrovs, much-travelled even at 23 years old, scored twice and Sprukts added three assists.

 

Their success highlighted the impact of the team’s recent transfer policy, drawn up to build on last season’s Latvian championship win and build a competitive roster for the Continental Cup. In addition to Sprukts’ arrival at the beginning of October, the club announced the arrival of Cipulis recently. The 36-year-old, a veteran of three Olympics and 11 World Championships, added valuable international know-how and finished the tournament as leading scorer with 3+3=6 points from three games.

 

Along with Sprukts, Lavrovs brought Continental Cup experience from his time with Liepaja and a touch of Trans-Atlantic action with the Florida Eels. Sprukts himself made 14 NHL appearances with the Florida Panthers. Jekabs Redlihs, one of three Redlihs brothers familiar from the upper echelons of Latvian hockey, was another addition to the Kurbads roster ahead of this tournament. The defenceman, who played almost 200 KHL games for Dinamo Riga, is combining his duties as head coach of HK Lido in Latvia’s second tier with action for Kurbads in the country’s top flight.

 

The experience of Sprukts and Cipulis also played a role in getting Kurbads a win in its final game of the competition. With the group outcome decided, Narva was playing for pride and threatened an upset when it took a first-period lead through Aleksandr Kuznetsov. But Sprukts got an assist on the equalizer from Sandis Zolmanis and Cipulis had a hand in Toms Bluks’ game-winner to ensure the weekend finished with another home victory.

 

Narva finished without a point from its three games, suffering an 11-0 loss to Tychy along the way. The Poles claimed second place thanks to Sunday’s 4-2 victory over Donbass and, in Michael Cichy, had the group’s leading goalscorer with four.

 

Kurbads’ success earns the team a place in the third round where it will compete in Group D. The Latvians travel to Denmark, and will face host team Rungsted Ishockey, Yunost Minsk of Belarus, and Great Britain’s Sheffield Steelers in a round-robin contest from 17 to 19 November.

Results Thread

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MEN'S

IIHF CONTINENTAL CUP 2017

2nd Round

Group C

 

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Ritten next up for Miskolc

Blanks hosts to move into 3rd round

 

Speed in abundance, solid at the back and a cutting edge in front of goal was the recipe for success as DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc progress undefeated.

 

Rising to the occasion to beat hosts Corona Brasov 3-0 in their final day head-to-head clash saw the ice bears from Miskolc finish top of the standings in Group C of the second round of the Continental Cup. Anssi Rantanen, Mark Miskolczi and Peter Sakaris had a goal each for the pre-tournament favourites in front of 1,085 inside Brasov’s Olympic Ice Rink in the winner takes it all encounter. Instrumental in their success was Miskolc's 20-year-old Attila Adorjan, who recorded 32 saves against Corona Brasov and went through the tournament without conceding a goal.

 

“I am very impressed and proud of my players, to be so cool under pressure and work so hard throughout the game without conceding a goal,” said a jubilant DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc head coach Mikael Tisell following the team’s final-day performance in which they were outshot 27-32 but still found a way to roll on to victory when it mattered the most. “Brasov might be more experienced than us, but it felt like we had more pace and tempo in our team tonight,” he continued.

 

Miskolc earlier in the tournament had blanked Spain’s Txuri Urdin San Sebastian 5-0 in their opener before brushing aside the champions of Serbia, Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, 4-1. Three wins out of three means the current leaders of the Hungarian-Romanian Erste Liga now move into Group E of the Continental Cup’s third round. Played in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy they will take on France’s Grenoble Bruleurs de Loups, Kazakh champion Nomad Astana and hosts Ritten Sport in games played between 17-19 November.

 

DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc, which missed out on progress to the next round during their two previous seasons, can now celebrate the case of being third time lucky. Corona Brasov and their head coach Martin Lacroix will instead rue their missed opportunities for a historical progress to the third round: “It was an emotional game and I like the way we started it being very aggressive in their zone,” he said. “Despite going two goals down we were not down. We took shots on their net, but their goalie had a very good game. We showed a lot of character, we played physical, but the puck did not want to go in.”

 

Corona Brasov had Braden Walls scoring a hat trick as they cruised past Crvena Zvezda in their opener, 8-4, before peppering the Spanish champion Txuri Urdin 55-12 in shots in a burly and penalty infested encounter. Prevailing 4-1 in the end, they suffered a blow with Brasov’s captain Arpad Mihaly being suspended for the deciding final game.

 

Despite the hosts enjoying an energetic start, Miskolc’s Finnish blueliner Anssi Rantanen silenced the home crowd as he boomed home a slapper past Patrik Polc’s glove side to break the deadlock after 5:30. The Hungarians in red and white doubled their lead just over five minutes later. Corona Brasov defenceman Evan Stoflet served a two-minute minor when Polc failed to hold on Jarkko Leppanen’s attempt with Mark Miskolczi reacting fastest at 10:47 in an even see-saw battle of a first frame.

 

Corona Brasov, which was to rely a lot on their first line of Braden Walls, Logan MacMillan and Roberto Gliga to generate offence, was unable to find their way past the inspiring Adorjan. The DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc netminder was back at his old stomping ground at Brasov’s Olympic Ice Rink where he at the 2013 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (EYOWF) was voted best goaltender of the tournament representing Romania.

 

Following a goalless middle frame Corona Brasov surged forward in the third period. Winning the shots 15-5 and desperately trying to find a way past Adorjan from all angles, it was instead Miskolc who put the final nail in the coffin with 9:05 left in the game. Working on a man advantage, influential veteran Janos Vas found Sakaris, who signed off with a goal to send the travelling support from Hungary into exultant mood.

 

Exciting times now loom around the corner for the north-eastern Hungarian club and its fans with the unknown territory of the third round of the Continental Cup awaiting.

 

“In Miskolc we are expected to win every single game we take part in,” said Swedish player Mikael Tisell in the first season at the club. “What could work in our favour in the next round is that we will be playing as an underdog, which we are not often used to. This season we have done it in the Visegrad Cup and we played well against Slovak top division opponents, so we are looking forward to the great challenge in the next round and to play without too much pressure,” he said.

 

Another participant in Brasov able to take great credit from their performances this weekend is Txuri Urdin San Sebastian. Spirited displays in all of their three matches, in the end, saw them reap the rewards for their hard graft. Ignacio Solorzano scored the winner as the reigning Spanish champions in blue and white downed Crvena Zvezda Belgrade 3-2 in overtime for a third-place finish to the delight of their head coach Luis Marcelino:

 

“I am really happy with how our players played and we surpassed all our expectations. We gave everything we had and kept on going until there was nothing left in the tank,” he said.

 

Meanwhile Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, which arrived as winners of the first round, will return back to the Serbian capital with one point and aim for an improved performance next year: “We’re a young team and we’re work in progress, so we will only become better,” said Crvena Zvezda blueliner Ivan Anic.

 

Results Thread

 

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Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg

 

It's elimination hockey, and tonight eight teams will be leaving the 2017/18 Champions Hockey League as the Round of 16 Return Legs take place. No team starts more than two goals ahead.

Tonight's games

18:00 Oceláři Třinec vs. Malmö Redhawks (Agg. 2-1 )
18:00 Tappara Tampere vs. JYP Jyväskylä (Agg. 1-3 )
18:30 Brynäs IF vs. Adler Mannheim (Agg. 3-2 )
19:00 Frölunda Indians vs. Bílí Tygři Liberec (Agg. 3-2)
19:00 Växjö Lakers vs. Red Bull Salzburg (Agg. 1-2)
19:30 Red Bull Munich vs. SC Bern (Agg. 3-2)
19:45 EV Zug vs. Kometa Brno (Agg. 3-4)
20:00 Nottingham Panthers vs. ZSC Lions (Agg. 1-3)

 

All times CET

 

The Round of 16 comes to an exciting climax on Tuesday night with the eight 'Return Games' taking place. No team leads by more than two goals going into the second leg.

What happens if it's a tie on aggregate?

If the score is tied on aggregate after 60 minutes in the return game, the following tie-breaking procedure is used:

• Overtime: 4-on-4, sudden death, for 10 minutes.
• If there are no goals, a shootout follows: 5 shooters for each team
• If the game is still tied after five shots by each team, the shootout will continue with a tie-break shootout by one player of each team, with a reversed shooting order. The same, or new, players can take the tie-break shots.
• The aggregate score is all that is important. If the game "on the night" finishes 1-1, but on aggregate it is 4-2, then no overtime is played.
• There is no "away goals" rule like in football

Who gets home advantage in the next round?

Home-ice advantage in the Quarter-Finals (and Semi-Finals) will be decided by the overall record of teams (Group Stage + Round of 16 / for Semi-Finals: + Quarter-Finals), with the team with the better ranking playing the return game at home – subject to arena availability of each team. This means that every match carries importance, as teams are not only trying to qualify for the next round – but also do so with a good enough record to secure home-ice advantage at the next stage. The confirmed schedule for the Quarter-Finals will be released on championshockeyleague.com by the end of this week.

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Frolunda is out !!!! and 3 teams in the QF !  Congrats Brno, Liberec and Třinec

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Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg Results

 

Nottingham Panthers 0-3 (Aggr. 1-6) ZSC Lions Zurich
EV Zug 2-5 (Aggr. 5-9) Kometa Brno
Red Bull Munich 2-5 (Aggr. 5-7) SC Bern
Växjö Lakers 5-3 (Aggr. 6-5) Red Bull Salzburg
Frölunda Indians 4-6 OT (Aggr. 7-8) Bílí Tygři Liberec
Brynäs IF 2-1 (Aggr. 5-3) Adler Mannheim
Oceláři Třinec 2-1 (Aggr. 4-2) Malmö Redhawks
Tappara Tampere 3-2 (Aggr. 4-5) JYP Jyväskylä

 

So, in the top 8 of the CHL this year we have 3 teams from Czech Republic, 2 teams each from Sweden and Switzerland and just 1 team from Finland.

It looked a more promising season, but when it really matters, once again we have only teams from the top 4 participating leagues left and none from 2nd tier European domestic championships.

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Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Draw

 

JYP Jyväskylä vs Kometa Brno

Brynäs IF vs Oceláři Třinec

Växjö Lakers vs SC Bern

ZSC Lions Zurich vs Bílí Tygři Liberec

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Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Schedule

 

The schedule for the Champions Hockey League Quarterfinals has been confirmed today. Five teams are playing at this stage for the first time: Bílí Tygři Liberec, Brynäs IF, JYP Jyväskylä, Kometa Brno, Oceláři Třinec.

 

Here is the schedule (all times are CET):

 

First Leg, 5 December

17:00 Oceláři Třinec - Brynäs IF
18:00 JYP Jyväskylä - Kometa Brno
19:15 Bílí Tygři Liberec - ZSC Lions Zurich
20:00 SC Bern - Växjö Lakers

 

Second Leg, 17 December

17:30 Kometa Brno - JYP Jyväskylä
18:30 Brynäs IF - Oceláři Třinec
18:30 Växjö Lakers - SC Bern
20:00 ZSC Lions Zurich - Bílí Tygři Liberec

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This weekend continue the Continental Cup with the 3rd round. 8 teams divided in 2 groups per four. The first 2 clubs of each group will qualify for the Final four in January.

 

IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

3rd Round Group D in Rungsted (DEN)

Day 1 Results (17th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Yunost Minsk    7 - 1    Sheffield Steelers

19:45  Rungsted Ishockey    4 - 8    Kurbads Riga

 

Standing after Day 1

1. Yunost 3 pts, 2. Kurbads 3 pts., 3. Rungsted 0 pts., 4. Sheffield 0 pts.

 

3rd Round Group E in Ritten (ITA)

Day 1 Results (17th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Nomad Astana    1 - 2 After GWS    DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc

20:00  Ritten Sports    2 - 0    Bruleurs de Loups Grenoble

 

Standing after Day 1

1. Ritten 3 pts, 2. Miskolc 2 pts., 3. Astana 1 pt., 4. Grenoble 0 pts.

 

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

3rd Round Group D in Rungsted (DEN)

Day 2 Schedule (18th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Kurbads Riga    vs    Yunost Minsk

19:45  Sheffield Steelers    vs  Rungsted Ishockey

 

 

3rd Round Group E in Ritten (ITA)

Day 2 Schedule (18th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Bruleurs de Loups Grenoble    vs    DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc

20:00  Nomad Astana    vs    Ritten Sports

 

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IIHF Continental Cup 2017/18

 

3rd Round Group D in Rungsted (DEN)

Day 2 Results (18th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Kurbads Riga    2 - 4    Yunost Minsk

19:45  Sheffield Steelers    After GWS 5 - 4  Rungsted Ishockey

 

Standing after Day 2

1. Yunost 6 pts Q, 2. Kurbads 3 pts., 3. Sheffield 2 pts., 4. Rungsted 1 pt.

 

 

 

3rd Round Group E in Ritten (ITA)

Day 2 Results (18th November 2017)

GMT +1

 

16:00  Bruleurs de Loups Grenoble     1 - 2 After GWS     DVTK Jegesmedvek Miskolc

20:00  Nomad Astana    3 - 1    Ritten Sports

 

Standing after Day 2

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