phelps

Semi-Final Preview: Red Bull Derby The first ever 'Red Bull Derby' in the Champions Hockey league could not come at a more crucial time for the sides from Munich and Salzburg. Both made it through to the Quarter-Finals as milestones not only for themselves, but also their leagues, and then bettered the feat by making it to the Semi-Final stage. As the crow flies these teams are separated by only 115 kilometres, making the travelling distance one of the shortest in the CHL. Indeed, both teams travel further distances in their own league. Red Bull Munich, the lower seeds in this matchup, qualified as runners up from their Group behind Malmö, losing to the Redhawks on Game Day 6 to finish below the Swedes. Their path in the playoffs saw them overturn a one-goal home deficit against EV Zug by winning 2-0 in Switzerland, and then getting revenge on the Redhawks with an overtime winner after the 120 minute series ended tied at six each. MVP nomination Trevor Parks' hat-trick in the return game ultimately saw his team through. What Munich have had in the CHL so far this season is solid goaltending: Olympic silver medalist Danny aus den Birken has stopped 92.09% of shots faced in just under 500 minutes so far, and posted two shutouts. With him in net, Munich have won five of eight games. Red Bull Salzburg qualified as group winners thanks to a Game Day six victory over SC Bern. Many would say they drew arguably the weakest team in the Round of 16 in Rouen, however the French side arrived in Salzburg after the first leg tied at three, and pushed their Austrian hosts for the best part of three periods in the reverse matchup as well. If Salzburg got a favourable draw in the Round of 16, their Quarter-Final opponents were anything but! Defending Finnish champions, former CHL finalists and current Liiga leaders Kärpät Oulu were tipped by many to go far in this season's competition but were ultimately undone by John Hughes' winner with 23 seconds left in the first leg - a goal possibly now more famous for the celebration than the excellent move made to score it. With a one-goal lead Salzburg headed to Oulu and went two up on aggregate before Kärpät levelled the game on the night, and then proceeded to shut out the Finns for over 38 minutes to hold on to a 4-3 aggregate win. MVP nominee Stephen Michalek leads the CHL with 92.69% of shots faced saved, while outfield the team has five players with seven or more points. While it's also a Red Bull derby, this series pits two nations with great sporting competition against each other. After their Olympic success, Germany and the DEL would perhaps have expected, and certainly had previously hoped, to get a team much further in the CHL than in previous years. For Austria and the EBEL to be two games away from a CHL Final is remarkable. Austrian teams have stopped German opponents at crucial moments before - the 2014 Winter Olympic qualifiers one of the more recent memories. Before that game Eisbären Berlin's Constantin Braun was asked why Germany often struggles against Austria. "Because it's Austria" he answered simply. One set of Red Bulls will be hoping for a repeat of that, the others no doubt trying to block it out.

Semi-Final Preview: Battle of the Indians The Champions Hockey League Semi-Final matchup between the clubs from Gothenburg and Pilsen not only matches two great hockey cities, but also two teams that have the “Indians” nickname. The Frölunda Indians have been the CHL’s most dominant team since its re-inception, making the Final the first three years and winning two straight titles. HC Pilsen, on the other hand, are only in the CHL for the second time, but over the last five years have established themselves as one of the top teams in the Czech Extraliga, and now looking to break through as one of the recognizable names in European hockey. This season, Pilsen were the only team to go through the Group Stage unbeaten, with six wins, five of them in regulation time. Through the playoff round, they remain unbeaten. In the Round of 16 came a relatively easy win over HC Bolzano. In the next round came a much more impressive victory over Skelleftea AIK in the Quarter-Finals in a shootout, after a dramatic exchange of goals late in the second leg. At the other end of the ice, Frölunda have nothing left to prove to the rest of Europe, and yet the cub has not lost its zeal for victory. After two victories, in two of the CHL’s more memorable games, the Swedish Indians are still out for more. Last year’s Round of 16 defeat at the hands of Liberec did not dissuade them. Milan Gulaš is a big reason Pilsen have gotten this far, with his performance in the Round of 16 against HC Bolzano and in the Quarter-Finals against Skelleftea. Other big scorers they’ve had both domestically and in the CHL are David Stach, Vojtěch Němec, Petr Kodýtek and Petr Straka. As for Frölunda, they have many players that are familiar to international hockey fans. Ryan Lasch won the CHL MVP and Top Scorer award in 2015/16 season and is on his way to do so again, but he’s not alone. Defenceman Chay Genoway, junior star Samuel Fagemo and captain Joel Lundqvist are all showing their ways as well, but individuals are not going to pave the way for success alone, they will have to pave the way. Despite Frölundas success in the CHL in the past, they are going to earn it past Pilsen or any other team they will face. And so will be the case against Pilsen. While this isn’t a border war like the other Semi-Final, it is a matchup between clubs from continental Europe’s two oldest hockey powers. The national teams of the two countries have a long history of competing against each other, with many memorable clashes. At the club level there have been some good battles as well, but in the big games, it has been the Swedes who have been victorious. Most notable was the 2016-17 CHL Final, in which Frölunda defeated Sparta Prague 4-3 in overtime at home in Gothenburg. In the Semi-Finals, going back to the European Cup, Brynäs IF defeated Dukla Jihlava in 1972 and Djurgarden Stockholm beat Sparta in 1990. And then, just last season, the Växjö Lakers defeated Bílí Tygři Liberec. Will the Swedish dominance continue, or is it time for a Czech club to prevail?

Four teams, two games from shot at the trophy Playoff hockey in the Champions Hockey League is about to go up another notch tonight with the start of the Semi-Finals. As the conventional wisdom goes, no team can book their place in the final tonight - but they can go a long way to getting there with a good performance, or put themselves in a real hole with a bad one, ahead of the return legs next week. Frölunda Indians are seasoned professionals at this stage of the CHL, having been here on three occasions before and making it through to the final each time. HC Pilsen, and the Red Bull teams of Munich and Salzburg are making their debuts, with the latter pair also carrying Austria and Germany this far for the first time.

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