Emotions were high following Grenoble's 2–1 victory over the Espoo Blues on Friday night. Although the French club didn't manage to reach the Champions Hockey League's Round of 32, this win is a positive way to finish their first CHL campaign.
by Christophe Laparra and Derek O'Brien
GRENOBLE – It was a historic night for French hockey, as the hometown Bruleurs de Loups defeated the Espoo Blues 2–1 to earn the first-ever points by a French team in the Champions Hockey League – Europe's premier club hockey competition.
Grenoble entered the game with a slight chance of making the CHL's Round of 32, but it wasn't going to be easy. They needed a 3-goal win to win the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Finnish club from Espoo, and no French team had ever won a CHL game before, or even taken it to overtime. Their chances got even more remote when the Blues took the early lead.
But the Wolf Burners fought back, and goals by Christophe Tatari and Sebastien Bisaillion put them into the lead in the fifth minute of the second period. They were now two goals away. Press as they did, however, they were unable to get any closer. Coach Edo Terglav pulled goaltender Mustukovs with two minutes to go – risking the victory to chase the elusive playoff spot. They didn't get the two goals they needed, but they did get the 3 points, the adoration of their fans, and the respect of their opponents and the hockey world.
The first words post-game were by Edo Terglav, Grenoble's Slovenian coach who got his feet wet in the CHL last season behind the bench of the Briancon Diables Rouges. While Briancon dropped six straight games last season, the experience exposed Terglav to what the team needed to do to be successful against Europe's elite. Grenoble was a lot more competitive this season, not losing any game by more than 3 goals, and now they made history by getting the win.
“We wanted to come out with a lot of intensity, making a lot of body checks like we did at the beginning, even though they scored early. We were very aggressive, dictating the tempo. My guys played the game they were supposed to play: working hard, blocking the shots, hitting, going to the net. We’ve just seen Grenoble play the game we expect to play all season. It’s a great way to finish the competition – we have shown what we are capable of. At the end of the game, we pulled the goalie with more than two minutes to go and we stayed in their zone for two minutes – we had the opportunities. It’s a pity we didn’t score but it’s really positive.”
Centre Dave Labrecque came with Terglav from Briancon to Grenoble this summer. He also went through the CHL learning experience last season, where he had 3 points (1 + 2). This year, he was Grenoble's co-scoring leader with 5 points (1 + 4).
“We played a an excellent game – we stuck to our system from beginning to end. We put a lot of pressure on their defence. We are very proud, we played a very solid game. We played 60 minutes while in the previous games, the second period always hurt us. Now we are ready to start French league on Tuesday.”
Eric Chouinard is another one of Grenoble's French-canadian forwards – a veteran with a wealth of experience from the NHL and around Europe, who is now entering his second season as Grenoble's captain.
“(It was a) very good team win, we worked hard. In each CHL game, we improved. The quality of our game got better and bringing in a win tonight was a big challenge. We played some good games before but now we can finish on a positive note.”
Ervins Mustukovs is Grenoble's 31-year-old Latvian goalie, who represented his home country in this year's World Championship in Prague. In addition to Latvia and France, the well-travelled netminder has also played pro hockey in Belarus, the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden.
“I am proud of the guys and the organization. It’s our first win in the CHL. It’s a nice feeling that we won but we did what it took to win. We didn’t look at the score, we came out to play and we thought we had a chance until the end. The team played well defensively. This time we played well for 60 minutes, while in previous games, we’d not play well for five to 10 minutes and we’d allow two or three goals in that time. Some individual mistakes were killing us. We played with more discipline in this game, we had more power-play than shorthanded situations. That’s probably why we won.”
And the last word went to Mika Rautio, the president of the Espoo Blues who was on hand for the game. What makes his perspective interesting is that he's a former goalie, and he finished his playing career in Grenoble in the 1998–99 season. He played with Grenoble in the European Hockey League, where they were trounced by giants Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Sparta Prague, but also took 5 of 6 points from Fribourg-Gotteron to finish third in the group. This time, they didn't get trounced by anybody and beat a team from the Finnish Liiga.
“Congratulations to Grenoble – great game. We did the best we could but Grenoble were better today. Grenoble are very dangerous, they can score every time, they had a very good power play, their goalie is good – they played very solid tonight. Our guys didn’t expect anything because they haven’t played against a French team, ever. But I’m not surprised, I thought the games against Grenoble would be tough ones. And I got a thought that today it would be a big game for Grenoble. We are all happy tonight because we qualified and Grenoble won. This is very good for French hockey.”