With a 5-goal aggregate lead to play with, Frolunda Gothenburg earned a 1–1 tie on home ice to win their Semi-Final with HC Davos and advance to the Champions Hockey League Final for the second-straight year.
Frolunda Gothenburg 1–1 HC Davos
FROLUNDA WIN ON AGGREGATE 6–1
by Derek O'Brien, with contribution from Efraim Larsson
GOTHENBURG – After their convincing victory in Davos last week, Frolunda Gothenburg knew that the only thing standing in their way of a return trip to the CHL Final was a complete collapse on home ice. Therefore they entered the game with a clear plan to play it safe and keep Davos chances to a minimum, which they did. The 1–1 tie puts them through to the European title game in Oulu, Finland.
“I think we played a very good tactical game,” said Frolunda head coach Roger Ronnberg. “We shut down Davos, slowed them down and didn't give them a lot of space.”
Davos, on the other hand, knew they'd have to open the game up if they wanted to score at least five goals and, spurned on by a noisy group of 200-plus travelling Swiss fans, tried to generate chances right from the start. However, they couldn't beat Lars Johansson on a couple of early shots.
The high-risk game cost Davos early though and, with Leonardo Genoni scrambling in the crease, Patrik Carlsson put home a loose puck at 3:29 to open the scoring for Frolunda and increase their aggregate lead to 6.
“It felt good today,” Carlsson said about playing with linemates Artturi Lehkonen and Robin Figren, who assisted on the goal. “Especially in the first period, where it felt like we broke their momentum a couple of times. In the second and third periods the game got a little torn apart by all the power plays and penalty killing, so it's more difficult to stick to your gameplan. But it felt good, indeed.”
Try as they did, Davos had little success trying to generate any more offence that first period. Early in the second, however, they did get on the board on the power play, when Enzo Corvi faked a shot then passed to Cramo Top Scorer Andres Ambuehl in the slot, who re-directed it past Johansson to put the difference back to where it was at the start of the game.
But Davos were unable to build on that momentum, as they ran into penalty trouble in what became an increasingly rough middle period. Their penalty killing kept the dangerous Frolunda power play from scoring on any of its eight opportunities – which included two separate 5-on-3 chances – but also took away precious time to try to mount any sort of comeback.
As time ran down, it became increasingly clear that Frolunda were destined to reach the Final for their second straight year and the Frolundaborg took on an increasingly festive atmosphere. Meanwhile the Davos fans, energetic all game, showed appreciation for their team, whose impressive CHL run finally came to an end in the Semi-Finals.
As it was already known shortly before the start of this game that the CHL Final would be played in Oulu, that is where Frolunda are headed on 9 February to try to take care of unfinished business from last year.
“It's gonna be great going up to cold Oulu and face Karpat,” said Carlsson. “It'll be a great challenge for us with all their offensive skill they have. You don't have that many chances to actually win something so we have to go all in and take the chance now. Especially since we lost last season's Final.”
Goals:
1st 03:29 - 1:0 (EQ) - Patrik Carlsson (Artturi Lehkonen, Robin Figren)
2nd 21:29 - 1:1 (PP1) - Andres Ambuehl (Enzo Corvi, Perttu Lindgren)2397 | Highlights: Frolunda Gothenburg vs HC Davos