Read below to follow Fribourg-Gotteron's path to their first-ever appearance in the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals.
At the start of this season’s Champions Hockey League, few would have had Fribourg-Gotteron down as a team likely of making the Semi-Finals. However, the NLA club has put aside a lack of form in their own league, and led by players like Roman Cervenka, Yannick Rathgeb and Michal Birner are now one of four teams left standing in the race for European glory. Unbeaten at home in the CHL, and having only lost on the road in Munich, they’ll face defending champions Frolunda Gothenburg in the Semi-Finals. We take a look at how they’ve made it this far.
Group Stage
Fribourg had one of the more intriguing looking groups in this year’s competition, being drawn together with Red Bull Munich of the DEL and Czech-based EBEL representatives Orli Znojmo.
It was, however, a relatively routine group stage for the Swiss side, overcoming Munich and Znojmo by three goals in both of their home games to open the campaign – the blanking of Munich by 3-0 a notable result early on. A 3-1 win in the Czech Republic secured qualification for Fribourg, with a 3-1 defeat in Munich meaning they would also top the group going into the next round.
Knockout Stage
As the CHL moved on to the Round of 32, Fribourg faced Slovakian regular season winners HC Kosice. An extremely tight opening leg saw the sides tie at 1-1 after 60 minutes in Slovakia, leaving it all to play for in the return match after Cervenka tied it up for the guests with under seven minutes remaining.
"It was a very hard game, both goalies played very well, there were chances for both sides but it was all about defence," said Fribourg coach Larry Huras of the game in Kosice. "Our forwards should have done a bit better and scored a couple more, but equally they could have got a few more too so overall 1-1 was a fair score."
Back on their own ice, an early goal from Chris Rivera had Kosice chasing the game with only 8:22 played – and why the Slovaks would level things up, Lorenz Kienzle put the hosts back ahead. The now deadly combination of Cervenka and Rathgeb struck in the final period to put Fribourg through 5-2 on aggregate.
"We know that we have the talent to be successful, sometimes it is just a question of timing or little details that we have to improve to make us win," Lorenz Kienzle said after that game. "Our CHL campaign is perfectly working so far. Now we take it game by game, period by period, and we're trying to go as far as possible."
And work perfectly it has done since as well. A Round of 16 tie against Finnish club KalPa Kuopio, inside the top two in their own league, provided Fribourg with a much sterner test than they’d faced so far. Again however the Swiss refused to lie down on the road, a late Julien Sprunger goal earning them a 1-1 tie with only 3:34 left on the clock. Despite going a goal down early on, the Swiss were back level just over a minute later; and did lead for 10 minutes in the second period thanks to Birner before being pegged back. No scoring in the third meant over, where it took just 1:20 for Rathgeb to fire home on the backhand and put his team in the Quarter-Finals for the first time, after making the Round of 16 in the first CHL season.
The Quarter-Final match-up saw possibly two of the most unlikely teams to make it this far come up against each other, as Fribourg took on Vitkovice Ridera Ostrava. A clinical performance form Fribourg on the road saw them skate away 5-2 winners who were helped by a hat-trick from Julien Sprunger and four assists from Cervenka. “Sprunger and Cervenka play very well together and tonight they were very good, both 5-on-5 and on the power play,” said coach Huras after the game. “But our goalie also made some big saves and that was the difference.”
Fribourg came through the home leg with a 3-2 win, with Rathgeb again among the scorers. "We had a very good start in this game and it was important to get the lead after the first period. In the third period we played not very well – in the end we still won it and that's what counts," said he said of the game.
Summary
Displayed below is the path that Fribourg-Gotteron have taken through the 2016-17 CHL season. Click on the result to see a recap, live blog, highlights and statistics from each game.
| Gameday | Day | Date | Time* | Group | Venue | Home | Away | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Day 2 | Sat | 20.08.2016 | 19:45 | Group F | BCF Arena |  Fribourg-Gotteron |  Red Bull Munich | 3:0 |
| Game Day 6 | Thu | 01.09.2016 | 19:45 | Group F | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron |  Orli Znojmo | 5:2 |
| Game Day 7 | Sun | 04.09.2016 | 17:00 | Group F | Nevoga Arena | Orli Znojmo | Fribourg-Gotteron | 1:3 |
| Game Day 8 | Tue | 06.09.2016 | 19:00 | Group F | Olympia-Eisstadion | Red Bull Munich | Fribourg-Gotteron | 3:1 |
| Round of 32 | Tue | 04.10.2016 | 19:45 | First Game | Steel Arena |  HC Kosice | Fribourg-Gotteron | 1:1 |
| Round of 32 | Tue | 11.10.2016 | 19:45 | Return Game | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron | HC Kosice | 4:1 |
| Round of 16 | Tue | 01.11.2016 | 18:00 | First Game | Data Group Areena |  KalPa Kuopio | Fribourg-Gotteron | 1:1 |
| Round of 16 | Tue | 08.11.2016 | 19:45 | Return Game | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron | KalPa Kuopio | 3:2 (OT) |
| Quarter-Finals | Tue | 06.12.2016 | 17:00 | First Game | Ostravar Arena |  Vitkovice Ridera Ostrava | Fribourg-Gotteron | 2:5 |
| Quarter-Finals | Tue | 13.12.2016 | 19:45 | Return Game | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron | Vitkovice Ridera Ostrava | 3:2 |
| Semi-Finals | Tue | 10.01.2017 | 19:00 | First Game | Frolundaborgs Isstadion |  Frolunda Gothenburg | Fribourg-Gotteron | |
| Semi-Finals | Tue | 17.01.2017 | 20:15 | Return Game | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron | Frolunda Gothenburg |