Storhamar Hamar were big underdogs playing their first Champions Hockey League away game against legendary Czech club Sparta Prague, but buoyed by amazing travelling fan support, solid goaltending and iron-tight penalty-killing, they managed to pull out an improbable victory. They also got a dramatic game-winning goal in the last minute from captain Christian Larrivee.

by Derek O'Brien

PRAGUE – With approximately 400 of their own supporters travelling with them for their first Champions Hockey League away game, Storhamar Hamar got their first-ever win in a major international club hockey tournament, and did so in dramatic fashion. As a result, they are now very much in the hunt for a spot among the final 32 teams. 

The winning goal came courtesy of their captain, Christian Larrivee, a 33-year-old forward from Gaspe, Quebec in Canada. He is now entering his seventh season with Storhamar, and sixth in a row, and has seen the club progress into one of the best in Norway. Last season he was on offensive force with 70 points (25 + 45) in 45 regular season games, then notched 23 points (10 + 13) in 16 playoff games as Storhamar reached the finals. 

With 2:44 to play in a 1–1 tie, Larrivee was called for slashing, leaving his team, which was a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill so far in the game, to come up big one more time. Not only did they kill it off, but Larrivee was fed a breakaway pass as he came out of the box and he scored the winning goal with 38 seconds to play, into the net directly in front of the large throng of Storhamar fans, who became ecstatic. 

When the game was over, the Storhamar players saluted their adoring fans before retiring to their dressing room. Several minutes later, with the fans still calling for an encore, the players all returned to the ice in various stages of undress to salute them one more time. A still delirious Larrivee then tried to put into words the previous three hours.

Congratulations Christian. Can you put this all into words?

A win in the Champions League for us is amazing. You know, the first game at home we were a little nervous. I think we came here ready to play a solid, good defensive game. They have so much talent but our goalie played so well . . . again. I mean, hats off to our goalies – they both played amazing.

[Note: This was actually the first of games on back-to-back days for Storhamar. Oskar Ostlund played this game in Prague and Robert Hestmann, who played the first game against Sparta, is scheduled to start Saturday in Geneva.]
 
Today was actually your back-up goalie, wasn't it?

Right now, they're actually playing about the same amount, so I don't know who's number one. But lately it seems like it doesn't matter which one it is, they both deliver, and that's why we won tonight.

You said the first game you were a little nervous, but you only lost by one goal. Did you come here thinking you had a good chance of winning?

Of course, I knew that the first 10 minutes were going to be important. I think we focused on the little details, especially at the beginning of the game, to make sure we stay in the game as long as possible.

And how much did your fans help you? They were really into it right from the start as well.

They're amazing! This is our first time in the Champions League and so many of them come here, and they support us so much. It's pretty amazing to see.

Besides the goalie and the fans, wouldn't you say that a key to your win today was the penalty killing?

Oh man! Compared to last game . . . the first game they scored two goals and that hurt us. We watched a lot of video and instead of going hard at them we let them play to the outside and we really adjusted well. Even two 5-on-3s – a team like that should score, so for us . . . we did our job. 

Tell me, late in the third period, tied game, what were you thinking on your way to the penalty box?

Against such a big club like that, I thought it was over. But as it went on our goalie was playing so well and our PK was doing so well and I started to get more confidence that we would survive it, but the best I was hoping for was that we would get it to overtime. The way it actually happened was like a dream come true.

Can you describe it? When did you recognize you were going to get a chance to score?

Our other guy (Mikael Zettergren), he saw me as I came out of the box and I got behind their D. I was almost crossing my fingers to get the puck and he did an amazing job to allow me to get in alone against the goalie. I didn't really think about what I was going to do, it happened so quickly, it just happened and it was a big one. 

It sure was! Congratulations again and good luck tomorrow.

Thank you.