Daily Recap: Yaroslavl advances; Prague, Liberec go to Game 7 OT
by Bruce Peter on Mar 17, 2011 8:00 AM EDT
in Kontinental Hockey League
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Every day here on Puck Worlds, we'll be providing an update of the various playoff action happening in the European professional leagues. Here's a summary of Wednesday's action:
Kontinental Hockey League (Russia/Latvia)
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5, Dinamo Riga 4 (OT) (Yaroslavl wins series 4-1): The dream is over for Latvia's top pro team, as the top ranked Yaroslavl didn't let being down 4-2 heading into the 3rd period get to them. After going seven games in the first round, they seized their opportunity to end this series quickly, thanks to a pair of third period goals from Alexander Galimov and getting the OT winner from Alexander Kalyanin, who had scored his second of the game and ninth of the playoffs. Indeed, the line of Galimov, Kalyanin and Gennady Churilov had four goals and six assists between them. Lokomotiv currently has the top five scorers in the playoffs, led by Pavol Demitra's seventeen and Josef Vasicek's sixteen points (the two combined for the other Yaroslavl goal).
Atlant Moscow Oblast 3, SKA St. Petersburg 1 (SKA leads series 3-2): The last hope of the Moscow area denied SKA their first chance to reach the conference finals, with Konstantin Barulin having his best game of the series to date, making 26 saves in the win. Jaroslav Obsut scored the winner with 3:59 to play, and Eduard Lewandowski added an empty netter to secure the victory. The two teams will head back to Mytishchi on Friday for Game 6.
Thursday's Games: Metallurg Magnitogorsk @ Avangard Omsk (2:00 PM CET/9:00 AM EST, series tied 2-2); Salavat Yulaev Ufa @ Ak Bars Kazan (5:00 PM CET/12:00 PM EST, Ufa leads series 3-1).
Tipsport Extraliga (Czech Rep.)
HC Slavia Praha 4, Bílí Tygri Liberec 3 (OT) (Prague wins series 4-3): Tomas Svoboda tied the game up with 1:06 left in the third period, and then scored the OT winner at 13:05 to help the seventh seed upset the second seeded White Tigers. Liberec headed into the third period with a 2-0 lead, and then had a 3-1 lead before Slavia mounted a comeback of their own. Liberec had forced a Game 7 after falling behind 3-1 in the series.
HC Slavia Praha will face HC Ocelari Trinec in a semifinal starting on Monday, while HC Viktovice Steel will host HC Eaton Pardubice in the other semifinal, starting on Saturday.
Elitserien (Sweden)
Färjestad 4, Brynäs 3 (Färjestad wins series 4-1): Former Saskatoon Blade (had to work that in) Marcus Paulsson scored the winning goal with 24 seconds left in regulation to set up a date with AIK Stockholm in the semifinals. The loss was even more emotionally draining for Brynäs fans, as they had just tied up the game a minute earlier when Magnus Kahnberg after they had pulled their goalie.
Skellefteå 3, Linköping 1 (Skellefteå leads series 3-2): Linköping did a good job keeping the big guns sort of silent again, as Mikko Lehtonen and Joakim Lindström only had an assist each, but it wasn't enough, as Yared Hagos and Anders Söderberg supplied some secondary offence to put Linköping on the ropes. Skellefteå probably has to try and win it all this year: all of their top 3 defensemen are likely heading to the NHL next year (Adam Larsson, David Rundblad, and Tim Erixon). Your token Adam Larsson watch: 21:47 of icetime (second on the team), three shots on goal and an assist.
Djurgården 2, Luleå 0 (Luleå leads series 3-2): Twice now Djurgården has avoided elimination, and they're heading back to Stockholm for a chance to push this series to seven after falling behind 3-0. Mark (in the Park) Owuya made 18 saves for the shutout, while Tim Eriksson scored the winner (the other goal was an empty netter) to extend the series. Check out the hilites below, as you'll see how hockey can be a game of inches... right Simon Hjalmarsson?
Deutsche Eishockey Liga (Germany)
Kölner Haie 4, EHC München 3 (3OT) (Köln leads play-in 1-0): Former Sabres prospect Phillip Gogulla scored the winner at 10:00 of the third overtime, ending the second longest European playoff game this year. The win was made possible by Matt Pettinger scoring the tying goal with only 27 seconds left to play. Shots were 63-51 for Munich, with Danny Aus den Birken making sixty saves for the win. Kölner Haie can advance to the quarterfinals with a road win on Friday.
Adler Mannheim 3, Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers 2 (Mannheim leads play-in 1-0): Goals by Marcus Fink, James Pollock and Niko Dimotrakos paced Adler to the win, as they peppered Ice Tigers goalie Patrick Ehelechner with 41 shots. Ryan Bayda scored with only 10 seconds left to make the score a bit more respectable. The Ice Tigers will head back home to Nuremberg to try and stay alive.
Slovnaft Extraliga (Slovakia)
HC 05 Banská Bystrica 3, HK Poprad 1 (Series Tied at 1): Lukas Hvila had a goal and an assist as Baská Bystrica bounced back after losing on Tuesday 7-5. Miroslav Simonovic made 38 saves to help his team earn a split on the road. The series resumes Saturday and Sunday with games 3 and 4.
Thursday's Game: HC Kosice @ Dukla Trencin (6:00 PM CET/1:00 PM EST, Kosice leads series 2-0)
National League A (Switzerland)
There were no games on Wednesday, but all three series resume tonight.
Thursday's Games: Kloten Flyers @ SC Bern (Kloten leads series 1-0); HC Davos @ EV Zug (Davos leads series 1-0); Rapperswil Lakers @ Ambri-Piotta (Ambri leads series 1-0). All games at 7:45 PM CET/2:45 PM EST.
No games in the SM-Liiga yesterday or today.
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Really enjoying the recaps Bruce… I always wondered why some C network doesn’t show some European Playoff action like they do for soccer. There has to be a small market. Obviously we can watch streams but it’d be great if there were some kind of weekly recap show of all the Euro hockey leagues. Usually every league has some familiar names.
For Lokomotiv – looking at the stats, they are also getting one hell of a run from Karel Rachunek on defense … he was leading all players in goals after scoring in 6 straight games. He’s now second but still leads all defenceman… he’s on top for a lot of categories.
Fajerstad are led in net by Alexander Salak who is the same player that I mentioned should be in the NHL if given the right opportunity (he was logjammed behind fellow Czech Vokoun, Clemmenson and the super swede rookie goalie Markstrom in Florida). He pretty much dominated the SEL this season. He now belongs to Chicago as a throw in on the Skille/Frolik trade. I still think he’ll be the one people talk about with respects to that trade years from now and hope he gets the backup slot behind Crawford next year after Turco gets run out of town.
Omsk won again in overtime today putting them up 3-2 – they refuse to die in what has been a pretty entertaining series. They must be getting tired after all these overtime games.
It’s been my experience that once a series has a 3OT or more game, the team that wins that game wins the series. Probably not an exact science, but something about playing two games and it only counting for one seems to weigh large on a series.
I think Salak will do well in Chicago. I think he may have been a throw-in from Florida’s perspective, but a calculated addition from Chicago’s. I definitely think he’ll be brought over as the backup.
Rachunek is having an unreal playoff. Some good news for the Czechs at the Worlds, I’d have to think.
Puck Worlds: Chasing Pucks from here to Turku.
For Twitter Updates on Puck Worlds, follow @puckworlds. For updates plus additional witty banter from yours truly, follow @saskhab.
by Bruce Peter on Mar 17, 2011 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Rachunek is one of my all time favourite Czech defenders… loved him in New Jersey and loved him in New York. According to Hadamczak.. the team should be stacked this time around… makes me wonder if that is fair to the guys that won the Gold last year though… do you cut a guy like Ondrej Nemec in favour of, say, Martin Havlat (this is just heresay, no idea if they’d ask or if he’d play) because he’s clearly the better player. What about Olesz in favour of someone? Who’s job does Smid take? Klesla? My point being if they take the best players available pretty much more than half the defending championship team will be cut. If they show loyalty to the championship team they’ll be leaving behind a tonne of amazing players. Can’t win really… I’d go with the stacked team personally and thank them for their efforts and leave it at ‘Vokoun stole the show last year’. I’ve also noticed this season that Czechs are doing extremely well in all the Euro leagues… shame we’re not doing as well in the NHL. Wonder if Hejduk comes out and plays one last time? It goes on and on…
DEL
how many wins in series need the team in each round of playoff in DEL?
The play-ins (which are what the two ones above are) are best of 3. Once those are over, it’s best of 7 the rest of the way. Finland is the same.
Puck Worlds: Chasing Pucks from here to Turku.
For Twitter Updates on Puck Worlds, follow @puckworlds. For updates plus additional witty banter from yours truly, follow @saskhab.
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