Champions Hockey League - Group G

Champions Hockey League - Group G

16 Aug 2014 | Dennis Mende
 

Today we present to you the teams of Group G: Adler Mannheim, HC Sparta Prague, Växjö Lakers and KalPa Kuopio. We also share our predictions with you.

 
 
 
 

Adler Mannheim


The Eagles from South West Germany were the dominating force in German ice hockey in the late 1990s and early 2000s, peaking in three consecutive won DEL titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999. With additional titles in 2001 and 2007 they were DEL record champions for a long time before Eisbären Berlin were able to get past them in won titles and popularity in recent years. Together with their 1980 title in the then Eishockey-Bundesliga, Mannheim won a total of 6 German championships since the founding of the club in 1938. They also won the national cup competition, DEB-Pokal, in 2003 and 2007.

As a founding member of the European Trophy they participated in all four editions of the tournament. They reached positions 7, 3, 3 and 4 in their groups, missing the playoffs just by two points in 2013 behind Swedish sides Färjestad BK and Frölunda HC. In the 2013-14 DEL season they reached the playoffs as 4th placed but were beaten in the first round already in 5 games of a best of seven series with archrivals Kölner Haie.

One of the key players for Mannheim and also the team's topscorer of last season is Mannheim born veteran Jochen Hecht. The forward played 892 games in the National Hockey League for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres between 1998 and 2013. Other forwards with NHL experiene include Simon Gamache who joined the team in 2013 after 7 years in Swiss NLA. Germans Ronny Arendt and Marcus Kink also play an important role offensively. In the net German national goalie Dennis Endras and youngster Felix Brückmann shared the duty last season but Brückmann signed a contract with league rivals Wolfsburg this off season. New in the team for him is former national team goalie Youri Ziffzer as backup. Other promising signings are defender Sinan Akdag (Krefeld) and Canadian veteran NHL center Glen Metropolit who most recently played four years in Switzerland. The most important change though might be in the off-ice department. New head coach of the team is Canadian Geoff Ward who worked as assistant coach of the NHL's Boston Bruins for the last 7 seasons but who already worked in the DEL as head coach of the Iserlohn Roosters in 2006-2007. He is the substitution for German coaching legend Hans Zach who only joined the team in January himself.

If Mannheim can repeat their strong first half of last DEL's season they are a team hard to beat in the battle for the first spot in this group, a goal to reach the club sees as hard but not impossible.   

HC Sparta Prague


The team from the Czech capital was always THE symbol for ice hockey in Prague despite competition from teams like Slavia in recent Extraliga times. This status was in danger after newly founded Lev Prague reached the Gagarin Cup finals in 2014 but after the team's withdrawal from KHL, Sparta is the one team in charge again. The capitals won a total of 4 Czechoslovakian league titles, including in 1993, the last season of the old championship and another 4 Extraliga titles in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2007, dominating the first half of the last decade in Czech ice hockey. Additionaly Sparta can count Spengler Cup titles in 1962 and 1963 to their resumee. On the international level Sparta reached the final of the 2000 European Hockey League but lost 0-2 against Russia's Metallurg Magnitogorsk. They had the chance for revenge in 2008 when they met Metallurg in another cup final but lost 2-5 to lose the IIHF European Champions Cup against them.

As Mannheim, Sparta were a founding member of the European Trophy and participated in all four editions of the tournament finishing 4th and 5th twice in their respective groups. In the 2013-14 Extraliga season the team of Josef Jandac dominated the regular season with a 15 point advantage to the second place but surprisingly lost the best of seven series against 6th placed Kometa Brno in the semifinals with 3-4.

Sparta's top scorer last season was 40 year old veteran Petr Ton who collected a total of 79 points in 62 games of regular season and playoffs combined but he signed with Brno this summer. Other notable forwards in recent years were veteran Jaroslav Hlinka and Petr Kumstat. In defense former NHL and KHL veteran Karel Pilar is the key element. Sparta's goalie in the 2013-14 season was Tomas Pöpperle who decided to return to the KHL to sign a contract with new team HK Sochi after recording a league wide record 1.61 GAA in the regular season. A similar opportunity was used by defender Tomas Rachunek who received a contract by KHL side Metallurg Novokuznetsk. But it wasn't all bad in the offseason. Sparta were able to recruit longtime KHL goalie and Slovakian international Rastislav Stana for their net. Fellow Slovakian additions Lukas Cingel and Juraj Mikus also collected experience in the KHL in recent seasons with Lev Prague. A very interesting player to follow will be Slovanian Olympic participant of 2014 Robert Sabolic who won the 2014 DEL championship with ERC Ingolstadt. The winger was able to collect 14 points in 21 playoff games with his team this April.

Due to high calibre additions and the departure of several veterans near the 40 year mark, a fresher and stronger Sparta Prague would see anything but the first spot in this group as a disappointment.

Växjö Lakers


Probably the least known of the four teams, Växjö Lakers were only founded in 1997 after the bankruptcy of Växjö HC. The team started to play in Division 4 but made a fast advancement to second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan in the following years. In 2010-2011 the team reached its big goal and they were promoted to Elitserien for the first time. In the first two years the team just avoided relegation before reaching a strong third spot in the last regular season. They went on to reach the semifinals of the playoffs but there were beaten by Färjestad BK in six games of a best of seven series. In the playoffs forwards Alexander Johansson, Rhett Rakhshani and Robert Rosén were among the top 10 scorers leaguewide with all other seven players coming from league champions Skelleftea. In addition Teemu Lassila, the Finnish goalie of the Växjö Lakers, had the second best goals against average in the playoffs.

Unlike the other teams of this group, Växjö never took part in the European Trophy in previous years. Champions Hockey League marks the first international appearance for the club.

In the offseason top goalie Lassila left for his home country and signed a contract with TPS Turku. He was followed by American forward Ryan Lasch who recorded 36 points in 54 regular season games last year. Youngster Dennis Rasmussen left for the Chicago Blackhawks to chase his NHL dream. They were able to make up for the departures though by signing goalie Cristopher Nilstorp (Texas Stars/AHL) who also collected some experience in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, winger Tuomas Kiiskinen (Donbass Donetsk/KHL) and defender Teemu Laakso (Severstal Cherepovets/KHL). Other notable signings were forward Patrik Lundh (Färjestad) and Canadian right winger Nick Johnson who brings a total of 113 NHL games to the lineup.

After a strong performance in the SHL last season, Växjö were able to keep the quality in the team. They will be a dangerous outsider.  

KalPa Kuopio


Despite being founded in 1929 already and having a rich history, KalPa never really had much success neither on the domestic nor the international level. Their biggest successes were winning the third-tier SM-Sarja in 2001 and two titles in 2004 and 2005 in second-tier Mestis. Since then they always played in (SM-)liiga. After being a bottom team in the first three years since their return to the top league in Finland, KalPa reached the playoffs five consecutive times, even making the semifinals twice. In 2011-12 they even won the regular season ahead of Pelicans and HIFK. Even bigger the shock then was when the team was dead last in 2013-14 with a 36 point deficit towards the last playoff spot in Liiga. The 2013 edition of the European Trophy wasn't much better for them either by only collecting 7 points in 8 games and ending their group on the second last position just ahead of Czech team Pirati Chomutov.

The off-season wasn't very promising for KalPa's future. They lost two highly talented youngsters, goalie Henri Kiviaho (Dallas Stars/NHL) and winger Artturi Lehkonen (Frölunda HC/SHL) who already contributed 20 points in 33 games at age 18 last season after an even more impressive first full season - 33 points in 49 games - in the year before. At least they could take advantage of the withdrawal from KHL by Lev Prague and signed Czech players Michal Birner and Tomas Kubalik. The new starting goalie is Eero Kilpeläinen who joined the team after one year with EV Zug in Swiss NLA.

If the majority of KalPa players don't show a huge development throughout the next season, anything but the last place in this group won't be realistic.

My predictions for this group:

Due to their experience and success on the domestic and international level, Adler Mannheim and Sparta Prague are the two favourites to make the first spot in this group. Växjö Lakers are a team though both better do not underestimate. KalPa only have very limited outsider chances to win group G.

Schedule

21.08.2014 KalPa Kuopio - Sparta Prague      
21.08.2014 Växjö Lakers - Adler Mannheim      
24.08.2014 Växjö Lakers - Sparta Prague      
24.08.2014 KalPa Kuopio - Adler Mannheim      
04.09.2014 Adler Mannheim - KalPa Kuopio      
04.09.2014 Sparta Prague - Växjö Lakers      
06.09.2014 Adler Mannheim - Växjö Lakers      
06.09.2014 Sparta Prague - KalPa Kuopio      
23.09.2014 Adler Mannheim - Sparta Prague      
24.09.2014 Växjö Lakers - KalPa Kuopio      
07.10.2014 KalPa Kuopio - Växjö Lakers      
08.10.2014 Sparta Prague - Adler Mannheim

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