CHL - Swedish teams dominate quarterfinals
Kärpät Oulu is the only left non-Swedish team in the Semi Finals of the CHL. Lulea and Frölunda kicked out their Finnish rivals and the visitors saw some spectacular games.
Kärpät Oulu
vs SaiPa Lappeenranta 3-2 (5-2 on aggregate)
SaiPa had
to come back from a 2 goal deficit from the first leg. And after taking a
couple of penalties they started well when Matti Järvinen scored just 7 seconds
after killing a penalty. But with only one second left on the clock in the
second period Joonas Kemppainen tied the game. This might have shocked SaiPa a
bit, because 3 minutes into the last frame Joonas Donskoi added another goal to
his splendid CHL record to give Oulu a 2-1 lead. A tiny bit of hope returned to
the SaiPa team when Sam Lofqvist managed to convert a power-play, but Juho
Keränen sealed the deal with 5 minutes left and Oulu advanced to the Semi
Finals.
Lulea
Hockey vs Lukko Rauma 2-1 (7-3 on aggregate)
Lulea was
in the most comfortable position of all 8 quarterfinalists as they had a 5-2
lead from the first game and they did not let it go to waste. Lukko had a tough
time finding its way through the Lulea defense and so nothing changed on the
score for 34 minutes. Then it was Marcus Fagerudd who scored on the power-play
for Lulea. Just 18 seconds later Chris Abbot doubled the score for the Swedes.
Only Jonne Virtanen managed to break Joel Lassinantti’s shutout, when he got
the puck with 45 seconds left in the game all alone in front of the goalie and
he used his wide reach to get the puck around Lassinantti.
Frölunda
Gothenburg vs Helsinki IFK 5-3 (6-5 on aggregate)
The crowd
in Gothenburg should be the witnesses of the most dramatic game of the night,
in which fortune shifted back and forth. Going in HIFK had a goal advantage
from last week when they beat Frölunda at home 2-1, but after 22 minutes Mats
Rosseli-Olsen and Andreas Johnsson had already turned the tables in favour of
Gothenburg. At the 25:40 mark, when Frölunda was just about to take over
control completely, Nikolai Goldobin found Robert Leino on a breakaway and he
scored in the upper left corner on goalie Lars Johansson. 4 minutes into the
last period it was Corey Elkins, who brought HIFK ahead again. For exactly 3:30
minutes. That was the time Robin Figren and Mathis Olimb needed to re-establish
the 2-goal lead in the game and bring Frölunda back on track to the Semis. But
Robert Leino sneaked away one more time and Nikolai Goldobin found him again
after he broke through on the left side. The game was tied overall and drama
reached its climax when Elias Falth was called into the penalty box after high
sticking, but the referees decided to give a bench penalty as well to HIFK for
too many players on the ice with only 1:10 to go. The IFK coach was everything but
happy about this call, but finally had to accept it. 20 seconds later Robin
Figren got a shot on Ville Husso, collected his own rebound and batted it in
for the game-winning goal that sent Gothenburg to the Semi Finals.
Skelleftea AIK
vs Linköping HC 4-4 SO (6-5 on aggregate)
Skelleftea
had one goal to defend from last week’s game, but Linköping had the better start
when Jonas Almtorp equalized the series after 9 minutes. Daniel Widing got back
5 minutes later for Skellefetea, but again LHC could even things when Fredric
Andersson scored the 1-2. At this point it looked like the Swedish champion
could indeed fall. At the 38:08 mark Oskar Sundqvist sent Skelleftea back on
the winning street. Martin Lundberg could add an insurance goal after 50
minutes and suddenly it looked like the favourites from North Sweden would
march on to the Semis. At least until Jacob Micflikier scored right off the
face-off to even the score of the night to 3-3 and get LHC back into a 1-goal
distance. This goal was scored on a 4-on-4 as Adam Pettersson sat out for AIK
with a 5-minute penalty, so LHC found itself on another power-play afterwards.
When they pulled the goalie they had a 6-on-4 and Broc Little finally managed
to get the 4-3 for Linköping which equalized the series again and brought the
match into overtime. As both teams
failed to add the game-winner in overtime the shootout had to decide. And here
it was Skelleftea’s Rob Schremp, who scored the only penalty with a nice move
to send the LHC goalie in the wrong corner.
The
Semi-Finals now look like this:
Kärpät Oulu
vs Frölunda Gothenburg
Lulea Hockey vs Skelleftea AIK