Spengler Cup: the revenge of the losing ones

Matchday number two at the valiant Arena is full of surprises: both pairings, obtained after the inaugural games played last saturday, gave ultimate victory to the clubs which lost their first matches, that is, Adler Mannheim (from the DEL) and Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (from the KHL). 

The Eagles, who are also current German champions, played a really dense and interesting game against Jokerit: the Finns, despite their brilliant season in the KHL so far (they are currently on top of their own division and placed second in the Western Conference), had to surrender to the overwhelming power of Mannheim. The first period was, anyways, pretty fair to both teams, with Helsinki initially leading 2-0 thanks to Regin and Sallinen; the German reply came later, with Metropolit and Carle (the latter on power play). 

The second period was interestingly intense as well, with two goals by former Ingolstadter Ryan MacMurchy and just one for the opposing team, made by Niklas Hagman (himself formerly a Fribourg player in the NLA). The third period saw another score for Mannheim as well, with Kai Hospelt shooting a sharp shot towards the empty net of the Jokers. Given the awesome display of power given by Lugano the other day, it will be interesting to see how the Finnish club will answer to them this afternoon..

Also Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, the other KHL team, had a really difficult task: trying to defeat the hosting team, HC Davos, which also holds the Swiss national title and the highest number of Spengler Cups won. Still, it was a really one-sided game, with Davos losing 1-5 against the more effective and motivated Russians, who just wanted to forget the loss inflicted to them by Team canada the day before. It worked, and despite two periods (the first and the third ones) being quite boring, with just one goal each (scored by the same guy, Alexei Mikhnov, who briefly served in the NHL for the Edmonton Oilers and sports a brilliant and long career in the KHL as well), the middle fraction was awesome: Golyshev, Alexeyev and Yemelin just managed to wipe the hosting team off the ice, despite an isolated goal by former NHLer Devin Setoguchi right in the middle of the game.

With 3 important points, Mannheim and Yekaterinburg will now have to wait today's games to know their next opponents, while Team Canada will face Davos and Jokerit will team up against Lugano.. two teams which will be highly motivated, unpredictably strong and really interesting to watch on the ice!  

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