Tough start of the European Trophy for the champion

European Trophy started yesterday with seven games. Slovan Bratislava, Frölunda, Djurgården, Pardubice and Vienna won their home games while HV71 and Salzburg won on the road.

Frölunda of Gothenburg, Sweden, scored two goals in each period to beat last year’s champion Eisbären Berlin 6-0. Mika Pyörälä (1+2) and Mathis Olimb (0+3) both scored three points to lead the European Trophy in scoring after the first day.

"It is obviously nice to have a premiere victory even if the numbers are not important", says Frölunda's assistant coach Christian Lechtaler to the club's homepage. "The most important thing for us is the way we win, all four formations contribute, we carry the game on very well, blocking shots and sacrifice ourselves".

Linus Fernström in Frölunda’s net made 27 saves to earn the shutout.

Joshua Tordjman of Red Bulls Salzburg also kept his net clean after 37 saves against Färjestad, the 2011 Swedish Champion. Salzburg won 4-0 with goals scored by Ramzi Abid, Markus Pöck, Manuel Latusa and Domonique Heinrich.

"We were ready for one of the best teams in Europe. The goalie Josh Tordjman, of course had a huge share in the success, but also young players such as Johannes Bischofberger and Daniel Erlich were fully there", says Salzburg's head coach Pierre Pagé.

Both games of the East Division were determined in shoot-out. Slovan Bratislava beat KalPa 2-1 with the winning penalty shot by Michal Macho. Jonathan Ferland was the hero when Vienna Capitals came back from 0-2 to beat Kärpät 3-2 in the shootout.

Sparta Praha outshot HV71 31-19 in Tesla arena, but the Swedes got away with a 4-1 win. "We played a good defensive game and in the second period we also got well deserved goals", says HV71's coach Ulf Dahlén.

Djurgården beat Slavia Praha 5-2 in Stockholm and Pardubice got a 3-2 win against Linköping.

Another two teams enter the tournament today when Plzeň visits Mountfield.

 

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