Sweden vs Finland in the European Trophy

May 18th 2013 in Stockholm. I am sitting in the Globe Arena following the Nordic rivalry between host Sweden and their neighbors from Finland. It is the first semifinal of the IIHF World Championships. Two teams were fighting on the same level, but in the end there was a slight difference in Sweden’s favor. The line of Loui Eriksson and the Sedin brothers, who scored three goals. Sweden advanced to the Final, where they ultimately won the World Champs later against the Swiss.

Exactly three months later we have seen the first games of the European Trophy and the first game days had one theme: Finland vs Sweden. In 12 games we saw teams from the two countries taking on each other. How did the rivalry go so far on the club stage? We’ll take a look at some of the highlights in these games.

The first game saw Tappara Tampere take on the Allensvenskan team Djurgarden Stockholm. Although Djurgarden is currently playing second division only, they are a traditional team that belongs into the Elitserien. Otherwise they wouldn’t be part of the European Trophy. And according to their first games in the ET, they will make a big push to return to Elitserien play next year. They did not just win in Tampere (after all a team that just missed the Finnish championship by inches), one day later back in their Hovet (the arena right next to the Globe), they also beat TPS Turku on penalties after fighting back from a 1-4 deficit in the third period.

The Finnish vice champion Tappara in contrast also lost its second game 1-2 against Brynäs later on.

The biggest disappointment on the Finnish side so far must have been the play of the two clubs from the capital. In 4 games Jokerit and HIFK could not win a single game. And worse than that, Jokerit wasn’t even able to score a single goal. They were shut out by both Färjestad and Frölunda Göteborg. HIFK could at least get on the scoresheet in both games. Nevertheless, this is not what the fans expected. And it is no excuse either, that both Swedish teams belong to the top teams among European club stage hockey. Especially for the ambitious Jokers, who will move to the KHL after this season, the goal has to be being competitive against any opponent.

Ironically, in the matches of Färjestad on both occasions it was a Norwegian, who played the key role in this Scandinavian rivalry. Marius Holtet sealed the deal with empty net goals on Tuesday against HIFK as well as on thursday against Jokerit.

In Göteborg it was mainly Robin Figren with his 5 points in two games, who pushed the team to the wins over Helsinki. But also his teammates were on fire as the team combined for 76 shots during the 120 minutes of play.

We talked about Swedish wins a lot now, but there were some bright sides for Finland as well. In particular these happy moments were based in Jyväskylä. JYP won two games straight. First they could win at home against HV71 with 2-1, a game that was decided by Joonas Sammalmaa’s goal early in the second period. Two days later in Linköping they were not so stingy with goals. They scored 5 goals, two of them coming from Jani Tuppurainen.

Summing up, Swedish teams won 8 of the 12 games. The other two wins by Finnish teams came from TPS Turku, that could beat Brynäs IF 3-2 in its first game due to two last period goals, which turned around the game, and from KalPa Kuopio, who battled with HV71 up to the last minute in its 2-1 win. Leading for a long time 1-0, HV could finally get on the scoresheet with the equalizer with 5 minutes left in the game. But KalPa fought back and Antti Kerälä gave them the game-winner with 88 seconds left in the game.

So, those 12 games almost finish the rivalry for this year’s European Trophy. There are just two games left between Swedish and Finnish teams, when Trophy defender Lulea takes on Kärpät Oulu in two games in early September to determine, who is the strongest force in the North.

And obviously there might be some games before Christmas in the Final Six. Let’s see how that turns out!

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