All set for quarter finals in CHL

Swedish SHL and Finnish SM-liiga dominates the first CHL season with four teams each reaching the quarter finals. When the first playoff round was finished on Tuesday there was a lot of drama and the most notable game was the game between Salzburg and Luleå.

After losing the first game at home 2-4 Luleå found themselves in great trouble being down 1-4 after the first period in Tuesday's away game making the aggregate score 3-8. But Luleå didn't gave up and with five unanswered goals in twelve minutes they team from northern Sweden managed to tie the game. Luleå took the lead in the third but Thomas Raffl tied it again with a late power play goal but in the end at was Luleå who won the matchup after a deciding penalty shootout. The decisive goal scored my Niclas Fogström.

Another team from northern Sweden, Skellefteå also needed a shootout to move on to the quarter finals. Also here it was a lot of drama when Skellefteå scored two goals with an extra attacker in the last three minutes against JYP. Oskar Sundqvist made it 2-2 at 57:20 and Pär Lindholm made it 3-2 and 7-7 on aggregate with only 18 seconds left to take the game to overtime. Mikko Lehtonen scored the game winner. Notable here was also that JYP had a 5-1 lead in the first game but Skellefteå scored three goals in the third period to keep the game alive.

Linköping qualified for the next round after 4-3 on aggregate vs Sparta Praha. After winning away 2-2 was enough to qualifty. Also here there was a lot of drama with Jacob Micflikier scoring the winning goal with only two seconds left of the game.

For the fourth Swedish team, Frölunda there was less drama after winning 5-1 away Frölunda moved on with a solid 4-2 win at home against Tampere.

Even if Lukko Rauma lost 3-4 at home to TPS in an all finish 1/8-final it was Lukko that went through coming in to second leg with a 5-1 win on a away ice. It was some nerve in the game when TPS took a 2-0 lead but Lukko kept control. Notable is that Ryan Lasch scored 2+2 and Radek Smolenak 2+1 for TPS in the second leg.

HIFK from Helsinki eliminated Swiss team Fribourg-Gotteron with a 5-3 aggregate after winning 3-1 in the second leg. Fribourg had the lead 1-0 and the game winning goal was scored with less than four minutes left to play by Jasse Ikonen before an empty net goal gave HIFK a two goal margin.

Kärpät Oulo won 6-3 against Vienna after wins with 3-1 and 3-2. With a two goal lead from the first game Kärpät was never threatened in the second game.

In Lappeenranta there was a drama when Saipa won against Geneve-Servette after a penalty shootout. Geneve had won the first game in Switzerland 2-0 but today it was Saipa who dominated the game and took the lead 4-1. Notable is that defender Johan Larsson assisted on all four goals. But just as in so many other games there was a late drama when Noah Rod made the aggregate score 4-4 with just 56 seconds left to play. In the shootout Saipa won 2-0.

The quarter finals will be played on December 2nd and 9th.

Linköping HC - Skellefteå AIK
Lukko Rauma - Luleå HF
Kärpät Oulu - SaiPa Lappeenranta
Frölunda - HIFK Helsinki

Tweets by @eurohockey