Team Canada and Lugano earn their spots to the decisive game

The Spengler Cup has almost finished: today we got to know the names of the two finalists after two games which proved themselves to be opposite in terms of entertainment and pressure. 

The first semi-final, which saw Team Canada facing HC Davos, was a beautiful game full of intensity and goals, which started pretty well for the home team: the Swiss champions scored twice, first with Gregory Sciaroni and then with Sven Ryser, before the coming of a Canadian reply, which was sent to their net by Tom Pyatt. At the end of the first period Davos lost Sciaroni after a bad injury, something which caused the growing anger of head coach Arno Del Curto. Still, Alexandre Picard and Félicien Du Bois managed to put the yellow-and-blues even more in front, leading 4-1. But then, the Canadians, first with Chris DiDomenico and then with Matt Ellison, who scored twice, came back furiously, reaching a temporary draw. Perttu Lindgren put again Davos in front, but again Team Canada managed to score, first with Alexandre Giroux (from Ambrì-Piotta) and then with Cory Conacher, this time killing every residual hope for HCD. Anyways, Davos played a magnificent game, full of passion and ability, and leaves its very own tournament proud and full of honor.

The other match of the day was really the opposite: a weak and tired Yekaterinburg never really entered the ice, and HC Lugano, which has been another team ever since the arrival of Doug Shedden on its bench, managed to play an effective game without any possibility, for the Russians, to reply, also thanks to an awesome Elvis Merzlikins between the goalposts, who earned himself a deserved shutout. Tim Stapleton, Linus Klasen and Damien Brunner scored one goal during each period, with Avtomobilist still unable to exploit the power-plays in its favor. The Ticinesi reach, then, the Spengler Cup final for the first time after 24 years (in fact, they were beaten by CSKA Moscow in 1991), and will face the Canadians (which won the tournament for the last time in 2012) tomorrow, for the game which will decide the ultimate conquest of the cup. 

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