The end of Danish Dynasty

Three titles in a row, six in the last 10 years. That is the impressive success story of SonderjyskE Vojens. And for a long time this season it looked like a 7^th title could be added as they won the regular season ahead of Frederikshavn. But for both teams the end of the playoff run came tonight.

Vojens's fall from grace began early on in the best-of-7 series, when Esbjerg won game 1 in Vojens in a dramatic game that saw Esbjerg pull away to a 5-1, just to have SonderjyskE close the gap to 5-4 with seconds to go before Esbjerg added an empty net goal. Afterwards both team kept winning there home games resulting in a 3-1 series lead for the eastern Danish club.

They could not close the series in the next two matches though. Game 6 seemed to mark a turning point since Vojens defeated Esbjerg in their own arena with an overtime winner by Corey Quirk at the 72:12 mark to tie the series and force game 7 at home.

But tonight Esbjerg was more efficient and scored three goals in the first two periods through Esben Nielsen, Mario Lamoureux and Tyler Gron. Darcy Zajac gave back hope to the champions when he scored the first for Vojens 5 minutes into the last period, but goalie Jeff Frazee could keep it at that and Wade Bergmann added the empty netter to make it official. Esbjerg advances to the finals and will meet another team, that managed to upset the favourite.

Herning Blue Fox beat Frederikshavn

Herning's season came a long way. Early on they found themselves down at the bottom of the standings and somehow got their rhythm and started fighting their way up. In the end that got them into 4^th place after the regular season was finished, just enough to secure home ice in the first round and avoid being picked as the opponent of a better team.

In Herning's quarterfinal series against Odense they learned to fight elimination when being down 2-3, a lesson they could apply again in the semi-finals. As the first 6 games all went to the home team, the Blue Fox were down again by 2-3 after game 5. At home Kristoffer Lauridsen and Jerred Smithson secured the 2-0 shutout win with the help of goalie Simon Nielsen.

Tonight in game 7 Tomas Sinisalo got Herning ahead after only 15 seconds, but at the end of the period Mathias Bau Hansen, Denmark's playoff topscorer, evened the game for Frederikshavn. Late in the second period Jordan George regained the lead for Herning and Smithson put the last nail in the coffin for the White Hawks midway through the last period.

Herning was the last champion before Vojens began its reign in 2012, so maybe they will look to start a dynasty of their own again.

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