Luleå wins bronze in European Trophy

18 Dec 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

With a goal with just two seconds remaining of the overtime Luleå beat Linköping in the bronze medal game of the European Trophy. Pardubice beat Plzen in the 5th place game and Frölunda avoided the last spot by beating Mountfield in the 7th place game.

Bronze Medal Game
Luleå Hockey - Linköpings HC 3-2 (OT)
Luleå's veteran defenseman Jan Sandström scored the game-winning goal in the bronze medal game just 2 seconds before the buzzer in the overtime.

"I couldn't even see the puck cross the line, but of course I am really happy when it was a goal", says Sandström to NSD. "We went here to win the tournament, but it is of course great to be third".

Linköping had the lead for a long time. Jan Hlavac made it 1-0 Linköping in the ending of the first period. At three minutes of the second Klas Dahlbäck increased the lead.

luleå's first goal was a power play goal by Simon Hjalmarsson at 29:14. In the 52nd minute a Luleå goal was disallowed after a video review, but just four seconds later Johan Fransson scored the equalizer from the blue line.

Both teams had experienced overtime before in this tournament. Luleå beat Plzen in a shootout in the first game and lost to Jokerit in overtime in the semi final. Linköping lost its semi final against Red Bull Salzburg in a shootout.

I this overtime period both teams had chances to score and Luleå finally did to win the bronze medals.

5th place game
HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice - HC Plzeň 1929 5-3
Pardubice ended up in the fifth place after beating Plzen 5-3. With three goals in five minutes in the second period Pardubice marched from 2-1 to 5-1 and after that the victory was never threatened even if Plzen scored twice in the third period.

7th place game
Frölunda Indians - HC Mountfield České Budějovice 4-2
Frölunda "wins" the seventh place after a comfortable 4-2 win against Mountfield.