Good morning, hockey fans all around the world! The Champions Hockey League took off with a blast of 14 games on Thursday and what a start that was! We have seen plenty of beautiful goals, including possibly the best one by Marek Troncinsky of Ocelari Tri
Last night Liberec trailed on home ice 4-0 to Kärpät Oulu, then came back to make it a 4-3 final score. Bulir did all he could with a goal and 2 assists, but as he said, showing Kärpät "too much respect" may have cost them at the start.
After yesterday's game in Tampere, the Stavanger Oilers wait in the airport for their flight. Next stop: Trinec.
The Stavanger Oilers had a great start against Tappara, scoring the first three goals but ultimately losing 7-3. On Saturday they face another team with a lot of firepower – Trinec beat Bern 7-0 on Thursday.
One thing to be said about the Oilers, though; they might be the best dressed team in the Champions Hockey League.
One of the big stories of Thursday was Tommy Samuelsson returning to Vienna as head coach of Farjestad Karlstad. His old team didn't welcome him in a very friendly way, scoring 3 goals in the first period en route to a 4-1 win.
Eisbären Berlin hosts PSG Zlín tonight at 19:30 in Group D action. Group D began last night, when Djurgarden Stockholm beat Fribourg-Gottéron 5-4 in overtime. Therefore, if either team wins in regulation tonight they'll be first place after one round.
It's been apparent for quite a while now that Nottingham fans are really excited about their team playing in the Champions Hockey League. We finally get to see how much support they give their team at National Ice Centre tonight against Lukko Rauma.
Group F action starts tonight in Turku, where TPS hosts the CHL's Italian representative, HC Bolzano at 18:30 EET, 17:30 CET. The other game in Group F will be later when Linkoping HC hosts HC Pardubice at 20:05 CET.
"The sun is shining, only a few hours and the season can begin."
JYP Jyväskylä hosts Red Bull Sazburg to open Friday's schedule at 17:30 CET, 18:30 EET. The other two teams in Group I are HV71 Jönköping and the Kloten Flyers, who face off in Sweden later at 20:05 CET.
"The Champions Hockey League at O2 World Hamburg: opening faceoff at 7:30."
The Hamburg Freezers traditionally have a very international roster, so playing against international opponents seems somewhat natural. They open their CHL schedule against Lulea Hockey in Group K action. The other Group K teams start 30 minutes later, Notthingham Panthers – Lukko Rauma.
Good Luck to my old Team @PanthersIHC in the @championshockey starting tonight at the NIC great for the Fans & Players of British Ice Hockey
Marc Twaite played for the Nottingham Panthers from 1990 to 1998. He also played for a few other British teams before retiring in 2002. As for the nickhame "Smurf" he is listed as 178 cm and 80 kg. Is that a smurf?
The first celebration of the year. Hoping it is followed by many more."
Geneve-Servette beat Frolunda Gothenberg 4-3 on home ice on Thursday. They're tied for 1st in Group C along with Villach SV, who won in Briancon. Geneve and Villach face off on Saturday.
We have started today's game plan in Jyväskylä and Turku! Picture from Turku:
And we have an early goal for TPS Turku, Lauri Tukonen opens the scoresheet 1:53 in the game. You can watch livestream, video on demand could be purchased here.
Score has changed early also for JYP against Red Bull Salzburg. 23-year-old forward Mikko Salmio scored unassisted.
Both games in Finland are 2:0 after first period. Radek Smolenak made it 2-0 for TPS Turku and Eric Perrin scored second goal for JYP. Good start for both Finnish teams, clubs from SM-liiga did well also yesterday, when Tappara, Kärpät, SaiPa and Helsinki won their inaugural CHL games, only KalPa lost to Sparta Praha.
Flashback to yesterday. When I saw so few fans in Briancon, there must not be many dissapionted fans after the lost against Villach (1:2)., Fans have just went on strike? – asks a French observer.
Vu le monde en tribune, il ne seront pas nombreux les déçus avec la défaite des @DiablesRouges05... Les supporters étaient en grève ? #CHL
Bolzano Foxes, who are 0:2 in Turku today, achieved their biggest success in the club history this spring. They added a EBEL championships title to their impressive list of 19 golds in Italian Serie A. Club from South Tyrol town had some problems with setting sufficient funding for new season, but eventually they managed to compose competetive squad around Czech goalie Jaroslav Hübl, who has been a cornerstone of their success in EBEL this spring.
Goal for JYP! Penalty shot for JyP, as Petr Hubacek was hooked in a scoring chance. Hubacek's execution of penalty shot was excellent, Czech forward with 5 IIHF world championships participations made it 3:0 for Jyväskylä.
Eisbären Berlin hosts Czech champion PSG Zlin today. Petr Leska of Zlin is going to wear Cramo Top Scorer jersey as the most productive player of his team while T.J. Mulock sports the prominent shirt for home team.
V červeném dresu "TOP SCORER" pro nejproduktivnějšího hráče nastoupí v zápase proti Berlínu Petr Leška. #CHL#PSGZlin
Sointu scored shorthanded goal for TPS and this seemed to put Bolzano Foxes really down. Lucenius added fourth within a minute and Koskiranta made it 5:0 after another 36 seconds.
Young Rasmus Kulmala made it 6:0 for TPS. He was a part of the gold-winning Finnish World Junior Championships team in 2014.
Notthingham Panthers fans are eager to start in the CHL. But some of them seems to be already quite scared watching the progress of today's games.
Tell you what. If Rauma put as much into their @championshockey opener as Turku & JYP are doing, it could be a cracking night in Nottingham.
Thomas Raffl, who wears Cramo Top Scorer jersey tonight for Red Bull Salzburg, scores first goal of his team. Raffl played for Team Austria at Sochi Olympics in February with his brother Michael (Philadelphia Flyers). Both are great pride of their father Peter Raffl, who played for Austria at Olympics '84 and '88. Peter, who spent his whole career at Villach, retired in 1998.
Second intermission in Jyväskylä and it's been already 8:0 for home team. Read the scoring list here – only Tero Koskiranta managed to score twice in this easy game for JYP.
As there is no live hockey action at the moment in the CHL, you have a minute or two to read interesting blogspot from british ice hockey fan, who already credited CHL as a really worth to watch. "The CHL is European hockey at its very best. And for that reason alone, it deserves to be watched."
Hamburg – Luleå and Eisbären – Zlín started. Both games are played in O2 world arena, but of course not the same. Arenas in Hamburg and Berlin bears the same corporate sponsor name. Picture from Berlin.
And both German teams are down 0:1 after a short time. PSG Zlin took the lead in Berlin with a goal by Petr Leska, Luleå's Lucas Walmark poked the puch behind the Dmitri Kotschenew, who is the starting goalie for Hamburg.
Hamburg really are up against it as they have endured a nightmare start! Daniel Larsson in the Lulea net has had nothing to do as yet, while his team-mate Per Ledin made it 2:0 for his team. Daniel Zaar assisted on both goals.
We're going to have close finish in Jyväskylä, Salzburg come to 3:2 after a rebound by Brian Fahey at 58:15.
Salzburg was really close to equalizer, but did nit succeed. Hughes had an empty net in front of him but the puck slides away in the final moment. JYP Jyväskylä – Red Bull Salzburg 3:2 final score, game report here.
Game is over also in Turku, where TPS destroyed Bolzano 9:0, mostly due to a strong second period which saw them score six times. Lassila with the shutout for TPS. Read the game report here.
Lukko Rauma got an early 2:0 lead in Notthingam, Koivisto and Lahti scores for Finnish team. You can watch the game here
Luleå Hockey freezed Hamburg Freezers with four goals in the first period. 20-years-old Daniel Zaar has a three assists so far in his first game for Lulea. Zaar played in Rögle in 2nd division Allsvenskan last season and is taking his opportunity to step up pretty well.
All participants of this season's CHL are in, games in Sweden started. Puck has been dropped in Jönköping, where is the home arena of HV71 in their game with Kloten and in Linköping where home team hosts Pardubice. We will try not to confuse these two Swedish sides too often during the night.
Erik Christensen opens the score for HV71 and Mattias Sjögren for Linköping.
It's a great moment for british ice hockey but Panthers will have a tough job against Lukko Rauma. Swedish side leads 2:0 after first period. Lukko have been largely in control of play, although the Panthers started to come into the opening frame as it progressed.
Some post game comments for TPS Turku – Bolzano Foxes game (9:0):
Tom Pokel, Bolzano: We were playing against a very good team. The 2nd period....we maybe got too excited, took too many penalties. They ate us up. We practiced penalty killing only today. I just asked the guys to play with pride in the third period and I think they did. Can't be too disappointed.
Kai Suikkanen, TPS: They had many chances in first period but we were the ones who scored. After 3-0 it was our game. It was done, I think they ran out of gas. We gave the young guys ice time in the 3rd period
Eisbären Berlin – PSG Zlin 2:3 after second period. Czechs are missing their captain Petr Cajanek, but it doesn't seem to hurt them a lot. Leska, Vesely and Okal scored for guests, Bell and Braun for Eisbären. Zlin goalie Petr Horcicka pictured during the save.
But this long powerplay hasn't been capitalized. HV71 – Kloten Flyers still 1:1.
Did you know that HV71 stands for Husqvarna IF and Vätterstads IK? Their merger on May 24, 1971 founded the current club
And there were two consecutive penalties for Kloten in a short time, which made two-men-advantage for HV71. Erik Christensen scores his second goal of the night for HV71, 2-1.
Berlin – Zlin tied 3:3. T.J. Mulock scores the equalizing goal after a rebound for the Eisbären Berlin in 42th minute.
Lulea still leads 4:1 in hamburg, but the home side's pressure is seriously mounting! A heavy slapper from distance looks to have been deflected in, but with Hamburg's fans already on their feet the referees signal no goal! A Lulea defenceman got back to hack it off the line in time!
Hamburg – Lulea game is watched even in Brazil!
Watch Hamburg Freezers vs Lulea for recommendation followers @championshockey beautiful fans in Hamburg, very cool watch is in Brazil.
It's been a 8 saves in the penalty shootout in Berlin until the first scorer has been successfull, Petr Leska of Zlin. And then another five goals in a row! Thrilling shootout!
8th round of penalties decided that PSG Zlin won the game! Bedrich Köhler was the eventual scorer for Zlin while Matt Foy has been stopped by Petr Horcicka in his last attempt. 4:3 for Czech champion!
Meanwhile, Ahtola and Gagnon made it 4:2 for Lulea in Notthingham.
20 years old Patrik Zdrahal of HC Vitkovice scored twice yesterday, another youngster Vincent Praplan of Kloten noted his second goal (and what a beautiful one!) tonight, but he his team is still trailing 2:3 in Jönköping. Praplan has appeared only in 5 NLA games for Kloten before joining OHL's North Bay Battalion for last season, but is back to Kloten. It's good to see talented players having good portion of icetime from the very beginning.
Kloten tried to pull the goalie but, with no luck, 3:2 for HV71, final score. See the game report here
And game is over also in Notthingham. Panthers were hoping for some points for a quite long time, but Lukko Rauma stopped their hopes in the third period. But overall, Panthers should be happy with their performance and "should hold their heads high", as one fan states.
Only game still in play is Linköping – Pardubice, which has been delayed due to traffic jam, which caused Pardubice's travels lasted more than expected. 2:1 at the moment with three minutes to go in the third period. Will Pardubice create a solid traffic jam in the Högberg's crease to equalize?
Tomas Halasz, goalie of HC Pardubice, is on the bench.
6127 spectators watched the game in which Linköping HC defeated HC Pardubice 2:1. Sjögren and Little scored for home team, while Tybor noted the lone goal for Pardubice.
Photo from press conference after exciting game between Eisbären Berlin – PSG Zlín.
It's over for tonight, all 44 teams finished their jobs in the Gameday One of Champions Hockey League 2014/15.
How did you like the games? Let us know and tweet your opinion with #chl hashtag. We wish you a good night for today, but tomorrow be ready at 16:00 when Tappara hosts SC Bern. You can see the full schedule here.
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All times are CEST (UTC + 2)
17:30 JYP Jyväskylä – EC Red Bull Salzburg
17:30 TPS Turku – HC Bolzano
19:30 Hamburg Freezers – Luleå Hockey
19:30 Eisbären Berlin – PSG Zlín
20:00 Nottingham Panthers – Lukko Rauma
20:05 HV71 – EHC Kloten Flyers
20:05 Linköpings HC – HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice
All times are CET.
17:30 JYP Jyväskylä – Red Bull Salzburg
17:30 TPS Turku – HC Bolzano
19:30 Hamburg Freezers – Luleå Hockey
19:30 Eisbären Berlin – PSG Zlín
20:00 Nottingham Panthers – Lukko Rauma
20:05 HV71 Jönköping – Kloten Flyers
20:05 Linköping HC – HC Pardubice
One thing to be said about the Oilers, though; they might be the best dressed team in the Champions Hockey League.
The Hamburg Freezers traditionally have a very international roster, so playing against international opponents seems somewhat natural. They open their CHL schedule against Lulea Hockey in Group K action. The other Group K teams start 30 minutes later, Notthingham Panthers – Lukko Rauma.
Watch both games live here
Tom Pokel, Bolzano: We were playing against a very good team. The 2nd period....we maybe got too excited, took too many penalties. They ate us up. We practiced penalty killing only today. I just asked the guys to play with pride in the third period and I think they did. Can't be too disappointed.
Kai Suikkanen, TPS: They had many chances in first period but we were the ones who scored. After 3-0 it was our game. It was done, I think they ran out of gas. We gave the young guys ice time in the 3rd period
Did you know that HV71 stands for Husqvarna IF and Vätterstads IK? Their merger on May 24, 1971 founded the current club
Game report here
See the game report here
How did you like the games? Let us know and tweet your opinion with #chl hashtag. We wish you a good night for today, but tomorrow be ready at 16:00 when Tappara hosts SC Bern. You can see the full schedule here.