A Trip To Norway Part 2 - Manglerud Stars

I hadn’t planned on visiting Manglerud on this trip. Originally Stohamar’s game with Ringerike was supposed to take place on this day (Sunday), but due to their success in the Champions Hockey League they were back in action on Tuesday, so their GET-Ligaen clash had to be moved forward 24 hours. That meant missing the game Between Frisk Asker and Valerenga and a spare Sunday. Thankfully a quick check of the schedule meant I could take in a game in the Oslo region as the Manglerud Stars were hosting Stjernan Fredrikstad.

Manglerud is located in the South East Suburbs of Oslo and are a much smaller side than their cross-city rivals Valerenga. The Manglerudhallen arena is very similar to the Billingham Forum in the UK, with spectator seating on one side and the team benches on the opposite side of the rink.

Coming into the game both sides were struggling towards the bottom of the standings, but it didn’t show in their play. With the Stars on the powerplay, they got the opening goal at 7:19 when a clever move saw the puck dropped back to the onrushing Christer Simonsen to score. Just over a minute later that lead was nearly doubled, however the shot struck a post rather than the net.

The home side did increase their lead at 12:43 though when (50 Steffen Ratejczak or 26 Magnus Henriksen??) bundled the puck home into an almost empty net. Still the Stars were not done, and sensing their opponents were on the ropes, went in for the kill. Fredrik Jorgensen’s lightning pace down the right wing saw him advance with the puck before centering to Mats Henriksen on a breakaway. However, Stjernan goalie Sander Berg saved the shot. With ten seconds to go in the opening session, Steffen Ratejczak danced around a Stjernan defenseman, before collecting his own pass, and attempted to walk the puck home into the net but was denied once again by Berg.

With Mats Henriksen called for hooking just before the end of the first period, it meant Manglerud would start the second on the penalty kill. That invited Stjernan to try and reduce the two-goal deficit whilst having the man advantage but instead it all went horribly wrong for the visitors.

A great pass from Manglerud’s Steffen Ratejczak to pick out Michael Stenersen, after he had tied a Stjernan defenseman in knots with his puck handling skills, led to a laser of a shot from Stenersen who beat Berg for a shorthanded strike. It was a brilliantly well-worked goal, on a breakaway which had the fans out of their seats.

Just 30 seconds later and Manglerud repeated the trick with another breakaway. This time it was Ratejczak, who got the goal after he went five-hole on the hapless Berg in the Stjernan net.

Stjernan now found themselves 4-0 down but at 24:18 had a great chance to get themselves back into the contest when they were gifted a 5-on-3 powerplay but failed to convert on it. With the penalties now elapsed, Manglerud wet back on the offensive. Jesper Hoel’s slapshot type pass to Michael Stenersen saw the latter one time a shot on goal, but he watched as Berg saved his effort.

The visitors were far from giving up though, and they sensed a way back into he game was for the taking. Just after the midway point of the game Mikael Mikalsen’s rink wide pass to David Hallstrom out on the left wing, created a great flowing move as they opened up the home side’s defense, then seconds later Mikalsen found himself 1-on-1 with the Star’s, Kris Joyce but, the goalie didn’t move off his line, standing up the shooter, Mikalsen who had nowhere else to go but slide into the goal, and taking net off.

For Manglerud, two early shorthanded goals had almost made the game safe for them, however the remainder of the period became a war of possession.

Stjernan now had just twenty minutes to try and salvage something from the game and at 48:52 they got themselves on the scoresheet. Peter Lindblad’s deflected shot, looped over Joyce, to deny his shut out.

That goal seemed to boost Stjernan as they looked re-energized on their next few plays, but all their hard-work seemingly was undone at 52:14. An attempted clearance by a Stjernan defenseman was deflected and the puck sat invitingly in the slot for Joachim Hermansen to fire home.

A minute later and the visitors had got to within three goals of their hosts again. Joacim Sundelius found a loose puck in front of Joyce, and calmly took it around the goalie before slotting home into what was an empty net.

For those not keeping count the score was now 5-2. Manglerud realised they had to try and put this game to bed and with little over five minutes remaining Mathias Trygg attempted a one-timer from the left wing whilst his side were on a powerplay. However, his shot didn’t beat Berg in the Stjernan goal.

Still the visiting side pushed for more goals and with 52 seconds left they got their reward. Latvian defenseman Maksims Ponomarenko fired into an empty net from a left-wing position after Joyce had made an initial save from Hanson,  (2^nd asst Hampus Gustafsson).

Surprisingly Stjernan didn’t bother to pull their goalie for the extra attacker, and instead it was Manglerud who went closest to scoring in the final few seconds. Per Kristian Person darted down the right wing, before cutting inside, and unleashing a shot, which was saved by Berg. But instead of agonising over his failed attempt he was straight back down the other end of the ice, back-checking well to strip Hampus Gustafsson off the puck in the slot. That was no mean feat at the end of a shift and when that player carrying the puck was the golden helmet-wearing Swedish center.

So, another home win (5-3) and an entertaining game of hockey. Thank you Manglerud.

From Manglerud Stars Website: http://www.mshockey.no/artikkel/3324/MS-Stjernen-5-3

Box Score: https://www.hockey.no/live/Live/Match/6877093

Shots 25-25 (9-5, 15-16, 1-4)

 

 

A Trip To Norway - Storhamar

So why Storhamar? That was the question posed to me several times when I told people I was heading off to Norway to watch hockey. Indeed, it was a good question because it’s one without a simple answer.

My first recollection of Storhamar was from the old European Cup in 1996, when British Champs the Sheffield Steelers, were drawn with them in the same group along with HPK of Finland and Polymir Novopolotsk of Belarus. The tournament took place in the Finnish town of Hameenlinna and was memorable for the Steelers advancing further than any British team had gone before. There were also a brace of goals from current Whitley Warriors player/coach, and former GB captain, David Longstaff, whose first would go down as the greatest goal of his career. Collecting his own pass around the outside of a defenseman he unleashed a one-timer into the net to spark jubilation on the Sheffield bench.  This was around the time the Steelers had a ridiculously good side, with the likes of two-time Stanley Cup winner Ken Priestley leading the team along with GB legend Tony Hand.

Having taken a good lead, the Steelers then went on to lose 7-5 to a spirited Storhamar side, in what was a fiery encounter. Later that evening there were even reports the two sides were involved in a nightclub brawl as passions continued to spill over, off the ice.

For Storhamar though, that was as good as it got for that European campaign. A 1-1 draw with Polymir followed by a defeat to the host team saw the Norwegian champions finish third in the group and fail to advance any further.

However, domestically Storhamar continued to dominate. By 1997 they had won three straight playoff championships with further titles arriving in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Since then they have been frustrated as they watched their rivals, Stavanger Oilers dominate. The West Coast side winning seven titles over eight years including six in a row between 2012-17. But then last year the team from Hamar put a stop to that, winning their first championship in a decade and the seventh in their history.

Putting an end to the Oilers dominance was great to see and coincided with a time when I was really starting to follow the team, albeit from across the North Sea. Since claiming the championship earlier this year, Storhamar have gone from strength to strength. Club legend Patrick Thoresen returned after his stint in Russia with SKA Saint Petersburg and the side shocked the hockey world by qualifying from a tough group in the Champions Hockey League.

After a shoot-out win over Tappara of Finland and a shoot-out loss to Djurgardens of Sweden on home ice, Storhamar then faced a tough prospect on the road. With successive losses (6-1 in Tampere and 5-2 in Stockholm) things were not looking promising for the Norwegian Champions. But then all that changed in the final week of group games.  A trip to the Czech Republic, saw a narrow 3-2 win over Ocelari Trinec while a week later a resounding 6-2 success over the same opponents on home ice meant they would finish the group stage on 9 points. With Tappara recording back-to-back wins over Djurgardens the Swedish side could only finish with 8 points and therefore Storhamar had registered a historic achievement, qualifying at the expense of their much more illustrious Nordic rivals.

So with memories of 1996, and Storhamar enjoying a fairy tale 2018 having been crowned domestic champions and enjoying such a successful European adventure, there were plenty of reasons for supporting such a great team.

I contacted the club a few months back regarding the availability of tickets, as I figured it would be difficult to get into the CC Amfi arena to watch the Norgemester. Their reply took me completely by surprise though.

I was invited to be a VIP guest of the club and was made to feel very welcome by an outstanding and classy organisation. My seat was in the sponsor and media section and during a first period break in play I was introduced via the TV screen above center ice to the Storhamar fans as a visiting fan from the UK, to which I was afforded a very humbling round of applause. It was a special moment for sure and something that I will always remember.

The game started off at a frantic pace with the home side taking an early lead through Patrick Thoresen just 22 seconds into the contest when he shot from the blue line following a faceoff.

That lead was then doubled at 5:23 when Martin Ronnild found the net having slipped the pack passed the Panthers goalie.

At this stage it looked as though Storhamer were going to run away with the game as their passing was too quick for the visiting Ringerike Panthers to keep up with.

However, the Panthers got a foothold in the game at 13:40 when Max Pettersson fired a long range shot from the blue line which clipped the underside of the bar and went in. It was disappointing to see Storhamar give up a goal, but it was an impressive shot all the same.

That super-strike seemed to give Ringerike confidence and they duly tied it just over a minute later when Jonas Moen finished off a swift passing move that saw him beat two Storhamar defensemen to tie it.

Storhamar needed a wake-up call. They had begun the period brilliantly but had started to coast mid-way which allowed the visitors back into the contest. However, they were able to take back control during the final five minutes of the session.

At 15:36 Storhamar had regained the lead, when Joakim Jensen deked Ringerike goalie Vestavik twice before beating him on the near side of the goal. The Panthers used that opportunity to change goalies, Vestavik getting pulled and Kallio coming on in relief.

Storhamar certainly decided to increase the pressure before the first intermission, going close to scoring twice more. Mikael Zettergren hit the bottom of the post on the short side while a minute later Joakim Jensen attempted to finish off a lovely move, where he collected the puck, following a series of swift passes, and then almost walked the puck into the net at the far post.

The first period ended 3-2 to Storhamar, a scoreline that perhaps flattered the visitors, and had it not been for that mid-period lapse the home side would have been well in control by now, having outshot the Panthers 19-7!

The second session was a terribly weak period, with only a blocked shot registered in the first five minutes. That slow start was punished when Ringerike tied the game for second time. Petter Elefson’s goal might have come against the run of play but it showed if Storhamar switched off for a second, then the Panthers would capitalise on it.

Within four minutes Storhamar had a great chance to re-take their lead when they were awarded a penalty shot. However, Kjetil Martinsen couldn’t beat Kallio who was proving to be much more difficult to beat between the pipes.

Once again Ringerike had rode out the storm and gained confidence in not falling back behind. In fact, 30 seconds later, they could have had a lead of their own. A fast break saw them straight down the other end of the ice, but a great save by Storhamar goalie, Jonas Strand saw the deflected shot just go wide.

Despite being a difficult twenty minutes, the home side would still go into the third period with a lead. With 27.2 seconds left in the period Panther’s goalie Kallio hesitated on a Storhamar breakaway, and Robin Dahlstrom scored.

Period Shots 9-4

The third period saw neither side want to make any more errors as it would cost them the game. It was certainly a bit flat in comparison to the first period, with no more goals scored but Storhamar were certainly looking to try and extend their lead and avoid any late pressure from the Panthers.

Irving shot from distance, but a kick save off Kallio’s pads denied him. A minute later, Zettergren made a lovely move around two Ringerike defensemen then tried to fire over the goalie, but Kallio saved once again. Soon after that Jensen slipped a wonderful pass to Larrivee in a great position, but the puck came off the back of his skates when entering the slot.

Perhaps the home side’s best opportunity to extend their lead fell at 55:40 when some great passing between Patrick Thoresen and Victor Svensson around the crease created two great goal scoring chances.

Those chances arrived despite being shorthanded, and it felt like Storhamar were just playing with Ringerike, pulling them out of position with their fantastic passing before punishing them on net.

Storhamar probably were playing within themselves on Saturday. They certainly didn’t hit top gear during the game, but maybe they were keeping themselves for Tuesday’s CHL encounter with Skelleftea, and who can blame them if that was the case. The most important thing was getting the win and the points that went with it, keeping the reigning champions at the top of the standings.

For me, it was a pleasure and a privilege to visit Hamar and the CC Amfi arena and be welcomed so warmly by the club. I certainly hope to be back in the, not too distant future.

Stats

Man of the Match

#48 Markus Aas-Eng Mikkelsen - Storhamar

#28 Max Pettersson – Ringerike

Shots 36-17 (19-7, 9-4, 8-6)

Storhamar Line Up

Ringerike Panthers

86 Eivind Andresen - 12 Even Fosse – 23 Jonas Moen

72 Michael Soderberg (SWE) - 14 Jorgen Langdalen - 91 Nikolai Dalen

78 Anders Henriksen - 92 Kristoffer Melin (SWE) – 15 Marius Hansen

9 Dustin Parks (CAN) – 11 Miakel Hansson (SWE) - 20 Petter Ellefsen

 

17 Tobias Skaarberg - 16 Jonas Vestman (SWE)

47 Nils Fuglesang - 28 Maximilian Petterson

19 Kristian Kristensen - 60 Andreas Engblom (SWE)

26 Andreas Adolfsen

Goalies - 70 Henrik Vestavik – 30 Johan Kallio (SWE)

KHL - 2017-18 Review - Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

Torpedo had a good season. The team, of course, had some low points, but there were no doubts that it would reach the playoffs. Peteris Skudra showed that he has the ability to build a good locker room, with which he can reach good achievements. Unfortunately for their fans, though, they couldn’t run past Lokomotiv in the Gagarin Cup playoffs’ first round. Torpedo was swept by the opposition and Skudra left the team.
The story of the season
The Nizhny Novgorod team started the season with an away trip. A result of seven points out of the possible maximum of twelve in the Khanty-Mansiysk – Omsk – Novosibirsk – Astana itinerary is indeed good. But after this promising start, a few misfires didn’t allow the team to have a truly successful first part of the season. The best game of the period was the home win (3:0) against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, where Torpedo did not leave any chance to the team then coached by Alexei Kudashov. The home team was better in any part of the game. This slightly reduced the pressure on the team’s results. The team then won three straight games and got into the playoffs zone.
But during the fall the team didn’t have any long winning streak. The team tried to get the best in each of their games, but there were also some misfires. For example, in Minsk, the team coached by Gordie Dwyer had a huge win against Torpedo (5:1). Then, Torpedo lost another four games and left the playoffs zone, until the streak was broken in Moscow, when they defeated Dynamo (1:0) with a shootout win. Unfortunately for the team, the next games were lost again, against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (1:4) and SKA St. Petersburg (4-5 SO).

This way, the win in Kazan against Ak Bars was even more important. It was a hard game, with not many scoring chances and three fundamental points for Torpedo (2:1). In November, Torpedo had five wins in six games and the October bad results were a thing of the past. The Nizhny Novgorod team got to the playoffs as the fifth seed and had to face Lokomotiv in the first round.
Maybe in a few years the fans will think that it was an easy win for Lokomotiv, considering the final score, but it would be a huge mistake. All the games ended with just one goal of difference and, moreover, at both games played at the Arena 2000 in Yaroslavl, Torpedo actually scored first. And if in the first game the hosts managed to turn the game around (2:1) still in the middle of the game, the next day Lokomotiv had to battle hard to avoid going to an uncomfortable overtime. Petri Kontiola gifted his team a win just 100 seconds to the horn.
In Nizhny Novgorod the fans saw more goals and both games ended up at the overtime, where the guests had a bit more luck. This was in particular true for the fourth game, when during the overtime Torpedo had several good scoring chances. Skudra’s team could well get the series back to Nizhny Novgorod, but they run out of luck.
That game was the last for Peteris Skudra at the helm of the team. After five years of work with the team, the Latvian coach left Nizhny Novgorod. The team changed also the boards, not only the coaching staff. Yan Golubovsky will be the team’s new general manager.

Coach

Peteris Skudra spent five consecutive seasons at the helm of Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. As usual, he changed a lot of the roster during the summer pause, had a very hard preseason and got his team to the playoffs. The fans had a chance to watch the usual Peteris Skudra: very emotional and always eager to win more games. The coach managed to fulfill the minimum goal for the season, but there were more expectations for the Gagarin Cup playoffs.
For some time, it wasn’t clear whether Skudra was going to leave Torpedo. But now, it’s a fact. He will be replaced by David Nemirovsky.
Best game On November 24, Torpedo got to a city where winning a game is traditionally very hard for away teams. This is about Magnitogorsk. Moreover, Torpedo wasn’t in their best streak, without speaking about the difficulty of facing Sergei Mozyakin and company. But the Nizhny Novgorod team managed to show the opponents their best hockey. The home team didn’t create many chances to beat the goalie Ivan Lisutin, while Torpedo capitalized their chances and the goals by Ivan Zakharchuk and Vladimir Galuzin gave three deserved points to Skudra’s squad.
Worst game On October 9, Nizhny Novgorod was visited by the future Gagarin Cup champions: Ak Bars Kazan. During the last season, the teams faced four times, and this was the first game of this series. A packed arena in Nizhny Novgorod witnessed an easy win for the away team. Torpedo could not do much, while Vladimir Tkachyov, on the other hand, was unstoppable. He added two helpers of a hat-trick, becoming the main hero of Ak Bars’ huge win.

Discover Stanislav Galimov managed to revitalize his career in Nizhny Novgorod. After an unlucky period in Kazan, the goalie’s career seen a new peak. His great year was noticed by both fans and experts. The KHL awarded him with goalie of the month honors in September. And most importantly, playing for Torpedo Stanislav managed to make a big jump forward and become the team’s starting goalie. The goalie definitely didn’t fail in his efforts. In 39 regular season games, he had very good stats with a saves percentage of .917 and posting a goals-against average of 2.13.
Disappointment In Nizhny Novgorod, there were big expectations from Ziga Jeglic. The Slovenian national got to Torpedo during the summer, but he didn’t manage to become a leader for the team. Jeglic had just four assists in fifteen games, without scoring any goal. He was a shadow of himself, and Skudra decided to move on and release him still during the season.

Top scorers

Regular season: Yegor Dugin – 29 (12+17), Kaspars Daugavins – 27 (11+16)
Playoffs: Yury Sergiyenko – 4 (2+2), Kaspars Daugavins – 2 (0+2)

KHL - 2017-18 Review - Metallurg Magnitogorsk

Magnitka didn’t manage to repeat last year’s achievements and was eliminated at the second round of the playoffs. What prevented the Ural team from performing better?
Metallurg’s roster significantly changed from last season’s lineup. A number of defensemen, including Chris Lee (who then returned during the season) and forward Danis Zaripov left the team. The departure of the veteran winger wasn’t just a loss, it was a true challenge for Magnitka.
The team had significant problems during the Fall, that caused the firing of the head coach Ilya Vorobyov. Metallurg didn’t seek an external replacement and gave the team to Viktor Kozlov. The Ural team managed to make it to the postseason, but they didn’t manage to go through the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Story of the Season
The Gagarin Cup current runners-up didn’t have a good August and September. Metallurg had pretty much as many wins as losses. But the most important thing is that the Urals team lost to Ak Bars, Lokomotiv, Salavat Yulaev, SKA, and Traktor – all teams who aspire to a high place in the KHL standings. Among the few positive moments, a win against Barys (3:2 SO) can be noticed. In October it looked like Metallurg could improve the situation. The team won five games out of six, but then they stumbled again as they lost 2:7 against CSKA. Unfortunately for the team, that defeat started yet another losing streak. On November 2, Magnitka lost against Lada at home (1:3) and after that game, it was announced that Ilya Vorobyov was released from his duties as Metallurg head coach. The boards entrusted Viktor Kozlov as a new head coach, but that wasn’t the only announced change – Metallurg’s lineup was enriched by a few players who left the team in the 2017 offseason. More precisely, Chris Lee, Alexei Bereglazov and Wojtek Wolski. This latter suffered from a serious injury last year, had a great start of the season with Kunlun Red Star and once again wore Metallurg jersey.



These changes allowed the Urals team to be more consistent as they started defeating the leaders. CSKA was defeated in Moscow (4:1), while Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was beaten at home (4:1). The two wins against Jokerit Helsinki (2:1 SO, 2:1 OT) were also worthy of a mention. All this gave the team more confidence, but the team didn’t avoid the occasional slump. As a result, Metallurg Magnitogorsk finished the regular season as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, having to face Vladimir Krikunov’s Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in the playoffs first round.
Many experts named this series as the most uncertain of the whole first round, but the bigger experience of the Metallurg players played a key role in the contest. Metallurg looked better than the opposition, playing very well with the special teams and deservedly winning the series (4-2). Even Krikunov praised Metallurg’s special teams after the series. The coach declared that Metallurg continuously changed the way they were playing on the powerplay and his team had a very hard time in getting used to their style.
But in the next round, Metallurg didn’t manage to stop the next Gagarin Cup champions. The team led by Kozlov won the first game (4:3 OT), but then suffered from four consecutive defeats, finishing their season. Most likely, Metallurg needs a rebuild. The team already lost a great line when Zaripov left the team, and now they will also need to find a replacement for the Czech center Jan Kovar.


Coach
It was the first time that Viktor Kozlov was a head coach. Kozlov had to deal with many problems and huge expectations from the fans. He managed to give the team a good guide, but could not defeat Ak Bars in the playoffs. It’s hard to evaluate Kozlov’s job, since he got the team midway through the season.
It’s already known that the new Metallurg Magnitogorsk head coach will be Jozef Jandac. This, however, doesn’t mean that Kozlov’s history with Magnitogorsk is over. He’ll stay with the team as an assistant coach and will have another chance of becoming the head coach again in a couple of years.
Best Game
On October 21 Metallurg got to Moscow to face CSKA. The Red Army was the second team in the overall standings and was starting to think about the playoffs already, while Magnitogorsk just started their battle to get to the playoffs. CSKA started the game very well, since Kirill Petrov scored already at the sixth minute, while Magnitka couldn’t find a solution against the home team’s defense. However, midway through the game Wojtek Wolski tied the game up, and then it was all Metallurg. The Urals team played a tactically perfect game and deservedly won the contest.
Worst Game
Oddly enough, Metallurg played against CSKA also its worst game. The Red Army got to Magnitogorsk on October 18 and the fans were eagerly waiting for the battle between the Gagarin Cup runners-up and one of the top contenders for this year’s title. But the game wasn’t really a battle. Vasily Koshechkin allowed a couple of early goals and was replaced by Ilya Samsonov, who allowed five goals to the opposition. All of the seven CSKA goals were scored by different players.
Discover
It’s hard to call the discover of the season one of the most experienced foreign players in the KHL. As you probably have already understood, we’re talking about Matt Ellison. In 55 games, he scored 45 (20+25) points, even surpassing Sergei Mozyakin in the top-scorers standings of the regular season. Why are we talking about him? Many fans weren’t sure about Ellison, but with his strong game he confirmed to be a high-level player and that wherever he plays, his hockey is always great.

Disappointment

Anton Shenfeld got back to Magnitogorsk from Togliatti to take a step forward in his career. 37 games, seven (2+5) points – this is definitely not what the expectations were for Lada’s leader. Just in one season, Shenfeld’s production fell by almost five times. Naturally, he didn’t become a leader.

Top scorers

Regular season: Matt Ellison – 45 (20+25), Sergei Mozyakin – 42 (19+23)
Playoffs: Sergei Mozyakin – 12 (4+8), Wojtek Wolski – 11 (5+6)

KHL - 2017-18 Review - Jokerit

During the tenth Kontintental Hockey League season Jokerit celebrated its 50^th birthday. During the whole season several events were organized to celebrate such an impressive achievement. The culmination of the celebrations was the first KHL regular season game on open air. The results of the Finnish team were good on ice too as Jokerit ended on the third place in the Western Conference behind CSKA and SKA.


The story of the season
The Helsinki team had a very thoroughly preparation towards the 2017/2018 season. The previous campaign wasn’t the best for the Jokers as they got to the playoffs only as the eighth seed and lost 0-4 against CSKA Moscow in the first round, thus they needed to improve. A serious motivation boost was of course the 50^th birthday of the team, to be celebrated in 2017 Winter, but a few off-ice events can’t make up for a good result on ice, thus they needed to show their worth on the rink.
The Helsinki team started with a few swing, but then the team led by Jukka Jalonen had an amazing streak of 15 wins on a row, with only one of them being an OT win. During the six-weeks streak, the Finns managed to defeat CSKA 4:0 and also to get the best out of the top teams of the Eastern Conference, Salavat Yulaev Ufa and Ak Bars Kazan. The Jokers’ triumphal parade was stopped by their closest neighbors, SKA St. Petersburg, who also were in the middle of a great streak, perhaps even more impressing.


Later in November, Jokerit had another great streak with seven games in eight games, three of them without allowing any goal. By the way, shutouts need to be mentioned apart. The regular season leader for shutout games was Jokerit goalie Ryan Zapolski. This was the second season in the KHL for the 31-years-old American netminder, by far the best one. Ryan had nine shutouts, was named once the best goalie of the month (and another twice the best goalie of the week) and was called to the All-Star Game. The first half of the season was very successful for the Jokers, even if counting the little swing they had in late October. One of the biggest reasons for their success was the great acquisitions during the summer. The Helsinki-based team signed one of the top-scoring defensemen in the league, Sami Lepisto, from Salavat Yulaev Ufa, the Danish national Nicklas Jensen from North America, who scored 20 goals during the regular season, and the successful teenager Eeli Tolvanen, a Finn starlet with a great shot and an even better nose for the net.
However, Jokerit didn’t manage to play the whole season at the same high level. In the second half of the season, the team led by Jalonen relaxed a bit too much and, as a result, before March 1 they lost two games in a row for three times. This problem, however, didn’t have any significant effect on the standings, as the difference in points within the Western Conference was so big that the team never left the third place, saving itself from meeting SKA St. Petersburg in the second round.
In the first round, Jokerit faced HC Sochi, and the first game was won by the team led by Sergei Zubov. But in the rest of the series, the Finns didn’t give any chance to their opponents, defeating them twice with a 7:2 score and winning two games with an overtime. Jalonen’s main weapon was Tolvanen, who scored five goals in five games. In the next round the Finnish team faced CSKA Moscow, but they couldn’t defeat the Red Army. The first two games were won by CSKA with a general 6:0 score, but then Jokerit proved wrong the ones who already thought that they were going to surrender. In the next three games Jokerit won twice, and the fifth clash was the most memorable as it became the longest game in the history of the KHL. The game-winning goal was scored only at the 143^rd minute, and its author was Jokerit’s forward Mika Niemi. In this game the Finnish team gave its maximum, and out of mental and physical tiredness their season ended at the sixth game of the Western Conference semifinals.


Coach
In 2017 October it became clear that, no matter the result, Jokerit head coach Jukka Jalonen will leave the KHL to coach the Finland national team. The specialist already guided the national team, winning the IIHF World Championship gold medal in 2011. Jalonen arrived in Helsinki in 2016, and before of this job he coached SKA for two years (winning the regular season champions title), then staying without a club for two further seasons. Jokerit didn’t win any KHL medal, but Jalonen’s team played very good hockey, competed hard and the fans thanked him for the great job he had.
Best game
Of course, here it could be mentioned the 4:0 win against CSKA in September, or even the incredibly long game they had in the playoffs, but the first game that comes to the mind is another one, and Jokerit didn’t even win. But it was definitely the best game. To celebrate Jokerit’s 50^th birthday and the KHL’s 10^th season, Jokerit and the league decided to play a game in open air on December 2 at the Park Kaisaniemi. Jokerit’s opponents were SKA St. Petersburg and it was truly memorable. More than 17,500 spectators attended the game, becoming a new attendance record for the league. The atmosphere was incredible, but the game was even better. Jokerit managed to make it a tied game twice and fought until the final horn. This game will be remembered for a lot of time.

Worst game

During the 2017/2018 season Jokerit twice lost with a 0:4 score. The first time it happened during the regular season as on October 30 Barys scored them four unanswered goals. The Finn team had 82 shot attempts, with 44 shots on goal, but they couldn’t beat Henrik Karlsson. The second 0:4 loss happened on March 16, in the first game of the second round of the playoffs against CSKA Moscow. This time the loss was more deserved, as the Red Army defeated Jokerit in pretty much any aspect of the game.

Discover

Eeli Tolvanen was awarded with best rookie of the week honors for six times. A further time he was the top forward of the week and twice the best rookie of the month. The kid didn’t simply get to the KHL, but took it by storm as he scored a hat trick in his very first game in the league. Earlier, Tolvanen was playing in the USHL and he made the right move signing with Jokerit. He started the season scoring with an incredible rate, 20 (11+9) points in his first 15 games. Later he cooled down a bit, but he finished the regular season with 36 points in 49 games. If that’s not enough, he represented Finland at the Olympic Games, making it to the All-Star team of the tournament, being its third top scorer. During the playoffs, the 18-years-old guy (he turned 19 only in April) played a bit less efficient, but once Jokerit finished his season he moved to the NHL, where he intends to play even in the future.

Disappointment

If compared with the two previous seasons, the Danish forward Peter Regin seen a significant decrease in his production. His 48 points in the regular season (he maintained this level for two seasons) was changed by 29 (8+21) points. That being said, it’s hard to call this season a true disappointment: Regin’s ice time went down, and his role in the team passed to other players. Most likely, the Finnish public expected more from the return of the then KHL top goalscorer Steve Moses, but he didn’t have too much time for his adaptation.
Top scorers
Regular Season: Nicklas Jensen – 37 (20+17), Eeli Tolvanen – 36 (19+17), Brian O’Neill – 29 (14+15), Peter Regin – 29 (8+21), Sami Lepisto – 29 (7+22)
Playoffs: Matthew Gilroy – 11 (1+10), Olli Palola – 7 (6+1), Eeli Tolvanen – 7 (6+1), Sami Lepisto – 7 (0+7)

KHL - 2017-18 Review - Salavat Yulaev Ufa

The 2016/2017 season wasn’t the best for Salavat Yulaev as they had a first-round exit against Ak Bars Kazan (1-4). Changes in the hockey operations team were unavoidable and on March 27, 2017 the team announced that they hired 59-years-old Errka Westerlund as their new head coach. The Finn is one of the most-known European specialists and had already KHL experience from his stint with Jokerit Helsinki.
During the offseason, Salavat Yulaev had a lot of events. The biggest loss was, of course, the move of Kirill Kaprizov to CSKA Moscow. The club had new players in all roles. The goaltending line was filled in by the extravagant Ben Scrivens, the defensive corps by Philip Larsen and the forward lineup by Ilya Zubov and Jonas Kemppainen. The latter was signed with the scope of forming a good first line with Teemu Hartikainen and Linus Omark and that is what exactly happened.


The story of the season
The start of the season was very inconsistent for Salavat Yulaev Ufa. And this problem accompanied the team for the whole year. The Ufa team alternated great moments and fails, big wins and unexplainable huge losses.
The calendar gifted Salavat Yulaev a good start of the season with six games at home against teams surely within its reach. But the team led by Westerlund didn’t manage to live up to the expectations. After a win over Admiral (3:1) the team suffered from a loss from Amur (4:5) and an incredible defeat against Kunlun Red Star (1:2) with a goal allowed only two seconds to the final horn. However, those two games were followed by two big wins against HC Sochi (11:3) and Neftekhimik (6:0).
After the start, the season has been a true roller-coaster for the Ufa team, that oscillated between the top of the Eastern Conference standings and outside the playoffs zone. Mostly this was due to the fact that the Chernyshev Division leadership was often fought between Salavat and Avangard, who was even more inconsistent. Therefore, the Ufa team always tried hard to climb into the first place of the division, which would automatically give them the second seed in the playoffs. The second half of November was particularly bad for Salavat, when they lost six games out of seven. After that streak, many started questioning if Westerlund shouldn’t have been fired, and defenseman Zakhar Arzamastsev gave a resonant interview where he criticized the head coach and the General Manager Leonid Vaysfeld.

But between the end of December and mid January, Salavat completed their longest away tour with a good record of six wins in ten games, a streak that went on during the last few home games. However, the team didn’t manage to solve its inner problems and on 25 January the boards announced that Vaysfeld was leaving Ufa.

The club didn’t secure itself a playoff spot until the Olympic Games, but in the end they finished the regular season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference, getting Avangard as their opponents. The teams gifted the fans one of the most spectacular series of the postseason, that ended as the second series with more goals in the KHL history.
The teams scored 10 goals in the first game already (6:4), and during the game Salavat was behind (0:3) and (2:4). The most productive players were Omark and Hartikainen, who scored four and five points respectively. The result of the second game was a true surprise, as in Ufa the team on home soil was destroyed (2:7), and the third game was won by Avangard as well. The key moment of the series was the return of Ben Scrivens, who picked up an injury during the Olympic Games. Salavat started allowing fewer goals and a better defensive game became very important for their further success. The culmination of the series was the end of the seventh game. Avangard managed to tie the game at only 17 (!) seconds to the final horn playing six-on-three. But during the overtime, Maxim Goncharov won the game, and the series, for Ufa.
The next opponent was Traktor and once again the series went to the seventh game. The Chelyabinsk-based team managed to do the most important thing: blocking Salavat’s first line. Moreover, Traktor found a joker in the deck in Vitaly Kravtsov. It was Kravtsov to score the game-winning goal in the first game of the series (2:1). It looked like Salavat could get the initiative back after winning the second game (3:2 OT), but then surprisingly Mikhail Yunkov scored a double in the third game to gift an unexpected win to Traktor (0:2).
This was just the start of the intrigue. Traktor won 4:1 on their head coach Anvar Gatiyatullin’s birthday, but Ufa replied with a great performance by Ben Scrivens, who not only got a shutout, but also participated in the only goal of the game, scored by Anton Burdasov. It was the last win by Salavat. In the sixth game the team led by Gatiyatullin demoralized Ufa scoring seven goals, and in the seventh game they demonstrated that they were the true surprise of the season, getting an early lead (2:1) and then containing the opposition until the final horn.

Coach
Already during the pre-season tournament in Nizhny Novgorod, Erkka Westerlund told KHL.ru that his slogan was “We came here to win”. He confirmed his words as Salavat won the Governor Cup. And everything was on his side to think that his season will be a success: a lot of experience (Olympic Games and World Championship medals), a good record in the KHL with Jokerit and a very good roster, even considering the loss of Kirill Kaprizov.
That being said, it’s hard to call “successful” Westerlund’s first experience with a Russian team. The Finn specialist, most likely, couldn’t find the key for a couple of specific situations. Throughout the season he was criticized by the press, by the fans and even from his own players with whom, apparently, he never found a common language.




On April 4^th Salavat Yulaev announced to have parted ways with the Finn. The next season will start under the guide of Nikolai Tsulygin, who was one of his assistants. Moreover, Westerlund during an interview with a Finnish outlet opened up and said that the boards of Salavat were really pressing on him. On the other hand, it’s impossible to call this season a failure for Salavat Yulaev. The club managed to get to the second round of the playoffs, thus improving the results from one year ago. But anyways there were bigger expectations on the team.

Best game

On March 20 the Salavat Yulaev – Traktor playoffs series got back to Chelyabinsk with a 1-1 score. Traktor started the game very actively in front of its fans, without scoring, but outshooting the opposition 15-4. In the next period, Ufa managed to get the initiative, but Traktor started scoring. The Chelyabinsk team scored twice, and both times Alexei Kruchinin and Vitaly Kravtsov were instrumental: at the 23^rd minute Kruchinin defeated Scrivens with a backhander, and seven minutes later he crafted the offensive play finalized by Alexander Sharov with a great shot.
The third period was even more interesting. First Mikhail Yunkov narrowed the gap, with the goal being awarded only after the replay. Linus Omark scored a powerplay goal, and then Mikhail Yunkov scored again to get a double. Yunkov’s performance was even more interesting if we consider that it was only the second game of the veteran forward of the playoffs.

Worst game
The Green Derby is always a special game. The fans in Bashkiria and Tatarstan are always eagerly waiting for the games. And losses are always painful. Especially in cases such as what happened on November 22^nd in Ufa. It was the first clash of the season between the two teams. It was impossible to say that Kazan had an overwhelming advantage, but with the help of the strictest execution of the game plan and an almost 100% realization of their chances Ak Bars slowly made it so that only one team remained on the ice. Two powerplay goals on the start of the first and the second period became the foundation of the win, that in the end was very large. The Kazan team even allowed itself to search for beautiful goals, in particular the fifth one, scored after a hand pass by Stanislav Galiyev to Yaroslav Kosov.
“We didn’t play like a team. I apologize to our fans, I apologize from myself and all the players,” Erkka Westerlund said after the game.

Discover
Signing the Finn forward Joonas Kemppainen to a contract last April 30^th has been a big success. The arrival of Erkka Westerlund was very important for the move of the 30-years-old forward from Novosibirsk, where he spent the 2016/2017 campaign. In the end, Kemppainen was the ideal center for the other two Salavat winger Linus Omark and Teemu Hartikainen. As a result, Salavat’s top line scored 52 goals in the regular season, more than a third of the total goals scored by the team.
Disappointment It was the second season in Ufa for one of the most experienced Russian defensemen, Denis Kulyash. He was even the captain of the team, but this season after just 16 games he was surprisingly put on waivers for the first time of his career. He could have played for Salavat’s farm team in the VHL, Toros Neftekamsk, but the team dissolved the contract with the player, who was then picked up by Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. There, he had a quite successful second part of the season.

Top Scorers

Regular season: Linus Omark – 55 (16+39), Teemu Hartikainen – 41 (20+21), Filip Larsen – 38 (11+27), Joonas Kemppainen – 37 (16+21), Enver Lisin – 24 (14+10).
Playoffs: Linus Omark – 17 (4+13), Teemu Hartikainen – 11 (4+7), Joonas Kemppainen – 9 (4+5).