Peter Brads SPORTS Blog: DAY 3: VITKOVICE SHOW THEIR STEEL & EAGLES GET WINGS CLIPPED BY HOSTS

Czechs bounce back & Hosts beat Mannheim

DAY 3 at the Vallant Arena in Davos, SWITZERLAND saw every team complete 2 games now and the standings were taking a bit of shape now.

The first game of the day taking place, was that of HC Fribourg-Gotteron of Switzerland taking on the Czech Republic side of HC Vitkovice Steel in Group "TORRIANI" .

The Swiss side continued where they left off in their opener against the KHL side Salavat Yualev Ufa, when they beat them 5-1 in the opening game of the tournament. And they were out shot their opponents in the 1st Period 13 to 6.

But it was the Czech side that drew first blood, as at 8:50 ex-New York Ranger Marek Malik and Hruska set up Roman Szturc as he picked the puck up on the Blue line. Entered the Fribourg Zone and dragged the puck back towards him ,to avoid the defenseman trying to block his path and slot it in at the near post, At a tight angle past ex Vancouver Canuck goaltender Cory Schneider for 1-0.

The start of the 2nd period got better for the Czech men ,as that man once again for HC Vitkovice Rudolf Huna scored a wraparound goal, As he dispossessed Michael Ngoy behind his own net and banked it in off Schneider pads for a 2-0 lead Unassisted at 21:45. The Swiss side, as they did in every period outscore their opposition but couldn`t make it tell where it counted, that being on the scoreboard.

3rd period Fribourg pulled a goal back thanks to Julien Sprunger assisted by Bykov at 44:39. As a face off to the right side of the Vitkovice goals took place,the puck fell to Sprunger who quickly fired a wrist shot and went past Filip Sindelar in the nets for the Czech side. Despite the Swiss side pulling the goalie with 1:45 to go , A penalty was then called on Dube for HOLDING when on a 5-on-4 powerplay so the extra attacker failed leading to time counting down and gave the Czech side victory and put them top of the group on 4pts. Giving them the Extra day off and Automatic SEMI FINAL spot.

HIGHLIGHTS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmT2Wc15Lyg

HC Fribourg- Gotteron 1 -- 2 HC VITKOVICE STEEL

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The second game of the day was that of Hosts of the Spengler Cup HC Davos against the German side Adler Mannheim in the final match of Group CATTANI. Mannheim were cock a hoop following a great victory over Team Canada a couple days before and knew going into this a win would have topped the group and place in Semi final. Davos were the opposite, Having been Shut-Out and ripped to shreads by the Canadians the previous night 5-0.

So how would this game turn out? Well Mannheim still on the proverbial "High" struck first with Boston Bruins Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg getting a fortunate goal as his slapshot was saved by Genoni in the Davos nets, Only for it to go up in the air and roll down his shoulder & arm quickly into the nets timed at 3:18 in the 1st.

2nd Period the Germans took a 2 goal lead at 23:11 as Florian Kettemer scored after picking up a rebound from Glumac shot, He jumped on it and put it high up in the net for a two goal cushion. Davos were staring down the barrell of another big defeat at home infront of their fans.

But Davos responded just over a minute later as they pulled it back to 2-1, As a long pass to San Jose Sharks star Joe Thornton on the blue line was took into the Mannheim zone unchallenged, And played it back to Enzo Corvi who shot it from just inside the left faceoff circle and wristed one past Dennis Endras in the Eagles goal to reduced the deficit to 1 timed at 24:15.

This set off the floodgates for Davos as they scored not long again, this time on the Powerplay as Steinmann and Back set up Dino Wieser at the front post as he skated into the "Small box" set up that Mannheim players were enforcing on the powerplay & cheekily dinked it up, Banking it in off the Eagles defenseman for 2-2 scoreline at 28:45.

Goal 3 for the Hosts came quickly too as Wieser again latched onto good passing by the Davos side mid ice and as he cut across the Eagles blue line ,he had time to wrist shot another off to one far side for a 3-2 lead at 31:14, This was the first time the home side had been in a lead in the whole tournament.

3rd period took only 54 seconds in for them to stretch their own 2 goal lead, As passing from Former NHL star Petr Sykora and Petr Tacticek combined to set Loui Eriksson up, As he ghosted through the Static Adler Mannheim defence rounding the goaltender for a 4-2 lead at 40:54 & Davos were now enjoying themselves on the ice.

The goal that killed the game off came just before the halfway point of the period, As Forster and Sykora worked it around the boards near the corner, With Sykora teeing Gregory Hofmann up with a one-timer and shot it in for 5-2 at 48:28. There there was still more agony to be piled on the German side as a couple minutes later. As Sciaroni was being roughed up abit on the boards, By Mannheim defensemen, Joe Thornton dug the puck out from the corner, passing it to defenseman Santeri Alatalo who skated up on the play and had plenty of time to bide his time picking his spot and shooting it past Endras for a 6-2 lead and with that set up the Quarter finals placings.