SPENGLER CUP DAY 4: Swiss Roll over opponents

FRIBOURG  AND DAVOS COMPLETE HOME DOUBLE

DAY 4 of the 2012 Spengler cup in Davos, Switzerland was Quarter-Finals day as we reached the Knockout stages of the Invitational Competition at the Beautiful, Vallant Arena in Davos.

The first Quarter Final pitted Switzerland side HC Fribourg-Gotteron against German outfit Adler Mannheim. This was a pretty close contest overall apart from the one ,thing that counted the scoreline.

Fribourg started the scoring in the opening game of the day when Gregory Mauldin broke away down the wing, As he was being Slashed and Hooked, he skated towards goal and was able to stop infront of the net and back hand it past Felix Bruckmann in the Mannheim nets for a 1 goal lead at 2:57 in the game unassisted   

on a delayed penalty goal.

Second period the Swiss doubled the lead with another early goal as Benjamin Pluss scored a Powerplay goal with Julien Sprunger and Andrei Bykov setting up Pluss,who was waiting at the backdoor to put it home for 2-0, timed at 21:03. 

Mannheim then got a goal back through Frank Mauer and he tipped in a low pass from Yannick Lehoux to bring them within one, with Marcus Kink getting an assist on it too timed at 29:18.  But it wasn`t long before Fribourg restored their 2 goal lead again, as Maxime Talbot scored at 34:50 with assists going to Mauldin and Desharnais.

3rd Period  Matthais Plachta ripped a one-timer from left faceoff circle and gave Benjamin Conz no chance with it as it bounced out before he even had a chance to move, That made it a one goal game again with Wagner & EL-Sayed getting assists on the goal coming at 45:29.

Fribourg got goal 4 as Dube got on the scoreboard as he scored the 2nd powerplay goal of the game for the Swiss outfit, giving his side the 2 goal cushion back and make the score 4-2 to them with 49:07 gone.

Adler Mannheim knew they were heading back to Germany, but there was still time to dish out more agony on them. As Desharnais had skated into the offenisive zone, where he found Christian Dube free and unmarked,before firing a quick wrist shot past Bruckmann to set up a Semi final place v  Team Canada tomorrow with Hornqvist getting the 2nd assist on the goal at 56:54.

HC  FRIBOURG-GOTTERON       5 -- 2    ADLER MANNHEIM

The Second Quarter -Final was that of Hosts  HC Davos  v  Salavat Yulaev Ufa, The First Period was a goal bonanza especially in the first 6 min. As Davos took the lead at 2:02 into the game when, Burgler set up Marha to score the opening goal after a mix up with goalie and defenseman behind the nets.

Then straight from faceoff the Russian side tied the game 8 seconds later, with Igor Musatov scoring after a long pass from Shulakov assisted by Atyushov  timed at 2:10.

Loui Eriksson then made it 2-1 for the Hosts as he blocked a shot and dashed off up the other end slipping it through the legs of the netminder to score at 3:24. A nice slick passing move set up goal 3 for Davos as Thornton received the long pass at mid ice and did a one two with Burgler to score and extend the lead to 3-1 for HC Davos.

However there was more scoring yet to come in this goal infested period, as Santeri Alatalo scored Unassisted at 15:09, to make it 4-1 for the Switzerland side as he freely skated towards goal and back handed it in the nets just to put the game out of reach early for their opponents. Petr Sykora helped himself to a goal too, make it a commanding 5-1 lead into the 1st Intermission.


2nd period was calmer with just 4 goals going in this time. It was the the Russian side who started a mini comeback, with Alexander Svitov getting the 2nd goal assisted by Denis Parshin, that was timed at 20:58 and then Parshin himself scored with Pankov and Svitov grabbing assists on the Powerplay goal at 26:08 to make it 5-3.


But Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane (in blue below)who is playing for HC Davos during the NHL Lockout, Then took the game away from their Russian opposition, as he scored 2 goals in 3 mins. The first coming at 26:58 with assists credited to Petr Taticek & Santeri Alatalo as his shot trickled in for 6-3. Then got his Second of the match to make it 7-3 with Loui Eriksson helping out at 29:28 as he scored from a tightish angle.


3rd period wise the Russians were still coming and putting up a brave fight, as at 45:30 Antii Pihlstrom scored on the Powerplay with Mirnov assisting timed at 45:30. Then the scoring ceased at 53:28 as Igor Mirnov himself to a Powerplay goal ,to make the scoreline 7-5 as they tried in search of more goals ,but couldn`t and so were eliminated from the Tournament.

Leaving HC Davos to play the Czech Republic side HC Vitkovice Steel in the 2nd Semi final tomorrow for a place in Monday Spengler Cup FINAL.

HC DAVOS        7 --  5  SALAVAT YULAEV UFA

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN FROM: spengler cup.com