SPENGLER CUP 2013 :DAY 5 - Swiss side advances & Moscow win shootout

Day 5 of the Spengler Cup tournament was Semi Finals day as HC Geneve-Servette took on Team Canada, but before that was HC Davos hosts of the 87th Annual tournament against Russian side CSKA Moscow.

HC DAVOS   4  -  5  CSKA MOSCOW 

      after Penalty shots

The first Semi Finals saw it go all the way to a penalty shoot out, that saw Hosts HC Davos and CSKA Moscow play a very close knitted affair between the two top teams in European Ice Hockey.

It was the Hosts that scored the opening goal of the game through Enzo Corvi who started and finished off the move at 3-28. Corvi had dispossessed Georgy Misharin at the halfway line and he Andres Ambhul broke away on a 2 on 0, with Ilya Proskuryakov in the CSKA nets hung out to dry as Ambhul drew the goalie out, before sliding it to the side for Corvi to shot into the unguarded net for 1-0.

CSKA Moscow drew level a few minutes later at 7-12, when good work by Alexander Radulov down low saw him battling constantly for the puck, he then threw the puck back out towards llari Filppula whose wrist shot bounced in and out for a 1-1 game.

HC Davos then retook the lead at 15-42 in the period, when Nicklas Danielsson picked up a rebound off the pads of Proskuryakov in the Moscow nets, saw Niklas Persson shot make it 2-1 to see them go into the break with the lead.  

CSKA Moscow once again drew level in the contest, when argubly player of the tournament in Alexander Radulov, saw him skate from his own halfway line skate into the Davos zone and wristed one past Leonardo Genoni in the hosts net for a 2-2 score at 20-19.

Moscow then took the lead for the first in the game as it was Radulov again the man who scored the goal for the CSKA side, after the puck bobbled to him and with the goalie down his shot just crept in and to make sure, he forced it in again at 29-44.

Davos responded with Ville Kositinen scoring the tying goal at 34-11, as the home side went on the attack with a quick break and with CSKA defensemen getting back, it let Kositinen skate unopposed into the Moscow zone and slot past the netminder for a 3-3 game.

The Russian themselves then lead once more with Vladimir Zharkov getting ahead of his man and saw Stanislav Egorshev pass across goal, turned in by the forward at 38-09 for a 4-3 lead.

The Third period saw HC Davos pushing for the tying goal and with a few minutes remaining, Sergei Gimaev went to the penalty box for Tripping and so Davos pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and while on the powerplay they scored the tying goal with 2:35 remaining in the game.

Davos forward Peter Sejna managed to tip in a Zdenek Kutlak one time shot from the point, as it beat the Moscow netminder for a 4-4 game and made the last couple of minutes nervy.

Overtime couldn`t separate them and so we went to penalties shots.

Alexander Radulov scored for CSKA , while Reto von Arx scored for Davos and meant that if Alexander Frolov penalty shot went in, then CSKA would win and he managed to to convert it for a 2-1 win on penalties and 5-4 overall, as that meant they were in the final of the Spengler Cup.

TEAM CANADA    5   -  6  HC Geneve-Servette 

In the 2nd Semi Final, it saw a Swiss side make the final after Geneve-Servette defeated the current champions of this tournament in Team Canada as it was a very tight match in the end.

Team Canada will be wishing they could have restarted this game from scratch again, after they were torn part for the opening half of the match by Swiss side Geneve-Servette.

Things didn`t get off too well for Team Canada, as  Matthew Lombardi scored the opening goal of the game at 2-46, before the Canadian`s then went two goals down as at 15-22 with Denis Hollenstein adding the second in the goal column for the Swiss National League side.

The Second was no better for Team Canada with Inti Pestoni making it 3-0 for Geneve, with Matthew Lombardi and Kaspars Daugavins assisting on the goal.

Allan York then got pulled by the coach and replaced him with Matthew Hackett, who had played previously in the tournament with AHL side the Rochester Americans, who had been been knocked out by the Canadian`s in the last round.

Canada did eventually get on the scoreboard, after a strike by Alexandre Giroux that made it 3-1.

Geneve pushed ahead going 4-1 up, through a Arnaud Jacquemet goal at 28-13 just as the Swiss side was taking over the game in a big way. 

Just before the end of the period, Team Canada stayed in the game as they pulled it back to a two goal game with a Travis Roche powerplay effort making it 4-2 at 37-15.

It was a lot closer the game in the third period, with Geneve scoring their 5th goal thanks to Matthew Lombardi second of the game and looked to be it at that stage of the match.

Team Canada then mounted a comeback attempt, as Jacob Micflikier scored a 3rd goal for the men from the Great White North at 49-22 and then a minute later, Geneve-Servette made it 6-3 through Daniel Vukovic goal.

However, that didn`t stop the Canadian`s rallying late on, as they scored two late powerplay goals for a 6-5 scoreline. Try as they might Canada, they threw everything at the Swiss team including the kitchen sink, but their opponent`s held on to see them qualify in the final and play off against CSKA Moscow in the Spengler Cup final on New Year`s Eve.