SPENGLER CUP DAY 4: Wins for CSKA & CANADA

Day 4 of the 2013 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland saw Quarter finals day as CSKA Moscow faced HC Vitkovice Steel In the afternoon game, while it was battle of North America in the Evening as Team Canada came up against the American Hockey League side the Rochester Americans.

CSKA MOSCOW  3    -   2   HC VITKOVICE STEEL

 (AFTER OVERTIME )

In the opening Quarter-Final of the Spengler Cup, Russian side CSKA Moscow rallied from two goals down to eliminate Czech Republic side, HC Vitkovice Steel from the tournament, with CSKA winning the game in overtime 3-2.

A scoreless opening period of hockey saw both teams come out not wanting to make any mistakes that would see their opponents capitalise on, as the first period was played in a very tense period.

Second period saw the game brake into life after a Richard Stehlik blaster from the blue line, saw the Czech side go 1-0 ahead at 24:36 and then less than a minute later, Vladamir Svacina scored after a pass to back door by Ondrej Roman and saw the forward put home at 25:06.

Four minutes later CSKA Moscow then mounted a recovery operation, as first off Ruslan Zainullin grabbed a goal back with a nicely taken effort which saw the forward spin and shoot past Filip Sindelar in the Vitkovice nets to see them trail by one at 29:45. 

Then with nine seconds remaining in the Second period, Vladimir Zharkov deflected in Nikolai Prokhorkin shot on the powerplay to see them tie the game at 2-2 and make it all to play for in the third period.

Much like in the first period of play the third became even tenser and saw both sides cancel out the other in the game. The game went into overtime to see who would face Host HC Davos in the Semi-Finals.

The game winner took just 46 seconds to come by, with Yakov Rylov sending the puck rocketing past Sindelar in the Steel goals for the overtime winner and send the Pre-tournament favorites CSKA Moscow into the Semi-Finals of the Spengler Cup, winning 3-2.

TEAM CANADA  6  -  3  ROCHESTER AMERICANS 

The 2nd Quarter-Final saw Team Canada make it through to play HC Geneve-Servette in the other Semi-Final, as they overcame the Rochester Americans to advance to the next round.

Team Canada scored the opening goal of the game as Byron Ritchie capitalised on a lucky bounce from a Jason Williams pass, to blast home past Matthew Hackett in the Rochester goals for the 1-0 lead, coming at 7-31 in the game.

Jacob Micflikier then tapped home the second goal for the Canadians, when a shot by Brett McClean from the Americans left face-off circle saw the puck come loose after Hackett failed to deal with it and Micflikier was alert to where the puck was and he tapped it in for a 2-0 lead at 15-05. 

Worse was to come for the AHL side, when Micflikier netted the Canadian`s third goal in the period and his second of the game. After the puck had diverted off his stick from an Ahren Spylo shot at 18-41 and it looked to have seen Canada book their place in the Semis already.

In the Second it was a much different game, with the Americans pulling one back in the contest through Americans forward Johan Larsson, as the forward skated into the zone before passing to team mate Alexander Hutchings and his effort flew by Chris Mason in the Team Canada goal for a 3-1 score.

Canada then regained their three goal cushion, when Derrick Walser shot went right through the legs of Hackett to make it 4-1 for Team Canada at 26:06 and then 50 second later, "the Amerks" came back through a Daniel Catenacci goal after he tipped in Luke Adam`s pass at the front of the net for a 4-2 game.

Joel Armia made it a nervous Team Canada bench when  he scored Rochester 3rd of the game, as panic set in at the back and saw Adam, once again at the heart of the attack.

His fast pass across the Canadian`s goal, was partially cleared by Walser and saw Armia ready to pounce as fired the loose puck home for a powerplay goal at 33:11 to make it 4-3 with the "Amerks" growing in confidence now.

The final period saw the Canadians take the game away from their opponents, as good movement by the Team Canada powerplay unit, saw Byron Ritchie pick up his second of the game as he fired home a fifth goal past Hackett, to see the men in the Red Maple leaf shirts all but see off a stubborn Rochester side.

Alexandre Giroux then made the game safe with 43 seconds of the match remaining with an empty net goal, as the opponent`s pulled the goalie for the extra man with them going in search of two goals to tie the game, but Giroux goal ended their hopes and saw Canada go on to face Geneve-Servette in the Semi Finals.