Hey readers! Been a long time since my last update I know, but time’s been short lately, and I’ve had a bit of the writers block, so to speak. So, as many of you will well know, I love my European hockey, and the seasons are all over, so here’s a quick recap before I start larger reviews through the Summer.
So, why not to start with the biggest league in Europe, the KHL.
2009-10 was the second year of the Kontinental Hockey League, and it was certainly one that we won’t forget in a hurry. Last years champions, AK Bars Kazan managed to repeat their achievements by defeating the surprise package of the season, HC MVD in seven games. Aleksey Morozov once again got his hands on silverware, as the Tatarstan outfit managed to use their large budget to their advantage throughout the season, which included the mid-season acquisition of Petri Vehanen who managed to turn AK Bars’ season around and gave them solid netminding throughout the season. It was the last time we saw HC MVD, as the merger with Dinamo Moscow is seemingly done. For the outsider, MVD doesn’t have the big names of the likes of the Salavats, the Kazan’s of the KHL world, but they had a great team, and head coach Oļegs Znaroks, regarded as many as the best coach in Russia managed to get his team to the top of the table, and missed out on the Gagarin Cup by one game.
Moving on to the Elitserien..
The Swedish champions of 2009-10 are HV71. The Jönköping outfit defeating Djurgardens in 6 games to win their second title in just three seasons. HV had a great season from top to bottom, with Stefan Liv proving his credentials as one of the best goaltenders outside of the NHL, and the point scoring machine Johan Davidsson at forward and David Petrasek on the blueline. However, come playoff time and your big players show up, and that’s what happened for HV, with the aforementioned Davidsson and perennial point scorer Jukka Voutilainen both scoring 15 points in the 16 playoff games. there were no real surprises in the Elitserien this year, as both the #1 and #2 seeds in the regular season reached the playoff final, and the #1 seed emerged victorious
However, it was completely the opposite in Finland’s SM-Liiga
You would have expected at least one of the top 4 seeds to make the final in Finland.. Right? Well.. wrong. The final was contested between the 5th and 6th seeds in the regular season, with HPK (5th) and TPS (6th) battling it out to become Finnish champions. It was TPS, the team from Turku who lifted the crown, outclassing HPK to lift the title in only 5 games. TPS, who got to the final by defeating last years champions and #1 seeds JYP in 6 games, carried their momentum through to the final. The man with the golden helmet, Illari Filppula was the man of the moment for TPS, with 14 points in 15 playoff games. The surprise package of the playoffs has to be the performances of Lee Sweatt on the blueline for TPS, with 7 goals in his playoff series, and the second top scorer on his team. You can’t forget to mention the performances of TPS’ two netminders as well, as Atte Engren and David Leggio both having GAA’s of under 1.9 and save percentages over .930 in their playoff series’ with them splitting the number of games played almost identically.
Moving south to the Czech Republic, and always exciting race for the Extraliga
The fairytale story of the Czech Republic’s season has to be Dominik Hasek as he lead his team to victory, as HC Moeller Pardubice swept (yes.. swept) HC Vitkovice Steel in the final match up between the 3rd and 4th best teams in the regular season respectively. The first seed, Plzen 1929 fell at the first hurdle, losing to the 8th seeded HC Bili Tygri Liberec. A very disappointing finish for Martin Straka’s team. PSG Zlin, the second seed also perished in the first round, losing in 6 games to HC Slavia Praha. In the final, Vitkovice just couldn’t get the goals the team needed, as they only managed to find 6 pucks past Hasek in the whole series, whilst the outstanding Jakub Stepanek in goal for the Ostrava team was let down by his defence and the team with one of the best defensive records in the regular season crumbled. Game 4, the championship decider was won in overtime, with Rastislav Spirko scoring the winning goal for the Bohemians. Professional goal machine Petr Sykora (the one that played for the Caps) lived up to his name, by netting 12 times in 13 games, whilst only getting a paltry 4 assists.
Moving to the West, The Nationalliga A was another close run affair, with SC Bern capturing their first title for six years, defeating Geneve-Servette in seven games. The team with the highest attendence in Europe finished first in the regular season, and ended up winning nine straight playoff games before finally losing to the side from Geneva in game 2 of the final. The two teams, seperated by a point in the regular season battled it out in a series that went to seven games, but Bern was able to outlast Geneva, winning the seventh game by a score of 4-1. The top line of Ivo Rüthemann, Martin Pluss, and Jean-Pierre Vigier ran riot throughout the playoffs, and all three were around the point per game mark. Geneve, who had played 5 more games through two series’ than their counterparts in the final just seemed to run out of steam in the final, and their defence just wasn’t up to the task of keeping out the firepower of Bern.
Finally, for this edition moving to the Slovak Extraliga, where everything seemed to be going to plan, until the final..
The final was contested between Slovan Bratislava, who had ran riot throughout the regular season, and HC Kosice, who were looking to repeat their championship of last season. Kosice, who had massive personnel problems throughout the season, which lead in their captain, Juraj Faith, and two alternates Jaroslav Kmit’ and Juraj Kledrowetz being sacked mid-season! Slovan, with the fire power of the likes of Martin Hujsa, Martin Kul’ha and Miroslav Lazo were all conquering through the first two rounds of the playoffs, but fell short in the final, where they ran into the brick wall of 21 year old netminder Julius Hudacek, who had a .936 save percentage in the final. The top line for Kosice of Rudolf Huna, Vladimir Dravecky and Peter Huzevka were too much for Slovan to handle, and Slovan’s refusal to replace star netminder Sasu Hovi seemed to cost them, as youngster Branislav Konrad just couldn’t keep the pucks out at the right time, and Kosice able to shut down Slovan, leaving only Kul’ha and Lazo to score any sort of respectable goal total. Kosice, the third seed in the playoffs wound up winning the series, and following the trend of Slovakian champions repeating the following season.
That’s all the major leagues wrapped up. You can expect a more detailed report of these and other European leagues further on in the Summer!
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