A fantastic advert for the Champions Hockey League knock-out stages came tonight in Davos, as two sides from the NLA and SHL clashed in the first leg of their Champions Hockey League Quarter-Final.
HC Davos 1–1 Skelleftea AIK
by Luke Fisher
DAVOS – Sometimes games don't need to be high-scoring to have drama and excitement, and this evening's meeting of HC Davos and Skellefetea AIK certainly fit that bill. In front of a large crowd at the historic Vaillant Arena, both sides created chances throughout the game, but would ultimately reach a stalemate before doing it all again next week.
Having killed off a couple of early penalties as they settled in Davos, Skelleftea gradually grew into their stride in Switzerland, dangerous on the counter attack with speed. It was however the home side that opened the scoring, and deservedly so. After a period of pressure, Marc Aeschlimann neatly converted Dino Wieser's pass out in front from behind the goal-line to fire through Markus Svensson's five-hole and put the hosts ahead.
An early minor penalty on Felicien Dubios gave Skelleftea a chance to level at the beginning of the middle period, and the visitors wasted no time in making their numerical advantage count – Andrew Calof levelling the scores at 23:47.
That was the end of the goals, but not the excitement. An end to end game which could have gone either way continued through the second period and into the third, the shot count of 34–26 in Skelleftea's favour indicating that both sides had their chances.
Late on in the final period, the home crowd were on their feet as Davos' Andres Ambruehl made a gorgeous move to beat two defenders and thought he'd hit the winner, but upon video review the goal was washed out by the officials, leaving the final score at 1–1, and the match-up finely poised ahead of next week's return game.
GOALS:
1st 16:53 - 1:0 (EQ) - Marc Aeschlimann (Dino Wieser, Devin Setoguchi)
2nd 23:47 - 1:1 (PP1) - Andrew Calof (Terry Broadhurst, Erik Forssell)