It has been no secret that Frölunda Gothenburg, from the start of the Group Stage of the Champions Hockey League until now, have had the goal to win the entire competition. Now they are only one game away.
by Staff Writers
Tonight Frölunda will play the inaugural final of the CHL against Luleå Hockey – in Luleå. But the competition didn’t start well for Frölunda. They suffered a 4–3 loss to Swiss club Genève-Servette in their opening game. In that game Andreas Johnsson collected three assists and Mathis Olimb got a goal and an assist. Little did we know that those two would dominate CHL scoring all the way. Olimb leads the CHL in scoring with 25 points, one more than Johnsson. Third is teammate Erik Gustafsson with 19 points. The closest contender from any other team is Luleå’s Daniel Zaar, who has collected 14 points so far.
After that opening loss, Frölunda comfortably won the rest of their Group C games 7–1, 7–3, 5–2, 6–2 and 7–1. In the playoffs, Frölunda have faced three Finnish teams. The eighth-final against Tappara Tampere was no problem. A 5–1 win away and a 4–2 win at home sealed the deal. After a streak of seven wins, Frölunda finally suffered a loss in the first quarter-final game against IFK in Helsinki. The home team won 2–1, so Frölunda needed a two-goal win in the second game. It looked like the game, and the series, would be decided in overtime but Robin Figren scored to make it 5–3 just 50 seconds before the end.
The semi-final series against Kärpät Oulu was decided in overtime. Frölunda opened with a 4–2 win at home. Kärpät then won its home game 3–1, equalling the aggregate 5–5, meaning that the series had to be decided in extra time. Kärpät dominated the third period and got an early power play in the tie-breaking portion, so things didn’t look good for the Indians. But they killed the penalty and got a power play opportunity of their own shortly after. Gustafsson ended the series and took Frölunda to the final with a shot out of mid-air.
Frölunda has had a tough period in their domestic SHL – only seven wins in the last 18 games, but the Gothenburg team is still in a third place. In the last game before the CHL final they lost 4–2 to 11th-placed Brynäs.
“We played a good Brynäs team, who were skating and putting pressure on us all over the ice,” said Frölunda head coach Roger Rönnberg to CMore. “I also think that we slowed down during the game. Physically, there is no problem but mentally it affected us, we made simple mistakes and lost pucks like we do not usually do. I felt that we had difficulty maintaining focus, especially when things went a bit against us. But now we get a new grip, it's the CHL Final on Tuesday.”
Magnus Kahnberg suffered a concussion during the Brynäs game and will miss the CHL final. Frölunda also have Christian Bäckman on the injured list. He is also recovering from a concussion.
Many experts and fans thought before the season that participating in CHL would affect the performances in the domestic league in a negative way, but if you look at the SHL standings the Swedish teams participating in CHL are placed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9, while the non-CHL teams are placed 6, 10, 11 and 12.
The CHL will have a Swedish champion in 2015. It remains to see if it will be Frölunda and Luleå.