Espen Knutsen is one of Norway's most famous hockey products of all time. The former NHLer is now the head coach of Valerenga Oslo, who impressed a lot of people with their play in this year's Champions Hockey League despite earning only one point. Knutsen plans to have his team back next season.

by Katarina Nordham and Derek O'Brien

OSLO – While 16 teams are moving on in the CHL playoffs, the journey is over the other 28. Some of those clubs had high hopes and are now disappointed to be finished, but others managed to compete better than expected and exit with their heads held high.

One of those clubs is Vålerenga Oslo who, despite losing all six of their games, were competitive in each one of them, falling by a single goal in four of them against some very stiff competition.

"We ended up playing in a very tough group," head coach and Espen Knutsen said of Vålerenga's three group-stage opponents, all strong clubs. "The Vienna Capitals have shown themselves to be a really strong team. I was a bit surprised that they ended up as the winner of Group B. Many would have put Zurich and Färjestad above them before we started."

Vienna lost only once in the group stage, but Valerenga gave them a couple of tight battles, with both games ending with 2–1 scores. They also lost 3-2 to second-place ZSC Lions Zurich, and then travelled 220 kilometres by bus to Karlstad. With many of their own fans cheering them on, the Norwegian visitors scored an early goal but ultimately fell 4–1 to Färjestad, leaving them still without any points. Finally, facing Färjestad again on home ice in the last game, the team's hard work translated into something tangible.

"We got our first point in the CHL in our last game," Knutsen said with some measure of satisfaction. "That felt good. It wouldn't have been that fun to end up with a donut. All and all, this game was a bit like the rest of our games – we got close to more points, but lost them by the smallest of margins."

That they were able to keep those margins so low is a testiment to the coaching of Knutsen, combined with world-class goaltending from Steffen Søberg. The degree to which Vålerenga was able to compete against three strong clubs surprised even the head coach.

"I was actually surprised that we managed to hang on in the early games like we did, with only three lines," he said. "I thought we would have bigger problems keeping up."

While a bit short-staffed to begin with, Vålerenga's roster does boast several players from the Norwegian national team, who always seem to give the top teams fits at World Championships. Perhaps the most notable of these is defenceman Alexander Bonsaksen, who shone at the 2014 World Championship in Minsk and was won of only two Vålerenga players to record three points in the CHL this season.

But Knutsen himself is probably better known internationally than any of his players. A Vålerenga product who moved onto the Swedish league, he went on to a successful career with the national team and played five seasons in the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets. Now he'd like to see more Norwegian hockey players compete on the world stage, and the Champions Hockey League is a good springboard for that.

"This tournament has given us a lot of experience, and will help us develop further," be believes. "For us, these games are more like playoff games, with higher speed and intensity than usual. And it's a good thing for the sport of hockey in Norway that we had two teams represented in the league. The Stavanger Oilers did very well, and it was just bad luck that they didn’t make it through. It's clear for Vålerenga that we have a goal to play in this league again next season."