Looking ahead to game 2 of Frölunda–Tappara by the numbers: could be a high-scoring affair

Both Frölunda Gothenburg and Tappara Tampere have plenty of offensive weapons in their lineups. Given Tappara's desperate situation, game 2 has the potential to se a lot of goals scored.

by Efraim Larsson

GOTHENBURG – Frölunda Gothenburg lost their first game in the Champions Hockey League 4–3 against Swiss club Genève-Servette on the road but managed to flip the coin to pick up five consecutive wins subsequently. With 15 points, Frölunda took first place in Group C and qualified for the playoffs as one of the best teams in the group stage of the tournament. Beside Frölunda, six other teams also managed to reach 15 points, but Luleå Hockey were the only team that had a better goal difference (plus-26 compared to Frölunda’s plus-22).

Finnish club Tappara Tampere had a close race for a playoff spot in Group E where they ended up tied on 11 points with the Stavanger Oilers from Norway. Thanks to a positive goal difference of plus-3 (8–5) in the two games against Stavanger, Tappara snatched first place and qualified for the playoffs. They ended up with a total goal difference of plus-5 (21–16).

Game 1 recap

In Game 1 the team from Gothenburg played quite an interesting game at Hakametsä in Tampere. Although they out-shot Tappara 38–19 and won the game 5–1 to give themselves a four-goal advantage into the second game, both head coach Roger Rönnberg and defenceman Erik Gustafsson of Frölunda agreed that Tappara deserved a better result.

“I don't think that the score reflected the game,” Rönnberg said afterward. “I think that Tappara was better than that and it was more of an even game. We were a bit lucky on offence and we had a good goaltender.”

“Despite the fact that we had the puck a lot and scored a lot of goals I don’t actually think we played anything more than an okay game,” Gustafsson evaluated. “Tappara is clearly a skilled team and they made it difficult for us to get into the game in the opening minutes. But after our first goal I think we managed to solve some issues and started to play solid with all four lines for the rest of the game.”

In the group stage of CHL, Frölunda won all three games on home ice and with an amazing goal difference of plus-11 (18–7) and in the Swedish Hockey League they have won six out of nine games with a goal difference of plus-6 (23–17).

Tappara only won one game on the road in the group stage (2–1 over Ocelari Trinec) of the CHL, but in the Finnish Liiga they are by a large margin the best team on the road. They’ve won seven out of 11 games on the road (20 points) and have a goal difference of plus-3 (24–21). What’s interesting for the second game against Frölunda is that Tappara have earned more points on the road in the Liiga than they’ve taken on home ice (20 against 16) and that Frölunda have earned fewer points on home ice in the SHL than on the road (18 against 19).

Special teams

The monstrous power play of Frölunda is one of the big reasons to their success in the CHL. You simply can’t ignore 14 goals on 38 chances (36.84 percent), which is the best efficiency in the tournament. Frölunda are also noticed for the second-best penalty killing with only two goals against on 21 shorthanded situations (90.48 percent).

Tappara have the 12th-best power play in the tournament right now with nine goals on 36 chances (25.00 percent). Their penalty killing hasn’t been on the same level in the CHL though. At 72.75 percent (nine goals against on 33 chances), they have the 37th-ranked PK in the league, which is rather interesting since Tappara is the best PK team in the Liiga with just 10 allowed goals on 84 shorthanded situations (88.10 percent).

In the first game between the teams Frölunda were 1-for-4 on the power play and Tappara were 0-for-5. One interesting note though is that each team scored a shorthanded goal.

Player statistics

In points we can find the top three positions all occupied by Frölunda players – Mathis Olimb with 20 points (5 goals + 15 assists), Andreas Johnsson with 19 (9 + 10) and Gustafsson with 14 (5 + 9). Johnsson is the best goal-scorer in the tournament and Gustafsson is by far the top-scoring d-man, six points ahead of second best. In the first game against Tappara both Olimb and Johnsson got two points, while Gustafsson scored one goal. Otherwise, forward Mattias Janmark and d-man Christian Bäckman tallied two points each.

The Cramo Top Scorer of Tappara Tampere, defenceman David Kolomatis, is ranked 21st in points with 8 (4 goals + 4 assists). Kolomatis and team captain Jukka Peltola assisted on Antti Erkinjuntti's lone goal for Tappara’s in the first game.

Forwards Pekka Jormakka and Jan-Mikael Jarvinen are second and third in Tappara team scoring with six points each in seven games played. Despite Tappara’s low average goal and point totals among individual players, they have the 7th-best scoring efficiency in the CHL with 22 goals on 175 shots (12.57 percent).

It will definitely be an interesting game 2 between these teams since we’re sure to see a desperate Tappara club that will fight until the last drop of sweat. Despite their large lead, don't expect an offensive-minded team like Frölunda to sit back and play defence all game long. With that in mind, this one has the potential to be a high-scoring affair.