After falling in last year's CHL Final, Frolunda Gothenburg are Europe's club hockey champions in 2015–16. Read below to see what Oliver Lauridsen, Lars Johansson, Mats Rosseli-Olsen, Andreas Johnson and Artturi Lehkonen had to say after winning the title game.
By Derek O'Brien, Miikka Jarvenpaa and Iiro Lampinen
OULU – The emotions were high in the visitors' dressing room at Oulun Energia Areena on Tuesday night, following Frolunda Gothenburg's 2–1 win over Karpat Oulu in the Champions Hockey League Final. Below is a compilation of some of the answers the players gave, beginning with the one chosen as the game's best.
Oliver Lauridsen
Congratulations on winning the Champions Hockey League. How was the Final?
“It was a tight game from start to finish. Two highly competitive teams who came out and battled everything they had. We got off to a really good start. We worked hard and got a couple of bounces. We led the game 2–0 and we had the game under control. They got a lucky bounce in the third and suddenly it was wide open. They made a good push for it in the end. We were good enough to keep them away.”
You were your team's MVP in the Final. You dominated the game in the defensive zone. Tell us about your effort today.
“It was a tight game, they battled hard and sent a lot of pucks to the net. It’s my job to make sure we keep them away from our net – keep them on the outside and eliminate the scoring chances. I think the whole team did a solid job doing that.”
Lars Johansson
Frolunda's goalie only faced 19 shots in the game, and appreciated the effort of Lauridsen and the rest of the team in front of him:
“We talked about it before the game – we knew we were playing a good team and we'd have to keep their chances to a minimum. Thanks to these guys, it was not that tough of a game for me, but still it feels great.”
After they got the goal with seven minutes left, was there any nervousness?
(laughing) “There was a little bit, but we were really good defensively after that one and we didn't really give them any opportunities to score.”
Mats Rosseli-Olsen
You’re posing with the European Trophy. How does it feel?
“It Feels great! After last year’s loss in the Final we really wanted to win this one. We worked hard and it’s been a long time since we started, so it’s really nice to win this one.”
Did you got some extra energy about that memory off the last year's game?
“Of course we knew that feeling and we didn’t want that again.”
Tonight it was a tough defensive battle. What was the key difference between you and Karpat?
“I don’t know, It was a 50–50 game. It could’ve gone both ways. We had a better start with the first two goals, then we managed to keep the lead. The start was the key and we managed to defend it.”
Especially in the first period you pressured really high, deep in the Karpat zone, like you do in the SHL. Did you know that it would create a lot of havoc and generate chances in your favour?
“Yeah we always do, and we always work like that. We keep skating and working hard and we know we’ll get chances from their mistakes. We knew that if we play our own game, we can win and we did.”
Andreas Johnson
“We had a good team this year and a good team last year too. Maybe we actually played better last year, but the Final is only one game and this year we won it.
You scored more goals in the tournament last year, but maybe you were better defensively this year.
“I think so too. I think we were a little bit smarter this year. We were better offensively last year but didn't keep it tight and we lost that lead in the Final. This year we made sure not to let that happen.”
What were you thinking when the score was 2–0? I guess you didn't want to get too confident.
“No, of course we had 2–0 last year too. We had it on our minds that we were going to work hard and not let them back into it.”
Last year you were the No. 2 point scorer in the whole CHL, behind your linemate Mathis Olimb. What was it like to lose him this year?
“It was a challenge. We played a lot together my first two years of pro. This year I've had to change my style a little bit with Spencer Abbott and Johan Sundstrom, but I think maybe I've become a better all-round player.”
Artturi Lehkonen
“Pretty amazing feeling. You don’t get to lift a trophy everyday. It’s pretty cool.”
What can you say about the game?
“This was a really high level hockey game. Karpat made the game hard for us. The home crowd was noisy, so the atmosphere was great.”
You got two quick goals there in the first period, and needed them both.
“These are games of small margins. We got a lucky bounce on Abbott’s goal and they had one on (Juho) Keranen’s. It takes some luck and tremendous amount of work to get to the crease. You don’t get easy goals in these games.”
What was the team's strategy heading into the game?
“Our strategy is usually to pressure high throughout the game. We tried to pressure Karpat defencemen a lot and succeeded on that.”
How high do you rank this championship?
“I rank it high. It’s hard to win a tournament when 48 teams want the same thing. It’s been a long road. We’ve had some bad moments and along with the good ones, so I'm glad that we were able to grind through.”