Frisk Asker and JKH GKS Jastrzębie continue to adapt to life in the Champions Hockey League - but there are encouraging signs that the two teams are acclimatising to competing alongside some of Europe’s finest teams.
A winless return after three games leaves both teams requiring an urgent turnaround in results if they are to catch runaway Group H leaders Red Bull Salzburg and HC Bolzano. Failure to end their respective three-game losing streaks this Sunday will put both Asker and Jastrzębie out of Playoff contention.
Competing in the CHL for the second time, Norway’s Asker are continuing to search for their first points in the competition, although they made Salzburg work hard for their eventual 1-0 on Friday night.
Backstopped by 31-save performance from netminder Nicklas Dahlberg, it took a powerplay goal from Salzburg in the third period to determine the game. The result and overall performance from Asker was quite an improvement from a week ago when they fell 6-2 to the Swiss in a decidedly one-sided encounter.
“I think we were in the game for the whole game. It was a tight game and we had a lot of time in our d-zone but we had a couple of good chances to turn it around,” explained Asker’s joint leading scorer Viktor Granholm post-game.
Granholm believes that the team are slowly tapping into their domestic form as they seek that elusive first CHL win in their upcoming game against Bolzano.
“We tried to play our own game and be tighter in the d-zone like we’ve done the past year and I think we did much better today then last time in Norway.
“Hopefully we’ll have the same mindset and be tight in the d-zone and try and score some goals.”
“We tried to play our own game, be tighter in the d-zone and I think we did much better today"Frisk Asker's Viktor Granholm
This season’s CHL debutants Jastrzębie’s latest setback came against Bolzano on Friday night after they suffered a 3-1 loss.
Jastrzębie trailed 2-0 after two periods but found their offensive spark in the closing frame, outshooting Bolzano 14 to five.
Despite Bolzano adding a third goal, Jastrzębie got their just rewards when Samuel Mlynarovic finally got them on the board, scrambling the puck in from inside the crease.
Jastrzębie’s Latvian winger Arturs Sevcenko says his team must build on that third period performance.
“In the first two periods they were much better than us,” said Sevenko, who finished the game with an assist and a plus-one rating.
“We were slower and didn’t shoot much and we came back into the game in the third period.
“I think if we played like we did in the third period it would’ve been a better match, but it is like it is, and we should play all our games like in the third period and take more shots to score first.”
Jastrzębie take on unbeaten group leaders Salzburg on Sunday.