In another one of our Flashback Matches we are going to take you all the way back to the inaugural 2014/15 season of the Champions Hockey League where the Vienna Capitals were batting it out for top spot in a highly competitive four-team Group B. Their rivals? Swedes Färjestad Karlstad, who were in the SHL Playoffs Final just the year prior, underdogs Vålerenga Oslo representing Norway and Vienna’s biggest group rivals – ZSC Lions, who were entering the very first CHL season as NLA Champions.
Vienna started their debut CHL campaign with four back-to-back wins securing 11 points, whilst ZSC had won two in Regulation and lost two in OT putting them in second place in the Group B Standings trailing Vienna by three points. Färjestad and Vålerenga on the other hand had failed to hit the ground running and were almost certainly mathematically ruled out of contention for Playoffs qualification after the first four Game Days, leaving the battle for top spot to be decided by the last two remaining games of the Group Stage between an unbeaten Vienna and a ZSC Lions team determined to fight to the final buzzer.
The first clash between the two teams was played in Switzerland and ended undecided in Regulation, needing Overtime to determine a winner. A late mistake by Vienna awarded the Lions a powerplay they needed to utilise, and they did, scoring the winner just 45 second later and mixing up the cards in the Group B Standings.
ZSC were now just two points behind the Capitals and could clench top spot if they won the return game in Austria. It was all or nothing for both teams and the outcome of this final Group Stage match would determine who would advance to the Playoffs and who would not make the cut…
Tune in live on 17 November, 19:00 CET to see who came out on top of this eight-goal thriller!