In their two previous Champions Hockey League seasons, Mountfield HK from the Czech Republic haven’t ever made it out of the group stage.
In 2019/20, that’s all changed with the side from Hradec Králové are the only remaining team left in the competition outside of Sweden, and they’ll be hoping to be just the second side from the Czech Republic to make it all the way to the Grand Final after Sparta Prague in the 2016/17 season, losing out in overtime to the Frölunda Indians.
Things didn’t start perfectly for Mountfield in their third CHL appearance. They opened the season with a trip to Wales to take on the Cardiff Devils, and after a tightly fought contest, Mountfield couldn’t quite complete the comeback as they suffered a 3-2 defeat, but they followed that up with a huge result in their second game on the road with a 3-2 victory over Frölunda as goalie Marek Mazanec impressed with 30 saves on the evening, which helped to secure victory for the visitors.
After opening the year on the road, Mountfield couldn’t have asked for a better performance in their first home game, with a commanding and dominant performance against Cardiff saw them ease their way to another three-points with a 5-2 victory that saw them move into the qualification places of Group H.
Their next game saw another close game between Mountfield and Frölunda as this time the Swedish side secured 3-2 victory, but Mountfield were determined to make it third time lucky and they managed to do so, finishing the Group Stage with two wins over the Graz99ers, including a huge 7-1 win on home ice to end the Group Stage in style.
After qualifying from the group for the first time, it hasn’t been the easiest ride to the Semi-Final for Mountfield HK.
First up in the Round of 16, they took on reigning German champions Adler Mannheim who qualified top of Group F with just one loss in the Group Stage. Marek Mazanec, who had been impressive the first round, continued this into the playoffs with a 23-save shutout against Mannheim in the first leg, where a goal with less than five minutes to play by Aleš Jergl was the only thing to separate the sides in a narrow 1-0 victory for Mountfield, and as the sides couldn’t be separated in a 1-1 draw in the second leg, Mountfield advanced with a 2-1 victory on aggregate.
It looked to be more of the same in the Quarter-Finals as they took on EV Zug of Switzerland who had beaten Tappara Tampere in their Round of 16 matchup, and after the first leg between Mountfield and Zug, nothing could separate the two teams as a goal each sent it to the second leg tied at one goal each.
It was in the second leg that Mountfield really separated themselves from their Swiss opponents. With Mazanec putting in another big performance in net, stopping all 29 shots he faced on the night, and three goals in the first ten minutes of the second period proving vital as they turned in a 4-0 victory to book their place in the Semi-Finals, and potentially just two-games away from the grand Final in February, the only thing standing in their way is Djurgården Stockholm.