The playoffs are all about drama, and that's been coming in bucket loads since most of Europe hit the post-season. The past week has seen the final places in many leagues sorted out, more lower-ranked teams dump out higher opponents, and the longest-ever game recorded in Finland!

by Luke Fisher

Austria

Red Bull Salzburg were the first team to make it into the EBEL semi-finals, defeating Villach 4–1 in the quarters, meaning they now have a rest until the next round starts on Sunday. Somewhat surprisingly, Orli Znojmo crashed out by the same series score to Klagenfurt AC, meaning the Corinthian side will play Salzburg over seven games in the next round. For Znojmo to go out so early must be a huge disappointment, given their excellent performance in the regular season and especially over the ‘Pick Round’. The other two series remain very interesting: Linz lead Bolzano 3-2 in a series where no side has lost at home, and should that continue tomorrow night in Italy then the two teams will meet for game seven on Friday. Meanwhile, the Vienna Capitals have come from two games down against Alba Volan Szekesfehervar to level the series at two each. A public holiday yesterday in Hungary means the sides meet tonight in Fehervar, and on Wednesday in Vienna. Should the series still be tied, game seven (which would be the third game in five days) takes place on Friday.

Czech Republic

Kometa Brno lead PSG Zlin 2–1 in the series, despite losing their opening game on home ice to their lower-ranked opponents - however 4-1 and 2–1 victories in the following games put Brno ahead in the series. Sparta Prague are cruising against Mountfield Hradec Kralove, now 3–0 up in the series, and could book their place in the semi-finals tonight. Ocelari Trinec overcame BK Mlada Boleslav by the odd goal in both of their two games so far to lead the series 2–0, while Litvinov are up by the same score against Pardubice following two wins by a combined score of 8–1.

Denmark

The semi-finals are ready in the Metal Ligaen, where Blue Fox Herning face Esbjerg Energy and SonderjyskE Vojens meet the Frederikshavn White Hawks. Herning came through a deciding game seven against Rungsted, despite having won the regular season and drawing a much lower seed, while Frederikshavn and SonderjyskE both came through their respective series 4–1. Esbjerg, as we said last week, ran out 4–0 winners in their opening series. The semi-finals start tomorrow!

Finland

The Liiga season finished with KalPa Kuopio holding off IFK Helsinki and SaiPa Lappeenranta to complete the top six in Finland. This meant that IFK met Ilves Tampere and SaiPa faced Assat Pori in the best-of-three preliminary round to determine the other two quarter-finalists. Victories for IFK and SaiPa, both in two straight games, set up the quarter-finals, which begin on Friday. However, while a 2–0 series win might look routine, there was nothing simple about IFK's 2–1 win over Ilves last night. In what became the longest game in Liiga history, it took ntil the 134th minute in overtime until Mika Partanen scored the game- and series-winning goal – talk about excitement!

France

Gap have raced into a 3-1 series lead over Dijon in their Ligue Magnus semi-finals, and would look odds-on favourites to knock the 11th seeds out from here. In the other series, Angers and Epinal are locked in at two games each, with the latter winning the last two games by a total score of 12-3 to tie the series!

Germany

The DEL quarter-finals got under way over the past week, with regular season champions Adler Mannheim going into a 2–1 lead over the Nuremburg Ice Tigers in the opening games – both teams there winning their home games so far. Munich surprisingly lost their opener at home to Wolfsburg, and it got worse for the Red Bulls, losing games two and three as well - they now find themselves 3–0 down in the series! Ingolstadt and Iserlohn won on home ice to put the series at 2–1, and the same has happened in the Hamburg-Düsseldorf series as well.

Great Britain

The Sheffield Steelers have now moved into first place in the Elite League, leading the Braehead Clan by a point with the two sides having played the same number of games. A shocking 2–1 loss to last-place Edinburgh saw the Clan knocked off the top. The Cardiff Devils are a point further behind with a game in hand, while the Nottingham Panthers have now dropped completely out of the race. The Belfast Giants and Coventry Blaze have clinched playoff spots with just two more positions left to be filled. 

Norway

The first-place Stavanger Oilers easily disposed of Fredrikstad 4–0 in their playoff quater-finals, putting them through to the next round already. Joining them are the Storhamar Dragons, who also came through their own series without a defeat. Elsewhere, Sarpsborg can make it through to the semi-finals tonight if they win in Lorenskog, and Valerenga Oslo broke the deadlock with Frisk Asker and now lead the series 3–2 with a chance to advance tonight. 

Slovakia

We're all ready for the semi-finals in Slovakia, with the match-ups already decided. Nitra and Banska Bystrica both came through their quarter-finals in five games, while Kosice needed six to beat Piestany. Zvolen and Poprad went the distance, with the latter winning the deciding game seven in game-winning shots to book their play in the next round. Their reward is a series against Kosice, starting tonight, while Nitra meet Banska Bystrica in the other series.

Sweden

In Sweden, Brynas Gavle and Lulea Hockey advanced from the preliminary round to get themselves the last spots in the quarter-finals. Interestingly, Lulea draw Frolunda Gothenburg in a repeat of the CHL final – that series is currently tied one each after two games, as are the series between the Vaxjo Lakers and HK Orebro, and Linkoping HC and HV71 Jonkoping. Skelleftea AIK lead Brynas 2–0 ater winning the regular season by a distance.

Switzerland

The Swiss playoffs have already been exciting, with all four quater-finals going at least six games. HC Davos beat out EV Zug 4–2, winning only one game on home ice in the process. Geneve-Servette took a 4–2 series victory over HC Lugano to book their place in the next round, while SC Bern beat out Lausanne 4–3 in the series thanks to an overtime win in game seven of their series. In the remaining game, ZSC Lions Zurich needed a 5–2 win in game seven to finish off EHC Biel. This means that in the semi-finals, Zurich face Geneve and Bern meet Davos. It also means that the league's six CHL representatives for next season are now known, with Geneve and Davos qualifying for the two B-Licenses.