After two thrilling Champions Hockey League Flashback games last week, we are back with another for you to enjoy today. The duel that we will be streaming live is the return leg of Skellefteå AIK and HC Davos’ Quarter-Finals matchup that decided which of the two teams made it into the last four of the 2015/16 season!
Skellefteå already had a season of CHL hockey under their belt entering 2015/16. In their first stint on the pan-European stage they made it all the way to the Semi-Finals where they were narrowly eliminated by to-be Champions Luleå Hockey. Domestically they were also feeling a little bitter – after winning the Championship for the second time running in 2013/14, they were defeated in the Final in 2014/15. You can imagine Skellefteå had a lot they wanted to make right in 2015/16, starting with the CHL.
They bossed their three-team group winning all four games and advancing to the Round of 32 from top spot. There they faced outsiders HC Košice, who beat them by a goal in the first leg, but Skellefteå were not ready to go packing and a convincing 3:0 win in the return leg booked them a spot against Eisbären Berlin in the next round. They won by three in the first leg and added another to the goal difference in the return leg in Sweden to make the Quarter-Finals where they were to meet their toughest opponent of the season yet - HC Davos.
Despite being in their debut season of the CHL, Davos had plenty of European hockey experience to draw from. The Swiss club have been the organisers of the Spengler Cup, the oldest hockey tournament on the planet, since 1923 and participate in it each year. They entered the 2015/16 season as Swiss NLA Champions and breezed through the Group Stage unbeaten – just like their Swedish rivals.
In the Round of 32 they faced Finns IFK Helsinki and surprisingly lost the first leg. They managed to turn it around in the return leg and win 5:2 to make it to the next round where they were drawn against Czech side Bílí Tygři Liberec – Skellefteå’s opponents from the Group Stage. Davos won both home and away, as did Skellefteå before them, to advance to the Quarter-Finals where they were in for their biggest fight yet.
The first game of their Quarter-Final tie was played in Switzerland. Over 4,000 turned out to see the big game, but they weren’t in for much of a show. It was a careful game as both teams didn’t want to make any big mistakes. Davos scored before the first period was over, but their lead only lasted them a few minutes as Skellefteå soon tied the game 1-1. Despite a few chances on either side, the score stayed the same and the game ended indecisive. All was to be decided in the return leg in Sweden.
Did Skellefteå end up getting the better of the away team, or did Davos inflict Skellefteå’s first home loss of the season? Tune in tonight at 19:00 CET to catch the game live!