Throughout the six Champions Hockey League seasons to date, Norwegian clubs have shown their ability to compete with Europe’s best. In this edition of Flashback, we take a look at the return game of Storhamar Hamar’s Round of 32 match-up with Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg.
Drawn in Group M alongside Genève-Servette and Sparta Prague, Storhamar did the unthinkable and finished top of their group, with three wins out of four.
“We will need big hearts to advance and naturally our aim is to go as far as possible. We didn’t win our group just to give in now,” forward Alexander Reichenberg said at the time.
The Norwegian club picked up a remarkable 3-1 victory in Salzburg in the first game of their Round of 32 clash, through goals by Jacob Berglund, Christian Larrivée, and the aforementioned Reichenberg.
In the return game, Storhamar didn’t have it all their own way, despite Jimmy Andersson giving them a 4-1 aggregate lead in the 11th minute. Salzburg showed signs of life in the third, as Brian Fahey netted early in the period. However, Berglund would score just under four minutes later to restore Storhamar’s three-goal cushion.
Brett Sterling would light the lamp for Salzburg with three and a half minutes to go, and despite sustained pressure, Andersson would find the empty net for his second goal of the game to seal the tie for Storhamar and book their place in the Round of 16.
Finnish giants TPS Turku awaited in the next round of the competition, and despite another spirited showing, Storhamar exited the competition at this stage, suffering a 6-4 aggregate defeat, despite this goal of the season candidate from Jacob Berglund.
It would take three years for the team from Hamar to return to the CHL, but they picked up right where they left off. Wins over Tappara Tampere and Oceláři Třinec helped Storhamar qualify from Group E and face off against Swedish club Skellefteå AIK in the Round of 16.
In Norway, both sides played out a 4-4 tie, and a historic upset looked to be on the cards as Storhamar took the lead twice in the first period of the return game. However, Skellefteå proved to have too much in the tank, as they could not find an answer to Bud Holloway’s two second-period goals that sent the Swedish side through.
They may have only appeared in the Champions Hockey League twice, but Storhamar Hamar have truly made their mark on the competition.