Last week we covered our 2020 Champions Hockey League Finalists’ domestic form, but both the Frölunda Indians and Mountfield HK have played a combined five league games since then. Let’s take a look at how both teams have faired over the past week and recap their form ahead of tomorrow’s Final.
Mountfield HK
After showing everyone what they’re capable of in the CHL this season, Mountfield HK have finally started to transfer their form to their domestic games. After a poor start to their Czech Extraliga season, the team's form has drastically improved over the last month or so and last week saw no sign of them stopping any time soon. Of their three league games last week, they won two and narrowly missed out on winning the third.
On Tuesday Tomáš Martinec’s and Vladimír Růžička’s side beat Rytíři Kladno 4-1 at home before travelling to face fellow CHL side HC Pilsen on Friday. The intense game between the two teams was tied at 2-2 in regulation and went to OT but Mountfield’s came through in the shootout to earn a crucial confidence boost before the Final.
Their last match was on Sunday against local rivals Dynamo Pardubice. The heated duel was a back and forth of scoring and conceding and went right down to the wire in true derby fashion, but in the end it was Dynamo who were able to just edge past Mountfield and win it 4-3. Despite the result Mountfield played a great game, but will they be able to recover in time for Tuesday's Final?
Frölunda Indians
After winning three league games on the bounce, Frölunda, who are currently third in the Swedish SHL, played two games last week. On Thursday they faced this season’s CHL Semi-Finalists Djurgården Stockholm away but after going 2-0 down in the second period, Frölunda were unable to turn the score around in the third period. Samuel Fagemo’s goal three minutes before the final buzzer only finalised the score at 2-1.
On Saturday Frölunda faced Leksand in yet another away game. The Indians were able to get three goals past Leksand, who are currently in the relegation zone of the SHL table, to go 3-0 up in the second period, but after conceding twice in the final period, they had to make do with a final score of 4-2, the last goal being an empty net shot in the final seconds of the match.
These results further emphasize Frölunda’s shaky away form this season – despite having the best home record in the SHL, they are an average mid-table team when it comes to away game results. This isn’t good news leading up to the Final which will be played on Mountfield’s home ice.