With eight teams left in the Champions Hockey League, all fighting for a place in the next round, it was a magnificent start to the Quarter-Finals for EHC Biel-Bienne, who in their debut season carry a 3-2 lead into their second leg matchup against the reigning champions, the Frölunda Indians next week.
After a scoreless opening period, the Swiss side broke the deadlock early in the second period through Jason Fuchs, and added a second minutes later through Damien Brunner.
A third goal early in the third period by Marc-Antoine Pouliot proved to be decisive, as Frölunda attempted a comeback, but despite goals from Nicklas Lasu and Joel Mustonen, they couldn’t find an equaliser to keep Biel ahead heading into next week.
The real decisive factor in this game came between the posts for Biel, Jonas Hiller put in a stellar performance in the contest, stopping 50 of the 52 shots he faced.
"We knew they were going to be putting everything to the net, so I was ready for that.”Jonas Hiller speaks after a 50 save performance helps EHC Biel-Bienne to a 3-2 victory over the Frölunda Indians
“Sometimes it’s better to see a lot of rubber to get in the game. I made a couple of good saves in the first but the guys made a great effort as well.“
Biel topped Group A to make it through to the Playoffs in their first CHL season, and their Round of 16 game against the Augsburger Panther went the distance, needing an overtime winner from Toni Rajala to send the team through to the Quarter-Finals and set up a matchup against Frölunda.
“We knew coming into this that is going to be a tough game. Frölunda are probably the best team in Europe so we knew we had to come up big and we got better throughout the game."
“We spent a lot of time in our own zone, but at the same time we scored on our chances. Too bad we let the last two goals in, but before this game we would’ve been happy with a 3-2 win.”
The next leg takes place at home for EHC Biel-Bienne next week, but they’ll be well aware of the threat Frölunda pose after they mounted a comeback from three goals down heading into their second leg of the Round of 16 against Färjestad Karlstad, overturning that deficit in spectacular fashion to keep their journey to the grand final alive.
"We have to try to win the game again. Frölunda are way too good to just sit back and relax."Jonas Hiller
“We can’t think to much about the lead,” Hiller explained heading into the second leg. They showed us in the third how fast they can go so we need to be ready from the start.”
For Frölunda, they’re looking to keep their CHL journey alive and will need to find a way past Jonas Hiller next week if they’re to do that.
“We came out pretty good and threw some pucks towards net, but we couldn’t find the back of the net” explained Frölunda forward Jacob Peterson. “We made their goalie look good. In the second period we didn’t have the same speed, we didn’t win the 50/50 battles either and once again we couldn’t score and they were effective.
“In the third we stepped up and got two goals in the end, and we got close to a third as well. “It’s a big difference being down by one instead of three. It’s good feeling that we’ve got some momentum going into the next game.”