The Big Ice Report - Your Weekly European & Minor League Hockey Roundup, Week of 3/29

Welcome to your premier roundup of varying minor hockey leagues that tend not to get the media attention globally, where we will try to keep you informed of what’s happening in hockey worldwide. Each week, a contributor from Reddit’s r/hockey will give a rundown of the past week’s action in their particular league, along with what to look forward to in the next week.

To jump directly to a league, just click the following links, but if you’re looking for a good hockey read, just start scrolling.

KHL – Pan-European League

DEL – German 1st League

Liiga – Finnish 1st League

Western Hockey League – US/Canada Major Junior League

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League – Canada Major Junior League

The KHL playoffs is reaching its climax, as one team has already punched their ticket to the Gagarin Cup Finals.

In the West, CSKA Moskva avenged their defeat from the previous season’s semifinal against SKA that saw them blow a 3-0 series lead by sweeping the St. Petersburg men out in this year’s conference final. SKA didn’t make it easy, sending Game 3 to triple overtime and Game 4 to overtime, but in the end, Ilya Sorokin’s dynamite performance was too much for them to solve. Sorokin, a 20 year old New York Islander draft pick, posted a staggering .977 during the series, stopping 133 of 136 shots against, and will be the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in a Gagarin Cup Final next week. The previous record holder just so happened to be the man he ran out of the CSKA crease, Stanislav Galimov, who set the record in 2009 with Ak Bars.

The East Final, being contested by Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa, is still anyone’s game. Through three games, the home team has won each one, including a double-overtime marathon of a Game 1. Just like in the regular season, Salavat Yulaev has been rather uneven, taking Game 1 to double overtime and winning Game 3 but getting squashed 6-1 in Game 2 via three points by Alexander Syomin. So far though, it seems as though the home ice advantage is holding strong for both Metallurg and Salavat Yulaev, and only time will tell who will face the behemoth Red Army in the final.

Playoff tree:

DEL WEEKLY ROUNDUP contribution by (/u/BoilerUp218)

The quarterfinals have wound up, and there was no shortage of action. With Munich already through, the next team to join them in the semi-finals were Grizzlies Wolfsburg after turning the series around from being down 1-0 to take the next four games and advance in Game 5. In Nürnberg, the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers took the win on the road in Game 6 to advance, leaving only one series undecided. After taking a 3-2 lead after Game 5, Eisbären Berlin went to Cologne seeking to punch their ticket to the semis. Köln had other ideas, winning 5-1 in Game 6 and forcing a journey back to the east for a Game 7. The Haie jumped up to a 3-0 lead in Game 7, but Berlin chopped back, bringing it to within 3-2, but that’s how it would end and the 7th seed makes it to the semifinals.

Playoff tree:

Important games of next week:

The semis begin as Cologne travels to Munich and Wolfsburg hosts Thomas Sabo. Games 1, 2, and 3 will be held this week on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, with one game each night being watchable on Servus.tv. The good news is that generally there is no play-by-play on DEL broadcasts, so you can hear the actual sounds of the arena.

LIIGA (Finland) WEEKLY ROUNDUP contribution by (/u/HelloHelloMrFighter)

The week in Finnish hockey was slightly dark as Finnish hockey legend, Aarne Honkavaara died at age of 91 and Espoon Blues went bankrupt. Liiga will most probably continue as league of 15 teams, as Mikkelin Jukurit got promoted from Mestis. Nevertheless, some playoff hockey was played in Liiga.

HIFK – Pelicans
2-0 before this week.
The clear underdogs, Pelicans, marched to the 4-2 surprise victory against the regular season champions on Tuesday. Same trend continued on Thursday, as Pelicans won 3-2 in overtime, with Antti Erkinjuntti making the important goal. At this point, the entire Finnish media went crazy and HIFK fans were in panic. HIFK did correct their game enough to win 2-1 on Saturday and are now in safer waters, but Pelicans have still their last words.
HIFK leads 3-2.

JYP – SaiPa
2-0 before this week.
SaiPa were surprisingly bad on the first two games and had to be better to have any chance against JYP. They had learnt from their mistakes and took the 2-1 win on Tuesday. JYP were clearly better on Thursday and did not leave any chance for SaiPa as JYP won 4-1. Saturday was brand new day for SaiPa as they made the series at least one game longer, winning 3-2.
JYP leads 3-2.

Kärpät – TPS
1-1 before this week.
Kärpät were clearly better on Tuesday, as they won 3-0. TPS were clearly not amused and took very important 2-1 win on Thursday as Kärpät were surprisingly quiet. Kärpät took the control again on Saturday, as they rolled to the clear 5-2 victory. This matchup has been absolute domination of 18-year-old Carolina prospect Sebastian Aho of Kärpät, who has scored eight points on five games and has been clearly the best on ice.
Kärpät leads 3-2.

Tappara – Lukko
1-1 before this week.
Tappara won the very tight one-goal game on Tuesday, as regular season MVP Kristian Kuusela made the only goal. Tappara were also better on Thursday as they won 1-3. Lukko had to win on Saturday and were already leading 3-1 going to the third, but then Lukko melted down and Tappara won 5-3 and became the first team to continue to the semifinals. Tappara ended Lukko’s playoff journey for the fourth year in row.
Tappara won the series 4-1.

Current Playoff Bracket:

Games next week:

All weekday games start 18.30 (EEST)

Monday:
Pelicans – HIFK
SaiPa – JYP
TPS – Kärpät

Tuesday:
HIFK – Pelicans (if needed)
JYP – SaiPa (if needed)
Kärpät – TPS (if needed)

Friday:
Tappara/? – ?/Tappara
? – ?

All weekend games start 17.00 (EEST)

Saturday:
Tappara/? – ?/Tappara
? – ?

WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE WEEKLY ROUNDUP contribution by (/u/82hky82), known in the real world as Michael Wood

This past Friday marked the kickoff of the playoffs in the WHL with 16 teams battling for that coveted trip to the Memorial Cup in Red Deer. One team to focus on without doubt is the Edmonton Oil Kings. A team that finished sub 500 in the regular season, went to the very wire to just qualify for the playoffs beating out the Medicine Hat Tigers in a tiebreaker game. The Oil Kings rode that momentum to go on and take the first two games against #1 seeded Brandon Wheat Kings. Brandon losing two games at home to EDM is nothing short of shocking to start off the playoff season.

Lethbridge vs Regina is another series to take note of. After two games the series is tied at 1 game a piece and features # 1 point getter Adam Brooks and # 3 point getter Brayden Burke. Another series to take note of is the Red Deer Rebels vs the Calgary Hitmen. These two Provincial rivals are not packing any punches as this series has been filled with hard hitting hockey. After three games in three nights, Red Deer leads Calgary 2-1. Finally, a top team in Kelowna is surprisingly tied with Kamloops after two games. We can always expect one or two upsets in round one and this series may very well provide that.

Every other playoff series is going as expected with Seattle, Everett, and Victoria all leading their series 2-0 over the likes of Prince George, Portland, and Spokane respectively. An interesting week lies ahead with the critical third game of the series headed to be just that for many teams so far. On to the next week.

SASKATCHEWAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE WEEKLY ROUNDUP contribution by (/u/ xayoz306)

The semifinal matchups for the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League are set, after a wild week that saw every series go quicker than expected, with one gaining international notoriety.

The Battlefords North Stars, the number one seed heading into the playoffs, surprised no one when they finished off the Kindersley Klippers in five games. The North Stars finished Kindersley off Saturday night with a 3-1 win.

Many were expecting the series between the La Ronge Ice Wolves and Melfort Mustangs to go the distance. It didn’t pan out that way, though, as the Mustangs found a way to score on Kris Joyce, the league’s MVP after he had a stellar season between the pipes for La Ronge. In the end, the Mustangs took the series in four straight.

The Nipawin Hawks play on the smallest ice surface in the SJ, and they used it to their advantage against the Estevan Bruins. In a hard hitting series, Nipawin took four games out of six. That advanced them past the Bruins, who were looking to play their way into the Western Canada Cup. The Bruins will be hosting the tournament, so they do already have their ticket punched to the tournament.

The one series that brought the league to attention around the world involved the Flin Flon Bombers and the Weyburn Red Wings. A post game melee after game 4 was caused after a member of the Wings stole the moose leg that is traditionally thrown on the ice in Flin Flon after a win. The Bombers finished off the series Saturday in five games, upsetting the heavily favoured team from Weyburn.

The Bombers will now face the North Stars in the semi finals. The Bombers took the season series, but the stars had the last laugh, handily beating Flin Flon in the final two meetings of the season.

Nipawin and Melfort face off for the other berth in the Canalta Cup final. The two teams are storied rivals, being just a 45 minute drive from each other.

Both of those series will be fierce as all four want to grab the league title, and advance to the Western Canada Cup.

The Big Ice Report – Your Weekly European & Minor League Hockey Roundup, Week of 3/29