For the second year in a row, it will be a team from Switzerland hosting a team from Sweden in the Champions Hockey League final. Farjestad BK from Karlstad, Sweden and the ZSC Lions from Zurich, Switzerland each entered the return games of their semi-finals on Tuesday with comfortable leads on aggregate and were able to close out Sparta Prague and Geneve-Servette respectively.
Farjestad Karlstad (SWE) def. Sparta
Sparta outshot Farjestad 30-23 in the first game in Prague but ran into Canadian Maxime Lagace in net, who had a strong game. Farjestad was led offensively by Slovak Marian Studenic, who had four points, and Oskar Steen, who had three. A couple of late goals gave Farjestad a commanding four-goal lead heading home.
“We scored on our chances, which was good, and overall I think we played a pretty solid 60 minutes, so we’re happy with the result,” said Farjestad coach Tomas Mittel. “I don’t think it was an easy game. I think we got some timely goals and they had some chances, but ‘Laggy’ was good in the net, so I think it was a tighter game than 6-2.”
In the return game, Farjestad never trailed and eventually won 4-2 to take the victory by six goals on aggregate. Joel Kellman had a goal and an assist to match the two points he had last week while Studenic added another goal.
