Juraj Kolnik scored his fourth goal of the tournament against Mannheim

For the first time since 2006, HC Davos has succeeded in making it to the finals in their home tournament.  After falling behind early, Davos made three unanswered goals to defeat the Mannheim Eagles 3:1.

Mannheim takes early lead

For the guests from Mannheim, the party started well.  Ahren Spylo (alias Ahren Nittel) gave the Eagles the lead after only 158 seconds of playing.  Davos' Dario Bürgler managed to score the equalizer after his team had held a numeric advantage on the ice for 8 minutes.  Johannes Salmonsson's score (25) gave Davos the leaf while Juraj Kolnik's fourth goal of the tournament (34) put the game out of reach for the Germans.

Two and a half minutes from the end of the game, Mannheim took the desperate measure of replacing their goalie with an additional forward, however the desired goals did not result from the tactic.  Equally quizzically, Davos missed four shots on the unprotected goal.

Minsk out for revenge?

For the New Year's Day Final HC Davos will meet Dynamo Minsk for the 12 noon face-off.  Davos proved victorious 3:2 with wonderful luck against the Belarusians during the qualifying round of the tournament.  Since then, Minsk has celebrated three strong wins in a row.  For their 15^th visit to the Finals, a motivated Davos will be looking, nevertheless, to repeat their victory of the 2006 edition of the Spengler Cup.  In three of their last four years, HC Davos has missed the Finals of their home tournament.

Behind the two finalists, the ranking table has the Mannheim Eagles in 3^rd place with 4 points, Team Canada in 4^th place also with 4 points, and the Czech Champions Karlovy Vary in 5^th with 2 points.  This will be only the 2^nd time in the last 10 years that the Canadians missed the finals, and their worst overall ranking since 1993 when they had only 2 points.

HC Davos - Adler Mannheim 3:1 (1:1, 2:0, 0:0).

Vaillant Arena. - Attendance: 6746 (sold out). - Referees: Looker/Reiber (USA/Ka), Arm/Müller. - Goals: 3. Spylo (Petermann) 0:1. 9. Bürgler (Clarke, Salmonsson/ disqualified Mauer) 1:1. 25. Salmonsson (Widing) 2:1. 34. Kolnik (Guggisberg, Setzinger) 3:1. -- Penalties: 2 times 2 minutes against HCD, 5 times 2 minutes against Mannheim.

Davos: Berra; Naumenko, Helfer; Ramholt, Grossmann; Jan von Arx, Back; Guggisberg, Reto von Arx, Kolnik; Widing, Setzinger, Salmonsson; Marc Wieser, Rizzi, Dino Wieser; Duca, Taticek, Clarke; Bürgler, Joggi.

Adler Mannheim: Brathwaite; Hedlund, Butenschön; Reul, Petermann; Pollock, Scalzo; Trepanier, Schmidt; Steiner, Beardsmore, Arendt; King, Methot, Robinson; Mauer, Forbes, Kink; Spylo, Hackert, Seidenberg.

General Nores: HCD without Forster (suspended), Marha, Sciaroni (both injured), Guerra (not in line up/surplus). 22. goal post by Setzinger. 34. cross bar by Guggisberg. 58. (57:32) Timeout by Mannheim, from then on without Goalie. (Si)

Translated by Olivia Kaferly