The last two semi-finalists at the 96th Spengler Cup will be determined in the pre-semifinals on Sunday. Dynamo Pardubice will face off against the Straubing Tigers at 3.10pm, and at 8.15pm HC Davos will play Karpat Oulu.

Fribourg-Gotteron and Team Canada qualified directly for the semifinals by winning their respective groups and have also earned themselves a valuable Sunday off. This rest day can be a decisive advantage during this intense Spengler Cup schedule.
HC Davos and Karpat Oulu last faced each other at the European Cup final tournament in St. Petersburg in early January 2006. The Finns won 3-1 then. The rematch will come almost 19 years later at the Spengler Cup. It will be interesting to see which HCD will show up. After a disappointing tournament opener, they stole the show in the final 15 minutes of their 5-0 victory over the Straubing Tigers. The game will be a special one for Karpat Oulu’s Teemu Turunen. He played for Davos during the 2020-21 season. The Spengler Cup had been canceled at that time due to the covid-19 epidemic. Now, with some delay, Turunen still gets a chance to breath Spengler Cup air. After the preliminary round games, he showed himself ecstatic by the traditional tournament, its special atmosphere and spirit throughout Davos. Now he looks forward to matchup with HCD. ‘I remember my time in Davos fondly. Now I will face off against several of my former teammates’, says Turunen. But he will not be giving any presents. ‘We need to continue where we left off against Pardubice. We showed a strong team effort there. And we played smarter than in our loss to Fribourg-Gotteron’, Turunen assesses. And he adds, ‘of course we want to move on to the semifinals!’

Text: Spengler Cup Onlineredaktion    Foto: Keystone