Sparta Prague. Source.
It’s the Spengler Cup, the annual invitational tournament hosted by HC Davos in Switzerland and played from Boxing Day till New Year’s Eve. Six teams take part; this year they are host Davos, Team Canada, US College Selects, Sparta Prague, HIFK and Fribourg-Gottéron. The teams are divided into two groups, each group plays a round robin and the standings from the round robin determine the playoff positions. The games are:
Group Torriani:
Match 1 (December 26) Fribourg-Gottéron [5 – 2] Sparta Prague
Match 3 (December 27) HIFK [1 – 4] [Sparta Prague]
Match 5 (December 28) [Fribourg-Gottéron] [4 – 3] HIFK
Group Cattini:
Match 2 (December 26) Team Canada [3 – 2] US Selects
Match 4 (December 27) Davos [3 – 5] [US Selects]
Match 6 (December 28) [Team Canada] [1 – 4] Davos
Quarter-finals:
Match 7 (December 29) [Sparta Prague] [5 – 1] [Team Canada]
Match 8 (December 29) [Davos] [3 – 0] [HIFK]
Semi-finals:
Match 9 (December 30) [US Selects] [5 – 3] [Sparta Prague]
Match 10 (December 30) [Fribourg-Gottéron] [1 – 3] [Davos]
Final:
Match 11 (December 31) winner [US Selects] [3 – 6] [Davos]
The Spengler Cup was first played in 1923, which would make this the 103rd edition, except that there were six years when it wasn’t played due to war or some other thing, making this the 97th edition.
Despite being host club, HC Davos have not played in every Spengler Cup, but they have won the tournament 16 times. They are currently in first place in the Swiss National League by a wide margin.
Team Canada first attended the tournament in 1984 and have won it 16 times. The squad is made up chiefly of Canadians playing in the Swiss league or the AHL.
The US College Selects appear for the first time. But it’s not the first time university players have participated. Oxford University won the inaugural Spengler Cup in 1923.
Sparta Prague have been to the Spengler Cup ten times before and have won it twice. They are currently second in the Czech Extraliga.
Fribourg-Gottéron play in the Swiss National League. They won the Spengler Cup last year. They are presently second in the NL.
HIFK from Helsinki have been to the Spengler Cup four times before. Currently they’re 13th in the Finnish Liiga.
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