Maris Bičevskis (No 96) Photo: “Mlada Boleslav”
Latvian hockey striker Māris Bičevskis’ Czech extraordinary team “Mlada Boleslav” suffered the second loss on Saturday in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Champions League tournament. The Czech team lost 1: 2 (1: 0, 0: 1, 0: 0, 0: 1) to the Finnish club Helsinki IFK in extra time at home in Group B.
Bičevskis spent 15 minutes and 49 seconds on the field, during which he scored once, scored two penalty minutes for rudeness, won in six throws and ended the game with a neutral efficiency. Roni Hirvonen scored the goal in the third minute of extra time. At the start of the subgroup tournament, “Mlada Boleslav” conceded 1: 4 to Gothenburg’s “Frolunda Indians” from Sweden.
In the final game of the day in subgroup B, the Frolunda Indians and the Zurich Lions from Switzerland will meet. The Helsinki team with five points in two games takes first place in Group B, three points in one match go to the Gothenburg club, Mlada Boleslav follows with one point in two matches, and the Lions are still in the beige.
It has already been reported that on Friday, the Swedish team represented by Jānis Kalniņš won the Prague “Sparta” 2: 1 in the group A game of Vēkše “Lakers”. Kalnins repulsed 26 of 27 opponents’ shots. Meanwhile, Bratislava’s “Slovan” with Krister Gudlevsky’s goal in other games of this group in the guests conceded “Leksands IF” from Sweden with 3: 5. Gudlevsky stood at the goal for 59 minutes and 16 seconds, repelling 39 of the 43 shots or 90.7% of the shots.
There are 32 teams in the Champions League, divided into eight subgroups of four units each. The main tournament will end on October 13, when each team will have played six games in the group. After that, the elimination tournament will start, the culmination of which will be on March 1, 2022, when the final is planned. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the 2020/2021 season, the tournament was not played. In the 2019/2020 season in the CHL final, Gothenburg’s “Frolunda Indians” won 3: 1 with Hradec Kralova’s “Mountfield”, which included Oskars Cibuļskis. The tournament took place for the first time in the 2014/15 season. Never before have the continental hockey league (KHL) units played in the tournament.
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