Four teams remain to battle for the Season 8 EURO Cup and three of them were in this very place a season ago.
The Southern Conference final features Lisbon HC versus the Bratislava Eagles. Last year, Lisbon swept the Eagles, winning the first two games in Bratislava, both in overtime, with Jared Spurgeon and Max Domi scoring the game-winning OT goals. Joe Pavelski scored in OT in the first game in Lisbon and the series was all but over.
This year, the teams’ lineups will be similar to last year’s, although cap restraints have shuffled the bottom lines for both teams. But it’s still the line of John Tavares, Steven Stamkos and Matt Mouslon for Lisbon against the line of Jonathan Toews, Alexander Ovechkin and Tyler Ennis for Bratislava; Drew Doughty for Lisbon vs. Bratislava’s Tyler Myers on the blueline; and Kari Ramo vs. Marc-Andre Fleury in goal. The biggest name that wasn’t there least season is Dion Phaneuf, who is on his fifth EURO team. Phaneuf, 33, was a career-best +42 this season in Portugal and he was in the Top 20 in both points (45) and hits (225).
The teams split the season series 3-3 and each was 2-1 at home. Both are coming off 6-game series. Lisbon defeated Athens and Bratislava defeated Berlin. Bratislava finished the regular season third in the league with 115 points, while Lisbon was fifth with 108.
In the Northern Conference, it’s the colossal clash everyone was anticipating last season: Belfast versus Minsk; the reigning Cup champs against the President’s Trophy winners. Last year, Minsk was upset by Moscow in the series just before the big match-up that never occurred, and this season, injuries hobbled the Hussars for the first quarter of the season. But Jordan Staal was able to more than fill-in for top line center Nicklas Backstrom once the Swede was injured, and in fact, Staal stole the job for the rest of the year, finishing second in scoring to Tavares.
The series line matchups are impressive. For Minsk, Staal teams with Patrick Kane and Milan Lucic on the first line and Backstrom plays with Thomas Powell and Gustav Nyquist on the second line. They will battle Belfast’s top two lines of Claude Giroux, Nathan MacKinnon and Evander Kane; and Matt Duchene, Ondrej Palat and Mikko Lehtonen. And each team has third-liners who can’t be overlooked, such Luke Adam for the Hussars and Jonathan Huberdeau for the Giants. Both teams have big, fast defensemen who play well all over the ice. Minsk comes at you with a top 4 of Ryan McDonagh, Michael Del Zotto, Max Chudinov and Aaron Ekblad; but Belfast counters with Justin Faulk, P.K. Subban, Oliver Ekman-Larson and Jaccob Slavin. In goal, it’s Carey Price vs. Jonathan Quick and both are capable of stealing wins for their teams.
If you go by how they did against each other during the regular season, Minsk will win in a walk, because the won all 4 matchups between the teams, scoring 4, 5 or 6 times each game. Minsk finished the regular season in first place, Belfast in sixth. In the playoffs, Minsk overcame Edinburgh and then Stockholm 4-0 both times. Belfast dispatched of Helsinki in 5 games and then Copenhagen in six.
