The last game couldn’t have been any closer, but for the second time in two years, Copenhagen beat Berlin in the EURO Cup Finals. In doing so, Copenhagen becomes the second team in league history to win back-to-back Cups. Belfast accomplished the feat in seasons 4 and 5.

For the Smurfs, the feeling has to be very disheartening, yet familiar. It is the fourth time Berlin has been to the Finals and come away empty-handed.

In Game 7, both teams gave it everything they possibly could. In fact, a player from each team had to be treated by doctors after the game. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 4-4 and Copenhagen had just a one-shot lead in shots on goal, 34-33.

But in overtime, just a little more than 30 seconds in, Trident defenseman Slava Voynov got to a loose puck in the neutral zone, fed it to an open Auston Matthews on the left side and he carried it deep into the Smurf zone. He then slammed on the brakes and saucered a pass to Marko Dano, who in one motion caught the pass and flipped it over the glove of Berlin goalie Calvin Pickard and into the net, igniting an explosion of loud joy in the stands and on the ice as his teammates lef the bench and mobbed him in the corner to Pickard’s left.

Voynov got the scoring going just 1:16 into the game with a slapshot from the point. It was his 3rd goal of the playoffs.

But Berlin took the lead over the next 19 minutes, thanks to two goals by captain Vadim Shipachyov (11 in the playoffs). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins assisted on both tallies.

Dano and Vincent Trocheck scored to give Copenhagen the lead again, but Smurf defenseman Roger Karrer made like a forward and tied the game late in the second.

That set up a tense third period. It looked good for the home team when Joakim Hillding’s rebound went to linemate Tomas Jurco and the Czech slammed it in with 8:32 to play, but Berlin wasn’t ready to fold just yet. Shipachyov and linemates Eliezer Sherbatov and Nugent-Hopkins applied relentless pressure on the Tridents’ D for about a minute until the puck went back to the point and Ryan Murray shot through a screen to beat goalie Andres De La Garma and tie the game with 6:32 to play.

Matthews and his friends thought he scored about 3 minutes later, but the goal was called back on an offside challenge by Coach Adam Oates. So off to OT we went. Dano did the rest.