Quick Glance:
The teams finished a point from each other in the standings and by an eyelash, Kosice won home ice advantage. It should be a fantastic – and close – series because Bern had the fourth-best offense in the league this year while Kosice always presents a strong team defense. The Slovakian team will have to limit their penalties because Bern has a deadly powerplay, led by Nico Hischier (102 points this season). Kosice is incredibly balanced. Their top 3 scoring forwards all had between 74 and 78 points and their top four defensemen all had either 32 or 33 points.
Goalies:
- Bern – Karri Ramo, 3.36 GAA and .890 save pct.
- Kosice – Stanislav Galimov, 2.86 GAA and .902 save pct.
Top Plus/Minus players:
- Bern – Marian Studenic +18
- Kosice – Ryan Graves +27
Expert Panel Predictions:
- Commissioner Chuck: Kosice wins in 5 games. The Slovak team is a pretty good road team and they have home ice advantage in the series. On top of that, Stanislav Galimov has emerged has a solid goalie. Kosice has a lot of young players in the lineup so either the shortage of experience will hurt the team … or moving on to another round would further boost their development.
- Rose: Bern takes the series in 7 games. I love watching the Interrail fly all over the place. You might not know much about Henrik Haapala and Kristian Kuusela, but that doesn’t matter because they are still 30-goal scorers whether you know them or not. And Bern has two more of 30-goal men as well as Mika Zibanejad, who was injured for 13 games and still scored 29. They have real fire power.
