The Spengler Cup Final

If there's one game worth watching on New Year's Eve, it's the Spengler Cup final. Yes, I realize there's a big game at the 2025 World Junior Championship tonight involving the two North American teams and the NHL is holding their annual money-printing game, but the Spengler Cup final is all about two teams who made it through a week of hockey played by five of the best club teams in Europe plus one team of Canadians gathered from all over the globe. The two teams who made it through the week in Davos to meet in the final were Germany's Straubing Tigers and Switzerland's HC Fribourg-Gottéron with the honour of being Spengler Cup champions on the line, and it was clear that dragons were far too much for the Tigers.

92 seconds into the final today, HC Fribourg-Gottéron led 2-0 off goals by Jacob De La Rose and Jakob Lilja as Straubing immediately called a timeout to regroup. 28 seconds after the chat, Tim Brunnhuber scored for Straubing to make it a 2-1 game as it seemed like the Tigers found the spark they needed. However, that spark only lasted another 72 seconds as Nathan Marchon made it a 3-1 game by the 3:12 of the first period!

Four goals scored in 192 seconds of play had the 6267 fans at the Davos Ice Palace rocking, but we were hardly done there. Christoph Bertschy would add a fourht goal for HC Fribourg-Gottéron at 9:38 before the Swiss side was whistled for two minor penalties in the latter half of the period. The Straubing power-play could not convert on either opportunity, though, and the opening frame would come to an end with the 4-1 Fribourg-Gottéron lead intact.

Perhaps there was fatigue on the Straubing side as the final marked their fifth game in 83 hours, but I'm sure none of their players will use that reasoning for their performance today. Straubing arguably had a tougher schedule than Fribourg-Gottéron did, having eliminated both Dynamo Pardubice and Team Canada en route to their berth in the final, but I doubt anyone will give them a pass on that detail as well after a disastrous opening period. Straubing would need to rally in a nearly miraculous way if they hoped to hoist the trophy at the conclusion of this game.

Things didn't get better for Zane McIntyre and Straubing in the second period, however, as TJ Brennan would end McIntyre's night with a goal at the 4:51 mark, prompting head coach Tom Pokel to pull McIntyre in favour of Florian Bugl. McIntyre's night would end with him making 11 stops on 16 shots as the Tigers found themselves in a deep hole with 35 minutes left to play in the gold medal match.

Two and a half minutes after McIntyre found himself on the bench, his team looked to start the comeback as Mario Zimmermann scored at the 7:28 mark to make it a 5-2 game with the Tigers seemingly showing some life. However, 1:08 later, the lead was four goals once again as Linden Vey beat Bugl to put HC Fribourg-Gottéron up 6-2, and any wind in the sails for Straubing seemed to die at that point. Andreas Borgman would score at 15:32 of the period, and the Swiss side took a 7-2 lead into the second intermission.

While it seemed like the championship was a foregone conclusion at this point, it should be noted that HC Fribourg-Gottéron had never won a Spengler Cup in their team history, and the Swiss side had struggled through the National League through the first half of the season. The team is tied for eighth-place in points with 42 alongside EHC Biel-Bienne and Raperswil-Jona, but they are technically in ninth-place thanks to goal differential. They sit 16 points back of fourth-place HC Davos, and were 6-5 in their previous 11 games coming into the Spengler Cup. Could the Spengler Cup be the turnaround that HC Fribourg-Gottéron needs?

The third period saw things settle down as off-setting minor penalties to each team were handed out before Straubing was given the lone power-play of the frame. It wouldn't add anything to their score, and the Fribourg-Gottéron fans got louder as the time counted down. When the final horn sounded, all that was left to do was for HC Fribourg-Gottéron to pick up their well-earned championship trophy!

We'll have to see if this tournament changes the fortunes for the Swiss club down the stretch in the National League, but they showed the world that they were the best-prepared team at this tournament over the course of one week. The victory marks the first time that HC Fribourg-Gottéron has been able to hoist the trophy, and we'll have to see if they get the automatic invitation to next year's tournament to defend that title as they look to go back-to-back in Davos!

That will close the curtain on HBIC's hockey coverage for 2024 as I have very little interest in the NHL outdoor game today, but I likely will watch the Canada-US game at the World Junior Championship tonight. It will be a quiet day on the hockey front tomorrow, so don't expect any sort of long-winded article from me either. Instead, spend the day with friends and family and enjoy the first day of a new year.

Who knows what 2025 will bring? We'll certainly find out, but Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

Until next year, keep your sticks on the ice!