Read below to follow Frolunda Gothenburg's path to their third straight appearance in the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals.
Coming into this year’s Champions Hockey League as defending champions, and having made both of the previous two Finals, it’s perhaps unsurprising to see Frolunda Gothenburg once again in the Semi-Final stage. Yet again however the Swedes have flirted with elimination in the earlier rounds, but tuned things round to make the final four.
Group Stage
The Indians had arguably their toughest group stage draw in the three-year history of the CHL this season, coming up against DEL side Grizzlys Wolfsburg and Extraliga team Dynamo Pardubice. Starting on the road, Frolunda needed two quick goals in the final period to overcome Wolfsburg 2-1, before twice coming from behind in the Czech Republic to tie with Dynamo in regulation, but lose on penalty shots.
A win on return to home ice of 5-2 over Pardubice put the Indians through to the next stage with a game to spare, although they would go on to lose the home match against Wolfsburg 3-2 as the German team battled to qualify.
Knock-out Stage
Having come through the group stage solid if unspectacular, Frolunda were then drawn probably one of the trickiest of ties for a group winner in the Round of 32 – Yunost Mink. The Belarusians hadn’t lost at home in the group stage, beating the SHL's Vaxjo Lakers in OT in the process, and we again successful on their own ice – beating the defending champions 3-2 with three goals in the space of 20 minutes across the opening two periods to give Frolunda their third loss in the competition to date.
“Yunost played very well and they deserved to win,” conceded Frolunda head coach Roger Ronnberg after that game. “They were better than us. I'm glad that we lost by only one goal. A week from now we'll play more aggressive. Today we had a young team, as we were without seven players from our usual roster, but that is no excuse.”
And they were more aggressive back in Gothenburg, where Frolunda made light work of Yunost thrashing them 5-0 to advance to the Round of 16.
If Frolunda had not looked like defending champions in their previous six games, then their away leg against Eisbaren Berlin certainly put the back on everyone’s radar. An all-round domination of the German side on their own ice saw Frolunda come away with a 6-1 win in Berlin, and already give them a stranglehold on the match-up overall.
“We talked about (our situation) before the game,” said captain Joel Lundqvist after the win in Berlin. “The last two years we’ve been losing a lot of away games in the playoffs. We wanted to be ready and put ourselves in a good position to move forward and we did that.”
While Berlin battled in the return leg, Frolunda were done losing games in the CHL and ran out 4-1 winners to take the series 10-2 on aggregate and set down a marker for the rest of Europe.
The Quarter-Finals brought a familiar foe for the Indians in the shape of SHL rivals Linkoping HC. As in the previous round, Frolunda make their mark in the first leg with a dominating 4-0 win – the difference this time being that it was on their own ice. Linkoping put up a little resistance in the return game, but Frolunda’s 5-2 win on the night, and 9-2 overall, sent them into the Semi-Finals looking like a team that really doesn’t want to give up its European title.
Looking ahead to the Semi-Finals against Fribourg-Gotteron, Ronnberg said, “It’s exciting. We have great respect for Swiss hockey and we know that it’s a strong team. They are in the Semi-Finals for a reason. I know their coach, Larry Huras, pretty well and I know how his teams usually look. We must respect them but also believe in our strengths.”
Summary
Displayed below is the path that Frolunda Gothenburg have taken through the 2016-17 CHL season. Click on the result to see a recap, live blog, highlights and statistics from each game.
| Gameday | Day | Date | Time* | Group | Venue | Home | Away | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Day 1 | Fri | 19.08.2016 | 19:30 | Group A | Eis Arena Wolfsburg |  Grizzlys Wolfsburg |  Frolunda Gothenburg | 1:2 |
| Game Day 2 | Sun | 21.08.2016 | 17:00 | Group A | Tipsport Arena |  Dynamo Pardubice | Frolunda Gothenburg | 3:2 (PS) |
| Game Day 5 | Sat | 27.08.2016 | 17:00 | Group A | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg | Dynamo Pardubice | 5:2 |
| Game Day 9 | Fri | 09.09.2016 | 20:00 | Group A | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg | Grizzlys Wolfsburg | 2:3 |
| Round of 32 | Tue | 04.10.2016 | 18:00 | First Game | Chizhovka-Arena |  Yunost Minsk | Frolunda Gothenburg | 3:2 |
| Round of 32 | Tue | 11.10.2016 | 19:00 | Return Game | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg | Yunost Minsk | 5:0 |
| Round of 16 | Tue | 01.11.2016 | 19:30 | First Game | Mercedes Benz Arena |  Eisbaren Berlin | Frolunda Gothenburg | 1:6 |
| Round of 16 | Tue | 08.11.2016 | 20:00 | Return Game | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg | Eisbaren Berlin | 4:1 |
| Quarter-Finals | Tue | 06.12.2016 | 20:00 | First Game | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg |  Linkoping HC | 4:0 |
| Quarter-Finals | Tue | 13.12.2016 | 20:00 | Return Game | Saab Arena | Linkoping HC | Frolunda Gothenburg | 2:5 |
| Semi-Finals | Tue | 10.01.2017 | 19:00 | First Game | Frolundaborgs Isstadion | Frolunda Gothenburg |  Fribourg-Gotteron | |
| Semi-Finals | Tue | 17.01.2017 | 20:15 | Return Game | BCF Arena | Fribourg-Gotteron | Frolunda Gothenburg |