ST. PETERSBURG, Russia. – Karpat Oulu missed the ECC final game for the first time but at least the Finns gained the second place in the Ivan Hlinka Division after beating Davos 6-1.

After two third places overall by Davos (2005) and Lugano (2006), it’s the worst result for a Swiss club at the European Champions Cup. Davos is classified last in the six-team race while MODO Ornskoldsvik finishes the tournament fifth.

Kalle Sahlstedt deked Davos’ defenceman Andreas Furrer and passed over to Teemu Normio, who opened the score at 6:30. In a period with few scoring chances, Janne Pesonen extended the lead at 23:24. During a power play, he put the puck behind Davos’ goalkeeper Reto Berra in a penalty shot. Five minutes later, Pesonen scored also the 3-0. He profited from a rebound of Berra after a shot of Hannes Hyvonen.

Alexandre Daigle sparked hope when he was the luckiest player in a situation with many players in front of Karpat goalie Jaakko Suomalainen’s crease to score Davos’ first goal at 33:07. At 36:14, Josef Marha had a breakaway while Davos was playing shorthanded but missed the net. It was the last chance to come back into the game as Mikko Alikoski scored the 4-1 in favour of Karpat at 37:45.

The Finns heightened the score one more time in the third period, when Ondrej Kratena’s shot caused chaos in Davos’ defence and Tommi Paakkolanvaara made the 5-1. Jan Novak arranged the 6-1 following a save of Berra after Kratena’s breakaway at 58:15.

While the win was a kind of consolation for the Finns, the Swiss were disappointed as their minimum goal was the third place overall. The game was most special for Janne Niinimma, who had to leave it while 13 minutes left because of complaining against the referees. “It was the first time for twelve years that I played against my hometown team”, said the Davos and former NHL defenceman, “they were just better than us. We had just three power plays and they much more.”

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MARTIN MERK