Finland opened the 2010-2011 Euro Hockey Tour by winning its home tournament, the Karjala-turnaus, in Helsinki on Sunday after a comeback victory against archrival Sweden.

The Finns started the event with bad luck, losing 1-0 to Russia when Alexander Svitov scored the only goal with 2:10 minutes remaining in regulation time. Vasili Koshechkin earned the shutout with 25 saves.

The Lions reacted with passion in the two following games and defeated both the Czech Republic, 5-0, and archrival Sweden, 4-1. The event ended with Finland, Russia and Sweden having three points, but thanks to their superior goal difference in the mutual games, Finland won the tournament.

Robert Nilsson, who was the scoring leader with four goals, opened the scoring for the Swedes in the last game, but Finland turned the game with four goals in the last ten minutes of the third period.

13,006 spectators saw this classic clash at Hartwall Arena, the main venue for the 2012 IIHF World Championship that will be co-hosted with Stockholm, Sweden.

Also the Deutschland Cup ended with a victory for the home squad. The Germany-Switzerland match was another clash between neighbours that became a final for first place. That these teams ended in the first two positions was a surprise to many people as both coaches travelled to Munich with a vast number of rookies. The Swiss called it a “U25 national team” with 14 players of age 25 or below on the game roster, while Germany had even more with 17 players that were 25 years old or younger.

Just as in the World Championship quarterfinals, the Germans ended up defeating their neighbours on home ice, 2-1, to successfully defend the Deutschland Cup title. Mark Messier’s selection of Canadian players from the German DEL league ended up in third place after defeating Slovakia in a shootout.

Several other nations started a revival of the European Ice Hockey Challenge, a series of tournaments for nations ranked 10th to 30th in the IIHF World Ranking. The EIHC season began with four events played during the long weekend.

Denmark succeeded in the Polesie Cup in Gomel where the Danes won the key game against Belarus 4-2 thanks to three second-period goals. The red-and-whites continued with two 3-2 victories in shootouts against Norway and Slovenia. Belarus finished its home event in second place.

Russia’s B national team had a good start in its first event after many years, sweeping through the four nations tournament in Sanok, Poland. The Yevgeni Popikhin coached squad defeated Ukraine 7-0, the Netherlands 9-1 and Poland 6-2. 23-year-old Spartak Moscow forward Igor Musatov led the tournament with six goals and eight points. Host Poland finished the tournament in second place while coach Dave Lewis had a rough premiere with Ukraine, losing to Division I rival Poland 6-3.

Austria, which was promoted to the 2011 IIHF World Championship, started its season successfully by winning the Telenor Hoki Kupa in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.

The Eagles defeated Top Division rival France 4-3 in the opening game before continuing with wins against Japan, 4-0, and Hungary, 3-1. Philipp Lukas (3+2) and Rafael Rotter (1+4) had five points each, as had Hungary’s Balazs Ladanyi (3+2), while Bernhard Starkbaum was outstanding in the goal, keeping his net clean despite 31 shots at his goal in 90 minutes of play.

Romania won its EIHC event on home ice in Brasov, defeating Serbia (2-1), Croatia (6-1) and Spain (4-0). Romania and – for the first time ever – Spain were the teams promoted to Division I last spring while Croatia and Serbia have to play one tier below.

Men’s Junior Events

At the U20 level Sweden showed once again it was the top nation among Europeans as the Swedes won a four nations tournament in the Czech Republic defeating Finland (3-1), Russia (6-2) and the Czechs (3-1).

Germany, Belarus and Slovenia won other four nations tournaments for U20 teams.

Team USA, consisting of players from the domestic junior league USHL, won the World Junior A Challenge in Penticton, Canada, that featured teams from U18 to U20. The Americans defeated Canada East, 6-4, in the gold medal game. The Swiss U20 national team won the bronze medal game against Canada West, 8-3.

The United States’ U18 national team won a four nations tournament in Sundsvall, Sweden, but the reigning world champion had tough challenges provided by their Northern European opponents. The U.S. won the opening game against Finland 3-2, but had an easy 8-3 victory against Switzerland.

The Americans still needed to beat Sweden in the last game, but Tre Kronor led 4-1 after 17 minutes including three power-play goals. The U.S. came back and tied the game at four with eight minutes left in regulation time before the shootout decided the result after a scoreless overtime period. After eight shots each, Robbie Russo scored the game winner for Team USA.

Slovakia’s U18 national team won a four nations tournament on home ice in Trnava. After shootout wins against Belarus and Denmark, the Slovaks defeated Germany in the deciding game for first place, 4-1.

Women’s Events

International competitiveness in women’s hockey remains something to work on in the next few years and the scores in the Four Nations Cup in St. John’s and Clarenville in the Canadian province of Newfoundland illustrated that the measures taken in the last few months are necessary to improve the women’s game.

Both Canada and the United States showed entertaining games in their fierce rivalry in the tournament that was attended by just under 30,000 fans in eight games. While the U.S. defeated Canada 3-2 in a shootout in the preliminary round, Canada took revenge by winning the gold medal game 3-2 after Rebecca Johnston’s goal 6:21 into overtime.

The best two European teams didn’t do better than losing by four goals against their North American rivals in the preliminary round, and Finland edged Sweden 2-1 for third place.

Four more teams competed in the Halloween Cup in Monthey, Switzerland, where the Swiss won on home ice five months before hosting the World Women’s Championship for the first time.

The Swiss lost their second game to Slovakia, which will also take part in the top division of the World Women’s Championship for the first time, 2-1 in a shootout, but victories against the Czech Republic, 8-3, and Germany, 3-1, was enough to win the event since the Slovaks lost their other two encounters and finished in fourth place. Germany ended up in second place after losing the “final” to Switzerland while the Czechs were third.

Sweden won a four nations tournament for women’s U18 national teams in Dmitrov, a town in the Moscow Region that will host the World Women’s U18 Championship Division I next spring. While Germany was beaten by all teams, Sweden, Finland and Russia had six points each after three games. Sweden won the tournament thanks to the best goal differential and most goals scored in the mutual games. The situation looked almost hopeless for the Swedes after a 3-0 loss to Finland, but they defeated Russia 4-0 in the last game. It was exactly this fourth goal, scored by defender Josefine Holmgren in the third period, which sealed the win for Sweden.

MARTIN MERK