Eight teams chase CHL title

Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) def Lahti Pelicans (FIN) 7-1 (2-1, 5-0)

This matchup was close for a while. Tied 1-1 in the third period of the first game, Troy Bourke scored the go-ahead goal on a brilliant solo rush. Then the Edmonton-born forward opened the scoring in the return game on a shorthanded breakaway, helping Salzburg return to the quarters for the first time since 201819.
Eight players from the Salzburg roster were members of the Austrian team that nearly made the quarter-finals at last year’s Worlds, led by veteran wingers Thomas Raffl and Peter Schneider.

Sparta Prague (CZE) def Ocelari Trinec (CZE) 5-2 (4-1, 1-1)

In last year’s Extraliga semi-finals, Sparta led the series 3-0 but Trinec came back to win, tying both the sixth and seventh games in the last minute of regulation time and winning in overtime. Winning this CHL matchup was thus a small measure of revenge.

Sparta took firm control from the start, scoring three goals in the first 12 minutes of the first game at home. The teams then essentially tied 2-2 over the final five periods, but the damage had been done. Sparta advances to the quarter-finals for the third time, having previously done so in 2016/17 and 2021/22.

Defencemen David Krejcik and Michal Kempny were both World Championship gold medalists last May at Sparta’s home rink, O2 Arena.

Vaxjo Lakers (SWE) def Fribourg-Gotteron (SUI) 4-3 (1-0, 3-3)

Vaxjo ground out a 1-0 victory on home ice and led 3-1 on aggregate halfway through the third period of the return game when Fribourg struck twice on the same power play to tie it. However, just 71 seconds after the equalizer, Felix Robert put Vaxjo back in front to stay.

Vaxjo made the CHL final in 2017-18. Winger Joachim Blichfeld is a former San Jose Shark and a regular on the Danish national team.

Pinguins Bremerhaven (GER) def Skelleftea AIK (SWE) 10-1 (5-0, 5-1)

This matchup was perhaps the most surprising of the round of 16, not only because of who won but by how decisively. Last season, Skelleftea won the Swedish Hockey League title and advanced to the CHL final.

The Pinguins, who last season finished first in the DEL regular season and made the finals for the first time, are led offensively by a pair of wily veterans from the Slovenian national team. Ziga Jeglic and Jan Urbas have 12 and 11 points in the CHL this year respectively.

Geneve-Servette (SUI) def Lausanne HC (SUI) 12-4 (5-0, 7-4)

The reigning European club champion is headed back to the…