HC Davos wins 100th anniversary of the Spengler Cup
If any team was going to win the famous Spengler Cup on the 100th anniversary of the first event, it had to be the hosts.
For the first time since 2011, Davos has won the world’s oldest invitational hockey tournament, outlasting an effort by Czech squad HC Pardubice to win the game 5-3.
The Spengler Cup is the world’s oldest invitational tournament, with Davos tying Canada for the most titles won at 16. But it’s been a difficult stretch for the hosts, who hadn’t been to the final since 2012.
Pardubice’s loss marks the third consecutive year in which a Czech squad lost the championship game, and the second time in which a Swiss-based team took the title after HC Ambri-Piotta won it in 2022.
Davos, meanwhile, has a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Crazy moment at the end of the period as Davos coach Josh Holden and forward Tomas Jurco go at it. #SpenglerCup pic.twitter.com/GPYhUqiXaQ
It didn’t take long for the drama to start. At 12:06, Martin Bucko’s point shot made its way past traffic and in, only for Davos to immediately challenge it for being offside.
The refs agreed with the decision, and it paid for Davos. Less than a minute later, Dennis Rasmussen scored his fourth goal of the tournament with a perfectly placed wrister that goaltender Milan Kloucek couldn’t stop to make it 1-0.
Davos kept up the pressure, and at 31:17, they made it 2-0. Long-time Swiss national team star Enzo Corvi scored a big goal, taking Jesper Olofsson’s pass and slapping it past the Pardubice keeper to double their advantage.
The final minutes of the second saw everything flip on its head. Tomas Hyka finally got Pardubice on the scoreboard with a power-play goal at 36:28, taking a feed from Lukas Radil. And then, just 13 seconds later, Radil found Robert Kousal near the side of the net to make it 2-2, suddenly quieting a previously rowdy crowd in Davos.
But those fans had another reason to celebrate late in the frame. With Davos needing something to get on the board, Klas Dahlbeck scored with just 1:02 to go in the middle stanza, restoring Davos’ advantage.
In the third, Davos expanded their lead as everything fell apart for Pardubice. Rasmussen scored his second of the game just 31 seconds into the third to make it 4-2, only for Jesper Olofsson to score at 42:25 to make it 5-2. Jan Mandat would add one 10 minutes later to try and spark a late-game comeback, but the great start to the second by Davos proved to be the difference.
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