As you aware this weekend is Continental Cup weekend with the boys in Denmark. The mission is to finish in the top two of the group so we can qualify for the Super Final in January at a venue to be decided at the moment. Our opponents this weekend are the following teams:
Kurbads Riga (Latvia)
Rungsted Seier Capital (Denmark)
Yunost Minsk (Belarus)
Let's now look at each of these clubs in a little bit more depth.
Kurbads Riga: Kurbads are one the lesser known teams in Riga, but originally started off life when they were formed in 1996 in the city of Ogre before moving to the capital pretty recently. They have one Latvian championship to their name which was won last season and this has allowed them to compete in this season's competition. They qualified for this stage by means of winning their qualifier with a 100 per cent record beating GKS Tychy whom Coventry played in the same competition in 2015-16.
Notable names in their roster include Marcis Zembergs, Martins Gipters and Toms Hartmanis who both had spells in the Elite League with Edinburgh, Cardiff and the much missed Newcastle Vipers respectively. They also have Deivids Sarkanis who made a handful of starts for the Panthers last season. There's plenty of experience in the roster with Janis Spurkts, Juris Stals and Martins Cipulis who possess nearly 400 international appearances between them.
Rungsted Seier Capital: Hosts of the tournament. They are the oldest team in this tournament in terms of longevity; having been formed as far back as January 1941 as Rungsted Ice Hockey Club. They have won their nation's league title three times in their history but have to go back to 2001-02 for their last success in this; when they were known as Rungsted Cobras. They were renamed to their current guise as of 2015-16 and like the Steelers are well placed in their domestic league so far.
Names we can recognise are Robin Bergman who was at Coventry last season, a player whom Blaze coach Danny Stewart was apparently loathe to lose. Bergman scored 17 goals and 41 points overall in 59 games for them. They also have experienced defenceman Mike Verance on their blue line, who appeared in 22 NHL games and has over 400 AHL games on his resume. Former Blaze defenceman Erik Hjalmarsson is their assistant coach.
Yunost Minsk: The young breed of this group, formed in 2003 but a very very successful hockey club. Yunost have already won the Belarusian league seven times in their short history and also possess the same amount of wins in the play-offs. They will be a team we will really need to watch for if this is the case. Although they won the league title last season, defeat by Neman Grodno meant their opponents qualified for the CHL and Minsk had to settle for a place in this.
Experienced centre Daniel Corso will be a player we will have to watch. The 39 year old is in his fourth season in Minsk, and has 77 NHL and 300 plus AHL games under his belt. Ukrainian Andrei Mikhnov, who can play either centre or wing, will also be one we need to keep an eye on as he notched 85 points in 52 games last season.
My prediction? If we play like we know we're capable of and stay out of the penalty box then we can make the top two. It's that simple.
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