Davos end year on Spengler Cup high

Davos coach Arno Del Curto and his team begin the celebrations Keystone

Davos have beaten Canada Selects in the final of the Spengler Cup, ending the Swiss ice hockey team's 42-year wait to lift the trophy.

Ironically it was the club’s Canadian forward Pat Falloon who played one of the biggest parts in the win. The 28-year-old former NHL star scored twice against his countrymen to help Davos to a 4-2 victory.

The side from east Switzerland got off to a great start with Falloon again in the thick of things.

With just six minutes played the Canadian tapped a loose puck to Morgan Samuelsson. The Thurgau forward, one of five guest players in the Davos line-up, flicked into the net to put the home side 1-0 up.

Having already beaten Davos once this week, the Canadians again showed determination to fight their way back into the match. Two goals in the space of two minutes, from Fribourg’s Jean-Yves Roy and Lugano’s Christian Dubé, saw the Canadians take a first period lead.

But after a slow start to the second period, Davos took control. Falloon scored his first goal in the 35th minute to level the scores.

Then with seven minutes of regular time remaining, Kloten’s Fredrik Nilsson converted a great layback from Samuelsson to restore Davos’s lead.

Sensing an upset the Canadians pressed forward in desperate search of an equaliser. But with just seconds remaining it was Davos who found time to score.

Falloon’s second goal could hardly have been more fitting for the occasion, the Davos forward dribbling the puck into the Canadian end zone before firing a superb long-range effort past the goalie.

After the remaining time had ticked away, the Davos supporters were able to start their New Year celebrations early. And after 42 years of waiting it looked like being quite a party.

by Mark Ledsom