Falun defend their title in style — 05.10.2014

A supreme performance by Swedish champions, IBF Falun, highlighted by a shut-out from Johan Rehn and the goal-scoring magic of Ramus Enström and Alexander Galante-Carlström, saw them totally dominate over Finnish team Happee, and take victory in the men´s final of Champions Cup 2014, winning 12-0.

The first attacking chances in the match went to Happee but their shots all went wide, not proving any real threat to Johan Rehn in the Falun goal. An injury to Jonas Adriansson early in the game, proved only a slight disruption to the Falun first line, and it was the forward combination of Rasmus Enström and Alexander Galante-Carlström who, not unexpectedly, were looking dangerous for Falun.

Happee had been doing a good job of blocking shots, especially those from Galante-Carlström, but when they made an error in passing in their own area they were not able to stop the duo from scoring directly from the mistake. Only a minute later it was Adriansson, who had made a miraculous recovery from his injury, getting his stick on the end of a rebound close to goal to give the Swedish champions a two goal lead. Happee were starting to struggle with the speed of the Falun forwards, both those moving with the ball and the support players, and another conversion from Falun made it 3-0.

Enström´s short-handed magic

The Happee players were getting frustrated as the pressure from Falun was forcing them to make mistakes. When they had a powerplay at the beginning of the second period it was their opportunity to get on the scoreboard, until Enström got the ball. There is a well-viewed video clip of Enström scoring short-handed in a Swedish league match and although this was not quite as spectacular, the result was the same. 4-0 for Falun. Surprisingly, this was the only goal in the second period as Happee´s defence tightened up. The same can´t be said for the last period, when Happee´s defence seemed to all but disappear as Falun ran riot.

Falun confirm their supremacy

In the last period, Happee´s ineffective attacking play was in stark contrast to the brilliance of the Falun attack. Falun are able to turn defence into attack in the blink of an eye and their ability to turn the tiniest of chances into big scoring opportunities is good to watch. If Happee had dreamed of any comeback in the last period, it was wiped out in 90 seconds when Galante-Carlstöm, Alexander Hallen, and Enström all scored with just three minutes played.

In the end, the score completely blew-out as Falun seemingly scored at will. At times it was as though they were just playing games with the Happee defence, teasing them into trying to tackle them and stop them from scoring. Happee had no answers and the Swedish champions confirmed their place as the best club team in the world, defending their title from 2013 and raising the trophy aloft again.  

Best Players:
Happee: Nr. 16 - Panu Kotilainen
Falun: Nr. 7 - Rasmus Enström

(Photos:Michael Peter/André Burri)
More photos from the match by Michael Peter and André Burri can be found on IFF Flickr.