The BHL Regular Season Will Conclude This Weekend in Estonia and Lithuania
February 23, 2023
The BHL regular season will end this weekend. All eight quarter-finalists have already been decided before the last Matchweek. Matchweek 8 will reveal the final team placements and quarter-final matchups. The last game of the regular season will be played between the Lithuanian and Estonian clubs.
TOP MATCH
In Group A, the defending BHL champion Viljandi HC has virtually secured first place. Mistra and Dragūnas Klaipėda will fight for second place on Saturday. Both teams have 12 points and a win would almost guarantee second place in the group and a potentially weaker opponent in the quarter-finals. Mistra won the first head-to-head match in Klaipeda, 26:25.
Gintaras Cibulskis (coach, Dragūnas Klaipėda):
The first match against Mistra was not a success for us. I hope that the next match will be very different. We want to get our revenge and I believe we can win. We want to rank as high as possible in the group. This would give the young players confidence. It will be a very interesting weekend, as we look forward to seeing how the regular season will end in both groups. With the possibility of meeting up to three opponents in the quarter-finals, we can hardly wait to find out who we will play against in the first round of the play-offs.
Jüri Lepp (coach, Mistra):
It will be an important match, as we want to rank second in the group. It does not make much difference where we will finish in the regular season, because all the opponents in the quarter-finals are strong. But we will try to win, because we want to rank as high as possible. We beat Dragūnas in the away match, so we might as well win at home. It depends on what kind of day we will have, because we have been inconsistent in our play this year. We have more equal players than Dragūnas. On the one hand, it is good to have an equal team. On the other hand, we do not have clear-cut leaders who can lead us forward in difficult moments.
Group A
| Position | Team | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | +/- | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Viljandi HC | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 243 | 195 | 48 | 16 |
| 2. | Mistra | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 228 | 206 | 22 | 12 |
| 3. | HC Dragunas | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 248 | 212 | 36 | 12 |
| 4. | Granitas-Karys | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 226 | 236 | -10 | 6 |
| 5. | ASK Zemessardze/LSPA | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 267 | 306 | -39 | 6 |
| 6. | HK Ogre/HYDROX | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 296 | 353 | -57 | 0 |
In Group B, the Pölva Serviti club has already secured first place. SK Tapa/N.R Energy will try to catch up with the second-placed ZRHK TENAX Dobele team. The SK Tapa/N.R Energy team will visit Lithuania to meet HC Amber on Saturday and VHC Šviesa on Sunday. VHC Šviesa is only two points behind the SK Tapa/N.R Energy team and will have a chance to catch up with it on Sunday.
Group B
| Position | Team | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | +/- | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Põlva Serviti | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 341 | 272 | 69 | 16 |
| 2. | ZRHK TENAX Dobele | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 294 | 269 | 25 | 14 |
| 3. | SK Tapa/N.R Energy | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 246 | 212 | 34 | 11 |
| 4. | VHC Sviesa | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 242 | 246 | -4 | 9 |
| 5. | HC Amber | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 194 | 255 | -61 | 2 |
| 6. | HC Tallinn | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 192 | 255 | -63 | 0 |