The Champions Hockey League offers Advanced Statistics for each and every game and this season, advanced statistics are better than ever giving you the unique chance to dive deep into the world of Expected Goals, Expected Wins, Game Flow and Game Impact charts, Heatmaps and much more!
We saw a total of 369 goals in 64 games across Game Days 1-4 and in this second feature of our two-part series we take a closer look at each Group's games to see if they hide any surprising stats results!
Group E
The battle for Playoff places is still wide open in Group E!
Fribourg-Gottéron currently sit top of the Group E table in large part due to the fact that they’ve allowed the lowest number of goals into their net from all the 32 competing teams – an amazing effort by their goalies to allow only three goals against!
But there is an exclamation mark connected to this – the defence of the Swiss team allowed more than 11 xGs against them, which ranks them 16th out of the 32 teams and is something they will have to improve on Game Days 5 & 6.
Ilves Tampere played very well during their first four games and outperformed their opponents in all but one of them, but due to poor finishing, they haven’t been winning as many points as they could. The Finns have scored only six goals from 11 xGs, which is the second worse conversion rate so far this season. Especially their games against Red Bull Salzburg have cost them a lot. The only team with a worse conversion rate of expected and scored goals are the Stavanger Oilers and if both teams want to fight for a Playoff spot, they need to find the back of the net more often.
Group F
Group F offered some entertaining and high-scoring games. Färjestad Karlstad and the Straubing Tigers seem to be the front-runners to claim a spot in the Playoffs and the analytics confirm that! Both teams are among the best teams regarding both created and conceded Expected Goals.
Färjestad’s effort in their game against Villach SV was the most dominant we’ve seen so far – teams with performances like this win in 93% of cases!
Group G
With Grenoble out of the Playoff race, the other three teams have all to play for as Game Days 5 and 6 approach. And Mountfield HK need to be aware – their difference between actual and expected points is among the highest in the league!
According to Expected Win values in their games, teams with performances like theirs would score only 5.9 expected points on average whereas the Czechs have gained 9. Especially their home win against Frölunda Gothenburg was a steal and a huge upset!
Group H
Two out of the three biggest upsets measured by Expected Win happened in Group H and Skellefteå AIK stole them both! After gaining only two points in the first two games, Skellefteå were very effective against Oceláři Třinec, withstanding pressure from the home team and in the end won big time.
And history repeated itself just two days later – this time the Swedes stole points in Davos with only a 31% xW!
This group also includes individual Expected Goals leader Matěj Stránský from HC Davos who created chances for 1.91 xGs during his side's 5-1 win over the Belfast Giants on Game Day 3 which is the most among all CHL skaters so far this season. And his productivity has also shown on the score sheet, as the Czech sniper sits with five goals in four games heading into the final two Group Stage Game Days.
Be sure to return as CHL action returns for Game Day 5 on Tuesday, 4 October and Wednesday, 5 October followed by Game Day 6 one week later!