EHL Top Four Final Ready to Start

Results and statistics available at the Internet page http://www.ehl.net Everything is ready in Lugano for the start of the Skoda Auto European Hockey League 1999/2000 Top Four Final. During the day, all the three teams that have qualified together with HC Lugano to the EHL's Grande Finale have reached the Ticino Region: the EHL reigning champions of Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Finnish TPS Turku have already taken confidence with the ice of the Resega Arena, with an afternoon training, while Czech HC Sparta Praha will only train for the first time tomorrow at lunch time. All the tickets for the event have already been sold out and the Resega will present an incredible outlook for the four games to be played tomorrow and on Sunday. More than 120 international media are expected to attend the Lugano's final tournament and 11 European televisions will broadcast in all Europe the EHL Top Four Final: from Finland to Spain, from Iceland to Russia the ice hockey fans will have the opportunity to follow live the best four European clubs battle for the EHL Silver Stone. The EHL reigning champions will officially open the competition when they will face off against TPS Turku tomorrow afternoon at 15.30 h, while in the evening game (20.00 h), the local squad of Lugano will try to obtain against Sparta Praha the passport for the gold medal game. If the games will be tied after 60 minutes of playing time, a 10 minutes overtime will be played and, in case no goal is scored, the game winning shots will take place. In the gold medal game, a 20 minutes overtime will be played. The winner of the EHL 1999/2000 will win a prize money of CHF 250,000.-. The second placed CHF 100,000.-, the third CHF 60,000.- and the fourth CHF 40,000.-. The balance between the four qualified clubs is also shown by the result of the tipping made during the last few weeks by the participants of the EHL Hockey Tip ( http://www.ehl-hockeytip.net ): 50,2% of the tippers have forecast a victory of Metallurg against TPS (49,8%), and 58,8% have tipped a victory of Lugano against Sparta Praha (41,2%). EHL Top Four Final Semifinal - Saturday, February 5 Metallurg Magnitogorsk - TPS Turku 15.30 h HC Lugano - Sparta Praha 20.00 h Bronze Medal Game - Sunday, February 6 - 15.30 h Gold Medal Game - Sunday, February 6 - 20.00 h For further information Paolo Ianieri EHL Media and Communication Manager Tel: +41 1 289 86 07 Mobile: +41.79 200 8829 E-Mail: ianieri@iihf.com