HK Nitra 2–3 Skelleftea AIK (SO)
Nitra have proven that the tough fight they put up against Skelleftea in the CHL opener wasn't just a fluke, as they went into northern Sweden and pulled out a point after a marathon shootout loss. All four goals regulation-time were scored in the first period, with Nitra leading 2–1 just 3:13 in. Nitra's Peter Konig and Skelleftea's Janne Pesonen each had 1 goal and 1 assist for their teams, and Terry Broadhurst scored the shootout winner for Skelleftea in the 12th round after Erik Hanses and Michal Valent each stopped 9 of the first 11 they faced.“I think that we started this game really good and got that fast goal, but after that we just stopped playing good by some reason and they got two easy goals. Luckily, we managed to tie the game before the end of the first period,” said Hanses. About the 12-round shootout he said, “I’ve never experienced anything like this, but I felt like I got better and better control of their shooters the longer the shootout proceeded and it was a nice feeling when Terry scored that game winner.”
“We knew coming up here would be tough because Skelleftea AIK are a very good team and it was very hard out there tonight for sure,” said Nitra assistant coach Andrej Kmec. “Even though I’m very happy with one point against this team, I feel like maybe we should have won this in the shootout but failed to succeed in that stage.”
HC Litvinov 6–4 Grenoble
Thanks to five goals in the second period, two quick ones in the first minute and then three in a 5:27 span later in the period, Litvinov gained their third straight win, and second over Grenoble, to become the fourth team to secure a CHL playoff berth. Grenoble scored two in a row in the second period and then two more in the third to make the final score more respectable, Danick Bouchard scored 2 goals and added 1 assist.Terglav Edo (Grenoble head coach): “It is sure disappointing to lose but we have to think about the good things from this game,” said Grenoble coach Terglav Edo. “We have some regrets about the second period much like in the first game. We had a lot of penalties and that's the worst thing we can do against good team like Litvinov. In the third period we played well, scored some goals but it was a little too late.”
“Our start to the game was very strong. We scored a goal in the beginning and then we continued to play very well, especially in the second period. We scored another two goals in the beginning and took it into our hands,” said Litvinov's Rostislav Martinek, who had a goal and an assist. About clinching a playoff spot with another game to play, he said, “It might be tough to find some motivation for the next game but we'll do our best and hopefully those games will be good.”
Tappara Tampere 2–3 Djurgarden Stockholm (OT)
Tomi Sallinen scored in overtime to give Djurgarden their first points in Group B, and partially avange last week's home-ice loss to Tappara. However, the single point is enough to see Tappara through to the playoffs. Defenceman Nick Plastino scored both of Tappara's goals, assisted by Arttu Illomaki, while Linus Hulstrom had a goal and an assist for Djurgarden.
“I was brought up here to be offensive player, but I don't see myself strictly as such. I try to keep playing both ways well,” Plastino said about his role on the team after his 2-goal effort. “We were a little nervous at the start and the first period was a little flat. In the second period we were able to pick up our game. Our guys took great blocks and game got more physical, so we got better into it.”
“We had a good team effort today, over 60 minutes we were the better team and deserved to win,” said Djurgarden head coach Hans Sarkijarvi. “We showed good team spirit, I think better than the game in Stockholm from our point of view, and we're happy with the win.”
Lukko Rauma 4–2 Fribourg-Gotteron
With the win, Lukko move very close to advancing, as the worst that can now happen is they end up in a three-way tie in Group K. Fribourg came out strong to start and fired 13 shots at Ryan Zapolski in the first period, but couldn't beat him. Andrei Bykov finally beat the Lukko keeper in the 26th minute, but Fribourg then ran into penalty trouble and Lukko scored three straight goals – two on the power play – in a 1:51 span. Lukko were 3-for-7 with the man advantage in the game, with Jesse Virtanen scoring twice. Fribourg were 0-for-2.
“We had a good game plan,” said Fribourg centre Julien Sprunger. “First period 0–0 and then we scored the first goal and that was our plan: score first and be strong defensively and after that we took way too many penalties. We were leading 1–0 and then took two penalties in a row. The 5-on-3 cost us two goals and Lukko took the energy back from us. We played well but they scored well on the power play and we took so many penalties that I think that killed us. The power play is really important and we weren’t disciplined enough to keep out of the box and that’s why we lost the game.”
“We prepared to play a high-tempo game,” said Lukko coach Juha Vuori. “In the first period we saw the differences between the teams – on the power play we were really good tonight. Otherwise playing 5-on-5 was pretty even. We made some mistakes with the puck and that’s something we emphasized during the intermissions and also we knew that Fribourg’s really good with the puck in front of the net, so that really kept us on our toes the whole game.”
Karpat Oulu 4–1 Krefeld Pinguine
In their third game Karpat surrendered their first goal to Krefeld's Daniel Pietta in the first period, but it was only one and they got their third straight win to clinch their spot among the CHL's final 32 teams. Pietta's goal tied it in on the power play the 6th minute, just after Ivan Huml had opened the scoring for Karpat. Adam Masuhr and Juuso Ikonen had a goal and an assist, while Sami Aittokallio has now given up just 1 goal in three complete games.
“It’s nice to be back here, been away couple of years,” said Krefeld goalie Tomas Duba, who had a couple of separate tours of duty in Finland in the late 2000s. “Karpat were very strong in the first period. We tried to hold them there and keep the score tight, but they scored the second and third goals and that pretty much put the game away. We competed against a very strong, fast team who are champions. We are a young team so we had a little trouble with the speed, so once under pressure we made a few mistakes. But it’s great experience to play for everyone. None of them play international hockey so I think, despite the mistakes it was a good game, for me it was more work but it was ok.”
“It was the first home game and we were naturally very enthusiastic,” said Karpat coach Laur Marjamaki. “Today we were the better team. We had some trouble finishing our chances in the first period, and in the second we had a few minor breakdowns but still we didn’t give the opponent a lot of scoring chances when playing 5-on-5. We got two power-play goals, which was nice since we had practised the power play this week. All round it was a pretty good performance, considering the time of the year.”
Vaxjo Lakers 4–2 ERC Ingolstadt
John Laliberte set up Brandon Buck to open the scoring on the power play, and then when Buck assisted on Laliberte's goal late in the second to bring Ingolstadt within a goal, we were in for a nervous third period. They had a chance to tie it on a late power play, but Liam Reddox's shorthanded empty-netter finally relieved the pressure. Ilkka Heikkinen had 2 assists for Vaxjo, who now need only one more point to secure their spot among the CHL's final 32 teams.
“Overall it was a pretty good effort by our team,” said Ingolstadt's Buck. “I think we made a few mistakes kind of early, we had a few times where we fell asleep defensively and gave them a little too much space but for the most part we played pretty well. We wanted to make sure that we were in their face the whole game and not let them have a whole lot of setups behind their net and in.”
“I think that for most of the game we kept high pressure on them,” explained Vaxjo forward Patrik Lundh, who was held pointless in this game but still leads the CHL with 6 points. “They had some pretty fast counter-attacks where they tried to get a long pass from the defencemen to their forwards and they got through a few times so we tried to tighten up as soon as we saw that they did that. The first period wasn’t very good from us, we didn’t get the intensity we would like but during the rest of the game we might have got some more energy from the goals and the second and third periods I think were good.”
ZSC Lions Zurich 6–1 Gap Rapaces
The ZSC Lions had their hands full with Gap on the CHL's opening night, but were in full control on home ice in the re-match. Pat Doherty scored Gap's lone goal in the 16th minute to tie the score, but then Zurich scored five in a row to pull away. Chris Baltisberger and Luca Cunti each scored twice and Robert Nilsson added 3 assists.“I thought tonight we knew their team a little bit better, and so we were able to understand what they were trying to do a bit more,” ZSC coach Marc Crawford said in explanation as to why his team was so much better against Gap this time around. “Our depth carried us tonight, with four lines that are all capable of scoring – although one line was dominant tonight. When you have an advantage like that, you have to make the most of it. We wanted to advance, we've accomplished this now with one game left, so we've done what we wanted.”
“We have a lot of players in their first experience at the top level in France, and tonight we made life difficult for ourselves coughing up the puck and not getting it out of our own zone,” explained Gap coach Luciano Basile. “Our PP wasn't good enough tonight. Quick goals can happen against a team as skilled as Zurich, but we could have given ourselves a better chance if we'd been smarter with the puck – but it's all experience for us that helps us to get better.”
Black Wings Linz 2–3 TPS Turku (OT)
Brett McLean and Tero Koskiranta scored 7 seconds apart midway through the third period to turn a 1–1 game into 2–2. The game went to overtime where Eric Perrin scored with just 39 seconds on the clock to put TPS on top of Group G with 5 points – Linz have their first 2.“We made a step in the right direction tonight,” said Linz captain Philipp Lukas. “We played a way better game than in Turku with lots of chances to win. We ran a little bit out of gas at the end too, but that's the way it goes and it definitely wasn't a bad performance from us tonight.”
“Tonight was very hard against a very hardworking team,” said TPS head coach Ari-Pekka Selin, who agreed that “Linz were much better than in Turku, and the result was in doubt. A high tempo with a great atmosphere here with great fans, it was a good experience for us.”
Red Bull Salzburg 7–2 SonderjyskE Vojens
In one of many re-matches on Thursday, Salzburg got perhaps the greatest revenge by thumping SonderjyskE 7–2 at home. Benn Ferriero and John Hughes did the bulk of the damage offensively, with Ferriero scoring 4 goals, all assisted by Hughes. This result means that all three teams in Group C have 3 points after Game Day 3.Salzburg coach Daniel Ratushny felt that the key to his team's win was “very good offence today. We played well with lots of scoring chances and credit to the team for a great game. The difference today was that we were more dangerous offensively.”
By contrast, SonderjyskE coach Dan Ceman felt that “we played too passive. I thought we showed them a bit too much respect early in the game, and got outplayed in the opening period. We had to keep them to the outside and didn't do that like we did in the last game. They were fired up to beat us today, and we weren't aggressive enough.”
Adler Mannheim 2–1 Neman Grodno
After opening their CHL season with a loss in Grodno, Mannheim has now won twice in a row, including this one on home ice in the re-match win Neman to take the lead in what is proving to be a very tight Group I. A CHL-record crowd of 7,219 came out to cheer on Die Adler, and they were treated to an intense game. After the home side took the early lead, Sergei Yakimovich tied it for Neman late in the second period, but Ryan MacMurchy netted the game-winner in the first minute of the third.
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