Red Bull Salzburg 1–3 HV71 Jonkoping
HV71 had already wrapped up 1st place in Group C and Salzburg 2nd, but HV71 wanted to finish the group stage with a perfect 12 points, while Salzburg wanted to go into the Round of 32 on a high note. It was visiting HV71 who accomplished their goal by winning 3–1. The two teams traded goals in the first period and Bjorn Mellin put HV71 into the lead early in the second on the power play – that turned out to be the game-winning goal. A late empty-netter rounded out the scoring.Karpat Oulu 4–0 Vienna Capitals
These teams engaged in the final game of Group J already knowing they were finishing 1st and 2nd, respectively, but that made no difference to Karpat, whose defence was just as stingy has it has been all tournament. Only 17 shots against and no goals, as Sami Aittokallio recorded his 3rd shutout in four games and Karpat take a perfect 12 points from the group stage. Miko Pyorala assisted on the first Karpat goal and scored the next 2, while Julius Juntilla and Lasse Kukkonen also chipped in with 2 points each.Ocelari Trinec 6–0 KalPa Kuopio
Trinec needed a regulation victory to advance, and they took care of that by scoring the first goal in the 16th minute, then breaking the game wide open with four more in the second, en route to a convincing victory. Penalties were the key in the second period, as Trinec took advantage of a major penalty and three other minors to KalPa in the period to score three power-play goals, two of them 5-on-3. Erik Hrna recorded a hat-trick, finishing it off with the game's last goal in the third period, and Peter Hamerlik made 24 saves for the shutout.“It was a great game, especially the second period,” said Hrna, who was obviously pleased with his own performance. “Last year our power play was a problem, but today we scored three times. That’s the reason we are advancing to the next round. Hopefully it will raise our morale for the upcoming games and we will be able to score as many goals as we did today. The hat-trick is nice, I hope that I won’t have to pay anything into club’s treasury.”
“It was an excellent game by us,” agreed head coach Jiri Kalous. “We had a good power play and Peter Hamerlik was great in the net. We are very satisfied with our performance and are looking forward to playing more games. Yes, we still have to improve some things, but I’m very proud of my team, that we managed to play the way we set out to.”
Sparta Prague 5–2 Geneve-Servette
Sparta needed only a single point to advance, and further strengthened their position with a 2–0 first-period lead. Geneve battled back with a strong second to tie it up, but Jan Buchtele gave Sparta the lead back less than a minute later and Martin Reway's second of the game in the third period on a penalty shot put it away. Sparta finish 2nd in Group M and advance to the Round of 32, while Geneve-Servette are suprisingly eliminated.“I wouldn’t say we played a bad game but we made bad mistakes at key times,” said Geneve assistant coach Louis Matte. “We thought we were finally showing good form in the second period, we got the two goals but then we made another big mistake. It’s been the same thing all four games in the CHL – we didn’t play bad but we didn’t play good enough to win. We thought before the start that we had a good chance to go to the second round of the CHL and maybe farther, but we’ve had a big problem scoring goals since the beginning and this is the result – we’re finished.”
“Geneve was a really tough opponent for us,” said Sparta assistant coach Zdenek Motak. “From watching this game, anyone could see how much talent they have. In the second period when we were leading 2–0 we lost our concentration a little bit and it led to their two goals. So we are really happy we were strong enough to score three more goals, win this game and advance to the next round.”
Skelleftea AIK 5–2 Bili Tygri Liberec
Both teams entered the game already qualified for the Round of 32, but with a regulation win Liberec could have finished top spot in Group D. The teams exchanged power-play goals in the first period, but Skelleftea pulled away with three straight goals in the second and another early in the third. John Norman had 1 goal and 1 assist for last year's CHL semi-finalists, while Michal Repik scored both goals for Liberec.“The coaches challenged us between the first and the second periods, and I think we answered it well. Whole team came out strong in the second period and really put the forecheck down and that made the difference today. We were pretty relentless and they couldn’t handle it,” said Skelleftea forward Terry Broadhurst, who had 1 assist in the game. “It’s good to have this great start. The overall goal is to win the entire Champions League but we are not gonna get too far ahead of ourselves. The next game is what we are looking at, whoever we play.”
“We played a really good game here today, but we lost it in four minutes in the second period. We should be better to compete for the whole 60 minutes. Our goal was to go to the playoffs and now we are there, and now anything can happen,” said Liberec defenceman Martin Sevc, who played last season in Skelleftea, and received a warm reception from the fans there. “They were really nice to me. They always make me happy. I have really good memories of Skelleftea, it's kind of my family now.”
Sheffield Steelers 1–4 Frolunda Gothenburg
The Steelers tried to make it a happy ending for both British clubs in this year's CHL, and they hung in against one of Europe's elite clubs for two periods, tied 1–1 into the final period. However, Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-winning goal with 15 minutes to play, and two more goals made it a 4–1 final. Lehkonen also had 2 assists to make it a 3-point night for the Finn, while Levi Nelson scored the lone Sheffield goal on the power play late in the second period. With the 3 points, Frolunda become the fourth team to secure all 12 available points from the group stage.
“I am really pleased. It was an exhausting game here in Sheffield and I'm proud of my team that we could win the game,” said Frolunda coach Roger Ronnberg, impressed with both his own team and his opponents. “We were expecting a tighter game and knew they played well against JYP. We had some injuries so as we have a wide roster it was a chance for me to see some kids play and I think they did well. I really liked the atmosphere here, it was surprisingly to feel it - unbelievable.”
“I liked our performance,” said Sheffield coach Paul Thompson. “In the third period they got a bounce or two with a couple of goals, but we didn't take our big opportunity on the 5-on-3. It's little things at this level, and teams will take advantage of that. We're disappointed to lose at 1-1 going into the last period, but you can't take penalties in the last 20 like we did. Winning is a fine line, and we didn't score enough goals at equal strength in this tournament. It's been a great experience and we have to learn from it. It's a great tournament and we want to be back in this.”
Braehead Clan 6–4 ERC Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt had a chance to claim 1st place in Group O with a win, but were denied by the CHL's Scottish entry, the Braehead Clan, who bowed out of the competition in fine fashion. The teams went back and forth all night in front of a packed house in suburban Glasgow, with Ingolstadt scoring two quick goals early in the third to take a 4–3 lead. However, Matt Keith's power-play equaliser with 2:24 to play set up a crazy finish. Needing the regulation win to take the group title, Ingolstadt pulled their goalie late and Alex Leavitt scored the game-winner into the empty net with 50 seconds to go, turning Braehead Arena into a madhouse. Another empty-netter secured it.“We were in a position to win the game tonight, took a dumb penalty to let them back into the game,” said a frustrated Ingolstadt coach Manny Viveros. “At times we played well, others not. Perhaps our intensity level wasn't there as much as it should have been because we were already through, but we had chances to win. The main thing is that we're through to the next round, and now we look ahead to Friday with the start of our own domestic season.”
“Yeah it felt good (to win), anytime you get a win it does especially here,” said an understandably happy Clan coach Ryan Finnerty. “We've been getting better each week in the Champions Hockey League and it feels great. I think the fact that we feel we've been getting better and more competitive is a real positive. We've learnt a lot in this tournament, and tonight I thought we controlled a large portion of the game. We did well to get it back to 4-4, which showed a lot of character. We want to get rid of the mentality of just being happy to be in this competition, and should be going out to beat every team we play here at home, especially.”
Adler Mannheim 2–1 Vitkovice Ostrava (SO)
Having just won on home ice last night to secure a spot in the Round of 32, Vitkovice travelled to Mannheim and turned in a gutsy performance trying to earn 1st place in Group I. Philip Riefers opened the scoring for Mannheim in the 15th minute, but Petr Kolouch tied it for Vitkovice early in the third period. The third period and then overtime finished without further scoring, so a shootout was needed to determine the group winner. Mannheim scored on three of their four attempts to win, and thrill a CHL-record crowd of 9,744.
HC Davos 5–3 Dynamo Pardubice
Despite having already been eliminated from advancing, Pardubice came up with a spirited effort in Davos, battling back from a 3–0 deficit to pull even in the last two minutes. However, their inability to put points away again haunted them, as Dario Simion scored with 28 seconds remaining to claim the game and the group for Davos. Simion also had 2 assists in the game and Mauro Joerg had 2. An empty-netter made it a 5–3 final.SC Bern 1–7 Linkoping HC
Bern could have advanced with 3 points and for a good part of the game that didn't look out of the question. In fact, Cory Conacher opened the scoring for Bern at the 3:57 mark, much to the delight of the home fans, but it was all Linkoping after that – two goals in the first period, one in the second, and then a four-goal outburst in a seven-minute span in the third to make this one a rout. Defenceman Chad Billins and forward Jacob Lilja led the offence with 2 goals and 1 assist each, while Gustav Forsling had 3 assists. As a result of the Bern defeat, IFK Helsinki advance to the playoffs.Despite scoring his team's goal, Conacher was obviously not pleased with the way the game tourned out for Bern. “Obviously we’re very disappointed with the result. We started good into the game and had an early goal. We need to learn from that and look forward to the start of our season next week.”
Said Linkoping coach Dan Tangnes, “At first we had some doubts coming into the game because we had quite a lot of players out with injuries. After a while those doubts went away and the result at the end is of course quite pleasing.”
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