Bern through to Quarter-Finals after tie in Finland

SC Bern are in the last eight of the CHL for the first time in their history after eliminating JYP in Finland. Read more in Gamecentre.

by Luke Fisher

Knowing that the first goal in this matchup could prove to be crucial, it was Bern who started the better of the two sides. An early power play went begging for the Swiss side, however it wasn't long before they shocked the home crowd to open the scoring. Great forechecking from the away team forced a turnover in the offensive zone, and neat interchange play from Pluss and Scherwey set up Gian-Andrea Randegger for the wrist-shot through Pekka Tuokkola for the goal at 3:16.

JYP had a couple of half chances to tie it up shortly after, the best arguably falling to Estonian Robert Rooba, but he couldn't get his backhand effort past Leonardo Genoni. JYP survived two more penalty kills in the period to go in at the break, somewhat fortunately, only a goal down on the night.

JYP needed to be better in period two, and did have then better of the chances throughout the 20 minutes. An early powerplay saw them on the offensive, with Jani Tuppurainen's slapshot just missing the top corner of Genoni's net. Bern captain Martin Pluss had his side's best chance of the period, but his sweet deke and shot was taken by Tuokkola to keep the scores level. Arguably the best chance of the period fell to JYP's Miiko Salmio, but he couldn't find the target form the edge of the crease with space in the net gaping, and Bern carried their lead into the third period.

When Ryan Lasch put Bern 2-0 up on the night and 5-2 ahead on aggregate with less than two minutes played in the third even the most optimistic of JYP fans must have thought their side were dead and buried. However, the hosts kept attacking the Bern net, and a snapshot form captain Hytonen had them on the board at 45:54. Less than three minutes later JYP were level on the night, Salmio taking advantage of a poor clearance to bring his side back to within one on aggregate.

With JYP chasing the game late on, the hosts were building for a final charge in the last three minutes. That was however until a terrible pass from netminder Tuokkola hit the side of his own net, straight into the path of Bern forward Andrew Ebbett who slotted into the empty net to put Bern 6-4 up on aggregate and pretty much out of sight at 55:47.

With 20 seconds left on the clock, a tip from Tuomas Pihlman meant JYP were a goal form forcing overtime, but Genoni stood tall to help Bern through to the next round.

Final score 3-3 on the night, 6-5 to Bern on aggregate.