In the lone Saturday afternoon game, SC Bern won 5-3 in Tampere. Later, EV Zug won in Ostrava, AIK Skelleftea won in Vojens with Erik Fossell scoring the CHL's first hat-trick, and Kärpät Oulu won in Kosice.
HC Kosice 1-2 Kärpät Oulu
In an evenly-contested game, Kärpät Oulu earned 3 more points on the road with a 2-1 win in Kosice. All three goals were scored in the first 11 minutes of the game, with Juha Keranen scoring the winner just 23 seconds after Marek Zagrapan had tied it. After that, goaltenders Tomi Karhunen and Marcel Melichercik were perfect.
"We played pretty good in first 20 minutes," said Kärpät coach Lauri Marjamaki. "Our scoring efficiency was not so good, but our play was good for us and of course, two goals too. The second period we had some problems, several penalties, but our goalie was great. I am so satisfied with the third period. It isn't easy to play under pressure, but we played disciplined and the team commitment was great."
"We played against a really strong opponent tonight and I personally consider Kärpät to be one of the best teams in European leagues," said Kosice coach Anton Tomko. "Our guys showed that they didn't want to lose this game and made a huge effort to try to get points."
SonderjyskE Vojens 1-4 AIK Skelleftea
Swedish champion AIK Skelleftea has earned all 6 points in their opening two road games of the Champions Hockey League, winning 4-1 in Vojens over SonderjyskE. They built up a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes, then the two teams traded goals in the third period. Erik Fossell records the CHL's first hat-trick and adds 1 assist, and Daniel Widing assisted on all 4 Skelleftea goals.
"We got a perfect start to the game with two early goals,"said Skelleftea's Patrik Zackrisson. "That was the biggest difference if you compare today's game with our game in Krefeld on Thursday. In both games it seemed like we got better through the second and third period."
"Tonight we were up against a team that forechecked us really from the beginning of the game" said SonderjyskE defenceman Tyler Gotto. "We let two early goals in and really didn't get ourselves the best start. We kind of got behind the eight ball and had to bounce back from that. These games have been a great experience for us."
Vitkovice Ostrava 2-5 EV Zug
Once again, there was a scorless first period in Ostrava and a parade of goals in the last half of the game. EV Zug led 3-0 with 17 minutes to play, then the teams traded off goals and it ended 5-2. Five different players scored Zug's goals, two of which were shorthanded, with Robbie Earl scoring the winner and adding an assist.
"We were able to capitalise on few situations when Vítkovice was on the power play," said Zug coach Harrold Kreis. "Our defenceman scored on the penalty kill, which doesn't happen everyday. Overall, I think my team battled very hard, we killed some important penalties, scored some goals at the right time."
"The main thing is that we gave up two goals while we were on the power play, which cost us the whole game. I’m a shocked we alllowed that. We have to work on that for our next games," said Peter Huzevka, who scored both goals for Vitkovice to earn the "Top Scorer" gear for the next game. That is no consolation for him, though. "I would trade my 'Top Scorer' jersey for a win in this game. I’m disappointed. I thought we would play better."
Tappara Tampere 3-5 SC Bern
Both teams seemed to start off Saturday where they left off Thursday, with Tappara scoring the first two goals. However, Bern came back to score five straight to win 5-3 and draw even with Tappara with 3 points in the Group E standings. Ryan Gardner scored 2 goals and added 1 assist, while Bud Holloway had 1 goal and 3 assists.
"For me the biggest thing for us was the mental toughness that we needed to show after trailing 2-0," said Bern coach Guy Boucher. "It could have been discouraging. Our players were terrific, they kept the focus, we reloaded mentally and emotionally and we came out strong and grinded it out one goal at a time. To me it shows that in the future we can overcome lots of adversity."
"Of course we're disappointed," understated Tappara coach Jussi Tapola. "This was a divided game. The first period and the second period until 2-0 was really good hockey from us. Then we got a bit overconfident and we started attacking a bit foolishly and started to take penalties. Against this kind of a team the result can easily be seen."