In a day of dramatic finishes, games in Gothenburg, Bern and Davos went down to the wire, with HC Davos becoming the seventh team among the final 32 after playing to a scoreless draw through 60 minutes to Farjestad before losing in overtime. Bern won in overtime over IFK Helsinki and Frolunda got a late goal to beat JYP.
Frolunda Gothenburg 3–2 JYP Jyvaskyla
HIGHLIGHTS
In the first of two meetings between the teams that are battling for first place in Group N, Frolunda take 3 points at home thanks to a power-play goal by Artturi Lehkonen with 6:02 to play. It was a physical game full of emotion, which makes the return match-up between these two teams next weekend a highly-anticipated affair.
SC Bern 3–2 IFK Helsinki (SO)
HIGHLIGHTS
It's been a day of dramatic finishes and teams who desperately needed to do so pulling out victories. Bern were less than five minutes away from losing their third straight game, but got a tying goal from Justin Krueger with 4:37 to play. After a scorless overtime period, they won in a shootout when Andrew Ebbett and Krueger both scored and Janick Schwendener denied all four shooters he faced. Mika Partanen scored both goals for IFK Helsinki, who remain 1st in Group A by the slightest of margins thanks to the single point.
“It was a tight game. We got the go-ahead goal but then they got the equaliser, but after that we started to play again so a shame to lose in the shootout,” said IFK Helsinki coach Antti Tormanen.
“We were ready from the beginning, that was our goal before the game and the thing we lacked a bit in Helsinki,” said Schwendener, who made 26 saves in 65 minutes of hockey before the shootout. “It was too bad that we had to come back from a goal behind again but we managed to get the equalizer and went on to overtime and the shootout, which we won. Now everything in the group is open again and we are looking forward to our next game against Linkoping.”
HC Davos 0–1 Farjestad Karlstad (OT)
HIGHLIGHTS
Once the regulation 60-minute hockey game was over, Davos had the magical 7th point they needed to secure a CHL playoff berth. Farjestad were in a more desperate situation, however, and they made sure they got their first 2 points of the competition when Robbie Earle scored a power-play goal in the first minute of overtime. Before that, Leonardo Genoni and Justin Pogge had been perfect, stopping 36 and 23 shots, respectively.
"We were a man down in the OT, they had more space and overall had too many PP opportunities in the game, they had to score eventually," reasoned Davos coach Marcus Paulsson. "It was a tight game, not a very good one though. We need to do everything a lot better. Hopefully it's better next time."
"You have to be very patient against a side like Davos, and make good decisions on the ice," said Farjestad coach Tommy Samuelsson. "It was an important game for us, we had a more patient gameplan to wait for the chances – some we had in the game but couldn't use them – but at least we got the win in OT."