Two Finnish teams opened Friday's action with home-ice wins, one close and one not at all. TPS Turku hammered HC Bolzano 9-0, while JYP Jyväskylä squeeked by Red Bull Salzburg 3-2. Later, Zlin edged Eisbären in a shootout and Hamburg fell 4-1 to Lulea.
Eisbären Berlin 3-4 PSG Zlin (SO)
Visiting PSG Zlin led 3-1 late in the second period, and Eisbären Berlin came back to earn 1 point, but only 1. The game was eventually decided in a shootout, where Bedrich Kohler scored the winning goal in the eighth round.
"The level of play in the CHL is really high, as we could see today," said Berlin's T.J. Mulock, who tied the game on the power play early in the third period. "My equalising goal was important for the team. At the beginning we made one or two mistakes which resulted in goals for Zlin. Still, we can be satisfied with the game. Right now I am excited for the next game."
"It was a very good and intensive game," said Zlin coach Rostislav Vlach. "In overtime Eisbären were really close to scoring the winning goal, so in the end we were lucky to have won the game."
Hamburg Freezers 1-4 Lulea Hockey
The first period was all Lulea, as 2 goals and 1 assist from Per Ledin and 3 power-play goals helped them build up a 4-0 lead in front of a shocked Hamburg crowd. The hometown Freezers then woke up and put on all sorts of pressure the last two periods, but only managed a single goal by Adam Mitchell late in the second.
"We can't be happy with the final score," said Mitchell. "Our game was a bit rough at the beginning. In the second and third periods we found our rhythm better. But ultimately, it's just very difficult to come back from so far behind."
"I am very pleased with our start to the CHL," said Lulea coach Joakim Fagervall, obviously happy with his team's first period. "Of course, we scored three goals on the power play, which was the main reason we won."
JYP Jyväskylä 3-2 Red Bull Salzburg
JYP Jyväskylä built up a 3-0 lead early in the second period, then survived a late charge by Red Bull Salzburg to win 3-2. After Mikko Salmio and Eric Perrin scored in the first period, Petr Hubacek made it a three-goal difference on a penalty shot just 18 seconds into the second period. Thomas Raffl closed the gap to two later in the middle frame and Brian Fahey scored on a rebound with 1:45 on the clock. That's as far as the Salzburg comeback would get, though.
"Yeah, it was a really nice feeling, the first CHL goal for our organisation. Surely a feeling I wont forget," said Salimo when his goal celebration was mentioned. He further said, "Salzburg had a really skilled group of players. It was just great to get that victory."
TPS Turku 9-0 HC Bolzano
In the CHL's biggest offensive output so far TPS Turku exploded for six goals in the second period and beat HC Bolzano 9-0. Nicolas Lucenius led the way with 1 goal and 2 assists, while Tero Koskiranta scored twice. Teemu Lassila made 23 saves to record the CHL's second shutout.
"We had an okay first period," Bolzano head coach Tom Pokel said, before explaining why the wheels fell off in the second. "I mean, we've only been on ice for one week. We were playing against a very good team. The second period . . . we maybe got too excited, took too many penalties. They ate us up."
"They had a lot of chances in first period but we were the ones who scored," said TPS head coach Kail Suikkanen. "After 3-0 it was our game. It was done, I think they ran out of gas."