In Saturday's late action, three Swiss clubs took sole possession of first place in their groups with wins - Fribourg-Gottéron in a shootout, Genève-Servette and EV Zug. In Group G, KalPa Kuopio won in Prague to come within one point of Sparta.
Fribourg-Gottéron 3–2 PSG Zlín (SO)
In a big game between the two teams tied for first in Group D, PSG Zlin twice took the lead and Fribourg-Gottéron twice tied it. Fribourg then won in a shootout, on the heels of their overtime win on Thursday, meaning Fribourg now leads Zlin by one point.
"We are very happy with this win," said Marc-Antoine Pouliot, who had a goal and an assist in regulation time and scored in the shootout as well. "Zlin is a strong team, but we managed to beat them twice in a row, even if it was only after regulation. For us it was important to finish these Champions League games on a positive note."
"This was a good game for me, as I had several chances to make big saves," said Zlin goalie Libor Kasik, who stopped 27 of 29 shots in 65 minutes of hockey. "In the end, this was not enough, even if I think that the second goal should have been disallowed. There was an attacker in my crease and for me it was a foul. The referee saw this situation in a different way. I still don’t agree with him."
Sparta Prague 2–3 KalPa Kuopio
Sparta Prague could have opened up a five-point lead atop Group G with a home-ice win, but KalPa Kuopio jumped into second place, now one point behind Sparta, with a key 3-2 victory. Arttu Ilomaki's second goal of the game in the 33rd minute was the winning goal, as KalPa played solid defence after that.
"Unfortunately were playing from behind the whole game and just couldn't get that tying goal," said Sparta coach Josef Jandac. "We had some chances in the second period, but in the third we didn't create much, as they played well. We were also undisciplined on the power play and took some stupid penalties. That possibly cost us this game."
"I’m happy we defeated Sparta mostly because of the young guys on our team," said KalPa winger Michal Birner, who chipped in with an assist. "It’s a huge win for us because it was the last game before the start of the regular season."
Briançon Diables Rouges 2–7 Genève-Servette
Briancon scored the only goal of the first period, but Genève scored two goals eight seconds apart in the first minute of the second period, and from there ran away with the game. Kevin Romy scored twice and Matt D'Agostini had four points as Genève takes the lead in Group C with nine points.
"I think we off to a good start, opening the scoring in the first period and managing to contain Genève's attacks away from the goal," said Briancon defenceman Gasper Cerkovnik. "But after that we committed some errors and they knew how to react to them immediately. Genève is one of the best teams in Europe."
EV Zug 3–2 Vítkovice Ostrava
EV Zug won a tight decision over Vitkovice Ostrava to re-claim first place in Group H from SaiPa Lappeenranta, who had won earlier Saturday. Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored twice for Zug, including the game-winner in the first minute of the third period to make it 3-1. Micahl Vandas brough Vitkovice within one with 3:57 on the clock, and then Zug withheld a furious assault in the final minute to hold on.
"It’s not a good feeling to lose like this," said Vitkovice captain Jiri Burger. "Our first period was not so good. After that, we could hold up with Zug for a while but our passes just weren’t precise enough. At the end, we didn’t have luck on our side."
"The first 20 minutes were good, the second period not so much," countered Zug's Reto Suri. "We got away from our game a bit early in the second but got back to it later. The goal at the beginning of the third period was very important and a solid game for maybe the next 10, 12 minutes but we lost our game again in the last few minutes. But you have to realise that we were playing a strong opponent and they had their strengths but in the end it was a team effort that provided us with this victory."