Frolunda Gothenburg have booked their spot in round two with a 5-2 win over Dynamo Pardubice. Read more in Gamecentre.

A disastrous start in Gothenburg saw Dynamo Pardubice go two goals down with less than six minutes played. Joel Lundqvist struck at 5:17, followed by Artturi Lehkonen 17 seconds later to have Frolunda 2-0 ahead with 5:34 played. Carl Grundstrom added a third for the home side with 12:19 played, putting the defending champions  comfortably three goals clear at the first break.

To their credit, Pardubice reacted and started better in the middle period. They were eventually rewarded for their efforts through Tomas Klimenta with 33:02 played. Things got better for the visitors just a couple of minutes later through – Petr Sykora striking at 35:43, and suddenly Pardubice were back to within one going into the final period.

Frolunda though came back with the perfect response at the beginning of period three, Carey Wellman giving them a well-needed goal just 49 seconds into the third to make the scoreline a little more comfortable. Pardubice tried to for their way back into game but were unable to, and eventually Kristian Vesalainen scoring on the empty net – and, despite some tussles after that goal, the game ended in a 5-2 win for Frolunda.

"I think we played really good in the first period, not nearly as well in the second but fought well in the third and eventually came out with a fair win, I believe,” said Frolunda's netminder Johan Gustafsson. "I think we lost our way a bit and had a hard time getting up and playing at our normal standard. We faced a really good team and it eventually looks like that when you drop a bit of intensity, you’re giving them the finger and they take the hand. But it’s a part of the game and you have to stay alert at all times.”

“We were good in the first period but it was a huge difference in the second period. We weren’t able to enter the offensive zone as we wanted to and started to give away too many pucks and serve them too many turnovers, which allowed them to play their style of hockey,” observed Frolunda coach Roger Ronnberg. 

Heading into the third period, Ronnberg said, “We discussed about our initiative where we needed to become quicker in our first action with the puck. Whereas in the second period we got trapped on the blueline and didn’t get any chance to use our speed, we decided that we needed to start dumping the puck to get the skates going a bit, and that’s just what Joel (Lundqvist) did before the 4-2 goal at the beginning of the third period.”

"It's not difficult to evaluate this game," Pardubice coach Peter Draisaitl began. "When you start, as we did in the first period, and you're not doing anything, that's not the right way to win a hockey game. We were losing 3-0, but a positive is that we were able to get back in the game. We were able to score on the power play, where previously we hadn't been doing anything. A good old hockey truth is that when the best players are not the best on the ice, you don't have much of a chance to win."