Frolunda Gothenburg entered the return game with a one-goal deficit, but a 5-0 home-ice victory makes sure that their championship reign will continue for another month at least. Read more in Gamecentre. 

by Steven Ellis, with contribution from Efraim Larsson

Despite coming in from a deficit before the game, Frolunda Gothenburg had no issue advancing to the Round of 16 following a 5-0 win on Tuesday and a 7-3 advantage overall. Heading into game two down a goal from the previous match-up, Frolunda wanted to find a way to take back the series against Minsk.

“We had a strong feeling of that we could turn this around,” Frolunda forward Patrik Carlsson said about the team’s attitude before the game. “They got the first game pretty much the way the wanted it, but we talked about skating a bit more, bringing more intensity and sticking to our fast pace game plan, and I think we did those things well from the start today.”

They started off perfectly, taking an 18-4 shot advantage after one period of play. The barrage of shots would eventually take its toll on Minsk goaltender Dmitri Milchakov, who would allow the first goal of the game at the 18:25 mark. Nicklas Lasu would make no mistake with the shot, taking a pass from Sebastian Stalberg before beating Tryanichev with a quick snap shot in the slot, tying the aggregate score at three goals.

Minsk needed to do more than survive to move on, so trailing by two goals after just 1:05 of play in the second likely wasn’t in their game plan. Robin Figren would get the marker, converting a passing play between Kristian Vesalainen and Joel Lundqvist into the 2-0 lead, a lead that looked very tough for Minsk to come back from.

Minsk’s chances continued to wither away as time went on, finding themselves down by four goals by the end of the second. With Frolunda a man up at the 33:08 mark of the game, Carlsson received a a pass from Johan Sundstrom and waited a split second before sending the puck into the back of the net, beating Tryanichev top shelf with a slick wrist shot.

“Yes, that's always fun,” Carlsson said about scoring. Speaking of linemates Sundstrom and Henrik Tommernes, he said, “The guys played really well setting me up, so it was great capitalizing a bit on the power play.”

Then, at the end of the period, Frolunda got one that Tryanichev would surely want back. Tommernes would send a weak one from the blue line on net, beating a screen Tyanichev to extend Frolunda’s lead to 4-0 heading into the third period.

Minsk’s problems didn’t get much better. With five minutes done in the third, Simon Hjalmarsson got in close and beat Milchakov on a close scramble around the crease, giving Frolunda the 5-0 victory to advance to the Round of 16 in November.

“Well, Frolunda are obviously a really good team and they're probably more skilled than us,” admitted Milchakov, who stopped 42 of 47 shots in the game. “I honestly think that we didn't give ourselves the chance to win this by taking stupid penalties and letting them create dangerous counter-attacks and such. But still, I'm really proud of our team. We made it through the group stage, we beat them on home ice a week ago, so what can I say?”