A packed Monday evening of Champions Hockey League action saw Kosice stage an unlikely comback to stay alive in the competition, Vaxjo become the first side thorugh to the next round, Munich and Tappara got their first wins, and SaiPa leave former champions Lulea in hot water.
Yunost Minsk 4–3 Vaxjo Lakers (OT)
Read more in Gamecentre
A 4-3 overtime win was enough for the Vaxjo Lakers to leave Minsk safe in the knowledge that they'd made it to the Round of 32 by virtue of Mlada Boleslav not being able to finishing higher than them. Despite the point being good enough, the result wasn't for head coach Sam Hallam. "We didn't use the puck effectively enough tonight. We came up against a very skilled team as we saw in their game a few days ago, and weren't smart enough with the puck," he said. "Then when we did start using it our play got interrupted by the penalties so our rhythm wasn't there in the game."
"I say a big thank you to our fans. They helped us in such a difficult game, and were our ‘six player’ on the ice today," said a beaming Mikhail Zaharov, head coach of Yunost, after the game. "Vajxo have great players with experience in the NHL and KHL. They control the puck very well and do this in a high speed. I asked my team to play with discipline, but the Vaxjo players have shown a high level of hockey. Thanks to my players for this game, they did their job well."
Orli Znojmo 3–4 Red Bull Munich
Orli Znojmo's first Champions Hockey League game saw them run Red Bull Munich very close before going down to a 4-3 defeat on home ice. Despite a hat-trick from Libor Sulak, goals from Keith Aucoin, Michael Wolff, Mads Christensen, and Jerome Flakke – the last two being within 52 seconds each other in the final period – were enough to secure three valuable road points for the Bavarians.
"I think that for the first two periods we played well, our play was organized. But against a team like Red Bull Munich you can’t play an open-style hockey. 2-1 after two periods was ok, unfortunately we then made a mistake and they scored," commented Znomjo head coach Jiri Reznar. "As I have already said, we are underdogs in the group. Today we were the better team for the first two periods, our play was good. We managed to survive a five minute penalty without a goal, we had the lead. But at the begining of the third period they tied it and then added two more goals. It’s a shame because it was a good game."
Red Bull's head coach Don Jackson agreed that it was a hard-fought win for his side. "It was a tough, gritty game. We had the lead 1-0, they made it hard on us in the next period and took the lead, so we had to turn it around in the third. Some big goals there won it for us in the last period. We started the third on the PP so knew we needed to be tough in front of the net, and it was a great job to create the opening. We knew Znojmo would be highly motivated, they've been a great team in the EBEL and we had a lot of respect for them," he said.
Black Wings Linz 3-4 HC Kosice
A thoroughly entertaining game in Linz saw Kosice stage a remarkable 4-goal comeback to beat their EBEL opponents 4-3, and stay alive in this season's CHL. At 3-0 down the Slovak side were faced with elimination before their final game, but rallied to first equalise and then win the game late on through Marek Bartanus.
"We blew a three-goal lead. Any time you have a three-goal lead you should win, especially at home," conceded Black Wings Head Coach Rob Daum after the game. "It was late in the second period and we didn't do a very good job. We gave them some chances on the power play and they took advantage."
A delighted Rotislava Cada, head coach of HC Kosice, added that "the main reason for our victory is our fighting spirit. The first two periods were very weak from our team. For the next game we are expecting same fighting spirit, discipline and organization. I will be very pleased if we are able to achieve the same result as today."
Both sides are now locked on three points each, and the results of their respective visits to Bern will decide who advances to the next round.
HC Lugano 1–3 Tappara Tampere
Lugano's home loss to Tappara marked Switzerland's first loss in the CHL this season. The NLA side started well and went ahead through Dario Bürglar inside the opening six minutes, but Otso Rantakari tied things up in the second before Arttu Ilomaki and Henrik Haapala both netted a goal each in the final 20 minutes to give Tappara the win and their first win of the CHL this season – leaving all three teams in Group C locked on three points each.
“I think it’s our fault that we let Tappara come back into the game, they were efficient like we were tonight. In the 2nd period we had a couple of great chances in our power play but we were unable to convert, maybe that would have changed the game," said Lugano's goal-scorer Dario Burgler. "On Saturday we have to play better 5-on-5, we have to create more chances and try to score some dirty goals against this team. From now on every goal is important, this group is very tight.”
Lugano coach Doug Shedden was disappointed with his team's performance in their CHL home opener, and was at a loss to explain their lack of fight in the game. "I think Tappara were the hungrier team, they won a lot of battles, and maybe our guys weren't ready to battle tonight. We certainly didn't have our A-game tonight, and I'm disappointed with that. It was our first Champions League home game, and I'm disappointed we weren't ready for it – but give Tappara credit, they worked hard, played a good road game, and were the better team," he said in the post-game interview.
His counterpart Jussi Tapola was of course delighted to get his side's first CHL points on the board this season, especially having gone behind again. "Well of course the start of the game was hard for us, taking a not so smart penalty and going 1-0 down. But then we smartened up, used the puck well, and went on to get the victory. Of course we watched the video of the last game, and made some good progress today," said the Finn.
Lulea Hockey 2–4 SaiPa Lappeenranta
A second defeat in as many CHL matches this season for Lulea Hockey leaves the 2014-15 champions with a lot of work to do if they want to make it to the next round. Having lost in Berlin, they returned to ice facing a SaiPa side that had beaten the Eisbaren in their last game. After taking the lead in the opening period through Mikael Kuronen, SaiPa held a one-goal advantage until an own goal levelled things up at the start of period three. The Finns re-gained the lead with just under five minutes to go through Eetu Koski, and after Anton Hedman was ejected form the game for a Head Check, Lulea faced an uphill struggle. SaiPa pulled clear thanks to John McFarland with 22 seconds to go, and despite a late effort from Christian Jaros for the home side Simon Backman scored SaiPa's second empty net goal of the game to secure a 4-2 win.
“It feels quite disappointing that we couldn’t manage to win this game. We controlled the game and outshot them with quite a huge margin but we didn’t manage to score enough goals, and that’s why we lost," said Stefan Nilsson, Lulea's head coach, after the game. "Obviously we now have to win both of our remaining games. We need to capitalize on our scoring chances, and score more than our opponents." Asked about Hedman's major penalty, Nilsson answered, "I couldn’t really tell in which direction the hit were, but if he hit him in head there's nothing to discuss. The rule book says it’s five and a game."
On the opposite bench, SaiPa head coach Ari Santanen was delighted with his team's performance. "We knew that Lulea would come hard, so defence was very important for us. We didn't have os many chances to score, but we took them when it mattered and got important goals. No we'll go home with two wins under our belt, and look forward to the next games" he said in the post-game interview session.