Following Game Days 3 and 4, EV Zug sit atop a group in which each club held a 1-0-0-1 record heading into action. It would prove to be the week of the home teams as SaiPa Lappeenranta also won both games home. Vitkovice Ostrava salvaged one point in a shootout loss, while ERC Ingolstadt could not pick up any in a pair of tough losses.

by Kris Bligh, with contributions from Kalle Mantere & Andreas Reiner

Group H kicked off on Game Day 3 with Vitkovice Ostrava making the trip to Finland to take on SaiPa Lappeenranta. The first period did not see either club get any offence going, rather they traded off penalties in a rather uneventful first frame. The first goal came at the 8:35 mark of the second period as Matti Jarvinen was left all alone in front of the keeper and broke the deadlock with a nice tap-in. The visitors answered back with a pair of goals less than two minutes apart from Vladimir Svacina and Jan Kana, but SaiPa drew even in third with the man advantage as Dave Spina knocked home a beautiful feed from Janne Tavi. After trading off goals again the two teams would need a shootout to decide this contest. Former NHLer Jussi Markkanen came up with a huge save, which set up Jesse Mankinen to end the game and he delivered to the delight of the home crowd.

The other Group H game that day was EV Zug hosting ERC Ingolstadt. The fans in Zug would not be leaving disappointed this time around. The home crowd erupted as Bjorn Christen got Zug on the board midway through the first. Then quickly after that former Vancouver Canuck Josh Holden rippled the mesh with a nice wrist shot to put the home team up by two. The defending DEL champions answered back as Christoph Gawlik finished off a nice bang-bang play. Less than one minute into the second, Tim Ramholt cashed in on a turnover to restore Zug's two-goal lead. Ingolstadt added a tally in the third courtesy of Brandon Buck but it would not be enough.

On Game Day 4 SaiPa hosted an Ingolstadt squad looking to get back on track after a loss to Zug. In the previous meeting between the two teams, the German squad won 4-1 thanks to a spectacular goaltending performance by Timo Pielmeier, but things would be different this time. Tomi Leivo and Cramo Top Scorer Dave Spina, with his first of two on the night, made it 2-0 SaiPa early. Then late in the first period Ingolstadt's Cramo Top Scorer Brandon Buck got the visitors on the board. Despite a push and good effort from Ingolstadt, SaiPa's offence proved too strong for the Germans.

Afterward, two-goal-scorer Spina tried to explain the difference between this game and the previous meeting between the teams: "Ingolstadt lost a big game just before their last game and they came in hungry against us and we just couldn't match their energy level, took some penalties and couldn't get up to our pace. Tonight we played just simple and strong, won the battles against them. This was a completely different game compared to our game in Ingolstadt. Even though they got a goal that we shouldn't have let them have, we played so much better and we got the necessary goals."

Finishing up Game Day 4 in Group H, Vitkovice went into the heart of Switzerland to take on Zug. With a win Zug would pull ahead of SaiPa for the group lead and that is exactly what happened. The home team would get at it early as long-time NHLer Pierre-Marc Bouchard finished off a nice feed to knock in his first of the night. Daniel Sondell struck for Zug after Vitkovice could not clear their zone, giving the Swiss squad a two-goal lead. In the second frame Rudolf Huna finished off a nice passing play on the power play to cut the lead to one, but in the third Bouchard added a power-play marker of his own to restore the two-goal lead. Despite a late goal from Vitkovice, Zug would hold one for the win.

"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."

Group H will get back under way on September 23 as EV Zug will travel to SaiPa Lappeenraanta in a huge matchup for top spot. The other match will see ERC Ingolstadt hosting Vitkovice Ostrava with both looking to pickup valuable points and stay in the race.

Group H standings

Schedule and results