The Vaxjo Lakers shut out Yunost Minsk 4-0 to top Group L. Read more in Gamecentre. 

The Vaxjo Lakers hosted Yunost Minsk in a game to determine who would be the winners of Group L and who would be the runners up, but both teams already knew they were going on to the next round. The Lakers used a dominant performance in the first period and a pair of goals by Pontus Netterberg to grab the lead and protected it wisely the rest of the way, cruising to a 4-0 victory.

In the first period, the Lakers outshot Yunost 16-3. At first, Alexander Tryanichev was stopping everything, in particular a save off Robert Rosen that came right off a face-off. Eventually they broke through, however. In the 12th minute, Calle Rosen's slap shot hit Netterberg's skate and went in. Three minutes later, it was again Calle Rosen with the set-up, making a move to get Tryanichev out of position and leaving Netterberg with the easy tap-in.

“I think our first period was good," said Vaxjo coach Sam Hallam. "We played quick and simple with the puck and established pressure on them. Even though we didn’t have a power play, it felt like we got the game to where we wanted it during the entire period."

From there, Vaxjo went into protection mode. The second period was evenly played, and Victor Andren had his toughest work of the game with a couple of nice saves. Overall, he made 19 saves for the shutout.

In the last eight minutes, Vaxjo scored two more goals – Adam Brodecki with a slapper off the post and in and Tuomas Kiiskinen on the power play with just four seconds left – which only put the final nails in the coffin.

Yunost coach Pavel Perepechkin summarized, “We had chances to score but didn’t. Vaxjo is a good team that play an offensive game with good forwards. They position themselves well and are great skaters. We had problems in our defensive zone and our goalie had a lot of work to do.”

On the difference between this game and the previous meeting between the teams in Minsk, which his team won 4-3 in overtime, he said, “We took advantage of our opportunities to score in Minsk. Especially on the power play which we didn’t do today.”

Hallam figured, “I think that we handled some of the build up parts from our end a lot better. But overall I think the big difference was that we were more effective today.”