Bili Tygri Liberec qualify for the Round of 32 after a hard-fought 2-1 win in Lorenskog. Read more in Gamecentre. 

Vladimir Svacina scored both goals on the power play in a 2-1 win, as Bili Tygri Liberec beat Lorenskog IK to advance to the CHL's Round of 32. Despite three hard-fought games against stiff opponents, Lorenskog are out. 

The first time that Liberec and Lorenskog met, the Norwegian team played rope-a-dope all night, and ended up scoring a late goal and stealing a point in the Czech city, despite being badly out-shot. This time, it looked like more of the same, with a shooting barrage from the White Tigers to start the game. They fired 21 shots at Jeff Jataitis in the opening 20 minutes, but didn't get a goal until the 15th minute, when Svacina pounced on a rebound on the power play.

The second period was a lot more defensive, but the visiting team still had a distinct edge in play. Lorenskog did get one golden chance to tie the score, however, with Jan Lasak making a huge glove save to rob Cramo Top Scorer James Sixsmith. It was once again late in the period when Liberec struck, and once again it was Svacina on the power play, this time on a cross-ice one-timer.

Lorenskog knew they needed a win to stay alive and came out attacking in the third period. They got one goal in the 47th minute by Steffen Thoresen on the power play, but that's as close as they came. 

They pushed hard for the equalizer in the last minute, but couldn't beat Lasak again, as the Slovak goalie preserved the clinching win for his Czech team.

“It was a close game,” said Liberec coach Filip Pesan. “Both teams played very hard. It was a similar game as back home in Liberec. We out-shot them by quite a bit again today, but we weren't effective and their goalie was very good, but our finish around the net needs to get better.”

About qualifying for the next round, Pesan said, “That was our first goal of the season, to advance from the group stage, so we're all happy for it.”

"We are closer to the top of the European teams then we thought before the CHL started," said Lorenskog coach Ken Larsen. "Liberec are used to playing faster than us, especially at the start of the game, but we played better in the second and third periods and gave them a good fight. We were a few players short today, but we still put up a good battle, I think. The key of the game was speed. They had it, and we didn’t."