Entering the series nominally as underdogs, by virtue of being group runners-up, Lukko, Liberec, Kosice and Sparta all did themselves big favours by winning their home halves of the Round of 32. Liberec's and Kosice's wins were especially impressive against strong Swedish opponents. Meanwhile, Lulea and Storhamar both won their first legs on the road.
Sparta Prague 3–2 ZSC Lions Zurich
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Sparta Prague had a huge first period on home ice, scoring 3 times and taking a commanding 3–0 over visiting Zurich. However, the visiting ZSC Lions managed to claw back with a goal in each of the last two periods to make the final score 3–2, setting up a return leg back home where they begin trailing by only 1 goal. Jan Buchtele scored twice for Sparta, both assisted by Martin Reway – one of them a highlight-reel goal – while Auston Matthews had 1 assist for Zurich in his much-anticipated CHL debut.
“We played a really hard game against a difficult opponent, so we are proud of the victory,” said Sparta coach Josef Jandac. “The score 3–0 looked much better, but then me made some individual mistakes on defence. I think our performance was solid and disciplined, so we’ll see whether it was enough for us to qualify for the next round. It's always better to go to the next game with a lead.”
“Only about a half of our team was playing well tonight,” said a somewhat disappointed Zurich coach Marc Crawford afterward. “The Czech team played at the level they needed to. Sparta have older players, smarter players. They have a good passion with the puck and they took the advantage of the people behind. We made a lot of mistakes, we can definitely play better. However, it was really good learning experience for the young guys.”
Farjestad Karlstad 0–3 Lulea Hockey
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Lulea are the defending European champions and they played like it tonight in Karlstad, shutting out Farjestad 3–0 to take a commanding lead into their home half of this series. Viktor Ekarv assisted on 2 of Lulea's goals, while Daniel Larsson made 29 saves for the shutout. The young Farjestad team came up with a good effort, but just couldn't beat the Lulea netminder and now have their work cut out for them, needing a 3-goal win in Lulea to extend Game 2 beyond regulation time.
“It felt great to be back in Karlstad and play against my old teammates. They are good friends of mine still,” said Lulea forward Toni Rajala, who played last season for Farjestad and scored Lulea's second goal. “I always want to score, and this game was no exception. My old teammates asked me not to score so I guess I disappointed them a little.” About his team, he added, “We skated well and had solid defence. We made it tough for Farjestad.”
HC Kosice 4–3 Skelleftea AIK
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Skelleftea entered this series as heavy favourites and, after they took a 2–0 lead in the 23rd minute, seemed to have things firmly under control. But just 1:32 after Patrick Zackrisson's power-play goal, Marek Bartanus answered with a power-play marker of his own to bring Kosice within one. Kosice then out-scored Skelleftea 3–1 over the final 10 minutes to actually give themselves a 1-goal lead after their home half. Skelleftea are very strong at home so this series is far from over, but Kosice's late comeback sure makes things interesting heading into Game 2.
“We played a really good game,” said Kosice coach Peter Oremus. “We didn't have good first period, but we improved in the second and third. We were playing a really good team, so I'm glad that we were able to win it. We will fight to get to the next round of the CHL.”
Skelleftea coach Hans Wallson commented, “My team had a good start, however, we didn't keep it all game and let Kosice get back into it. The score is 4–3 for Kosice, but we're going to do everything we can to get into the next round.”
Bili Tygri Liberec 4–1 Linkoping HC
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In one of the more surprising results of the day, Liberec got a hat-trick from Michal Bulir and out-scored Linkoping 4–1 in the first period, then preserved their 3-goal lead over the final 40 minutes to put themselves in good shape heading north. Goaltender Marek Scharz stopped 24 of 25 shots, beaten only by Jonas Junland in the 15th minute – a goal that briefly brought Linkoping to within one before Bulir scored his third just 11 seconds later. Linkoping will now need a 3-goal win at home just to force overtime.
“The beginning was very tough for us,” admitted Linkoping head coach Dan Tangnes. “Liberec started in strong and they took advantage of the fact that we have a very inexperienced team here. Then we managed to play well in the second and third periods, but couldn’t put anything past the goalie. In second leg, we’ll need to play our game and try to score as much as possible.”
Liberec coach Filip Pesan agreed, “We had an amazing start, especially Michal Bulir was effective as he capitalized on three of his four big chances. However, come the second period, Linkoping played well and became a tough opponent and so I’m happy that we won and only allowed one goal.”
Lukko Rauma 5–3 Red Bull Munich
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On home ice, Lukko scored 5 goals on 18 shots and were securely in the driver's seat, leading Munich by 4 goals late in the third period. In the last two minutes, however, the Red Bulls scored twice to close the gap to 2, and greatly increase their chances of pulling even in their home half in two weeks' time. Janne Lahti led Lukko with 1 goal and 3 assists, while Janne Niskala and Toni Koivisto each had 1 goal and 2 assists, and all three of those players scored in a six-minute span on the second period to break the game open. Nobody recorded more than 1 point for Munich, who scored 3 goals on 22 shots.
“This series is interesting,” noted Munich head coach Don Jackson. “We know that the total goals matter and the two goals at the end were huge for us. We started the game with a lot of confidence and as the game went by we made some mistakes that Lukko capitalized. In the second period their defencemen did great job getting the puck towards the net and we missed many blocks we should have taken. Lukko is a very organized club and we’d love to beat them. This is going to be our next challenge; to have a good next game against them. They were better at delivering the puck to the net and they are tough in front. A good hockey team. We’re looking forward to the next game.”
“In the beginning we had problems getting out of the pressure. They gave us good pressure, also the tempo of the game was good,” explained Lukko assistant coach Juha Vuori. “After getting out of the pressure we were able to get into power play situations where we were able to execute our plays. Our penalty killing was also good today. Overall I think we had a solid game today.”