In their CHL home debut, BK Mlada Boleslav edged the Vaxjo Lakers in a shootout by a 3-2 score. Read more in Gamecentre.

BK Mlada Boleslav barely escaped a desparate situation. In their CHL home debut, Tomas Pospisil opened the scoring on a 2-on-1 break in the first minute. Vaxjo scored twice before the end of the first period, however, and the score stayed 2-1 as the game approached its end.

But with just 59 seconds to play in regulation time, Jakub Osrava scored this third CHL goal, backhanding a shot through a maze of players and in, to save his team from an almost hopeless situation of being without a point after three games. Eventually, the game was decided in a shootout in Mlada Boleslav's favour, with Radan Lenc scoring the winning goal. Jan Lasak, who stopped 30 of 32 shots during 65 minutes of hockey, stopped four of Vaxjo's five shooters. 

“It’s really positive we won against such a great team like Vaxjo,” a pleased Frantisek Vyborny said afterward. “We tried to adapt to their style of hockey. They are really fast and strong along the boards. That’s why we lost 7-3 last game. Today we were much better, we got better each period. The third period was really good, we didn’t allowed them as many chances as in the first two periods. We had too much respect at the start, but the end of the game – that was the Mlada Boleslav team we know from last season. I would like to play more games like this.”

"Last we lost 7-3 against them, today we were a little better," figures Mlada Boleslav winger Jakub Klepis. "It was a tight game and we won in a shootout. 3-on-3 always brings more chances – I had one but I didn't score. We want to win every game, we wanted to win in Minsk, it just didn't happen. Next time we will win in regulation time."
 
That's a must for Mlada Boleslav, who trail Yunost Minsk by one point, and host that team in their last Group L game on 6 September. However, they also have to hope that the Lakers now help them out by beating Yunost in those teams' two encounters, which are still yet to come. 

Said Vaxjo head coach Sam Hallam, “On Thursday we scored first, today we got scored on in the first minute of the game. We played a pretty solid game and we were much better defensively than last time. We battled for the puck and forchecked really well. Boleslav played really well, they refused to give up and were rewarded with the equalizer. Ultimately, the penalty shooutout decided it.”