In the first game of the Round of 32 to finish, Mika Noronen recorded a 32-save shutout as Tappara Tampere beat Vitkovice Ostrava 2–0. Elsewhere, JYP–TPS and Trinec–HV71 played to 2–2 ties, and the Espoo Blues and IFK Helsinki both won on home ice.
IFK Helsinki 2–1 HC Davos
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On home ice, IFK Helsinki got 2 power-play goals from Joonas Rask in the 10th and 47th minutes to escape with a 1-goal lead over Davos, depsite getting out-shot 39–22. Goalie Ville Husso was the hero on the night, stopping everything except a Marc Weiser shot in the 45th minute that temporarily put Davos on even terms, just 2:28 before Rask's second goal. The series is still quite wide open, however, with Davos needing a 1-goal win on home ice to force overtime, or a 2-goal win to take it outright.
Espoo Blues 4–1 Adler Mannheim
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The Espoo Blues win the home half of their series with Mannheim, thanks in large part to an efficient second period where they scored 3 goals on 4 shots, while Christian Engstrand stopped all 13 he faced in the same frame, and 32 of 33 overall, and was especially strong with his team twice in the game down two men. Kim Hirschovits scored the game-winning goal 30 seconds into the period, and added 2 assists to lead the Blues offence, as he usually does.
“It was an Important win, of course. The big thing was to kill two 3-on-5s and other penalties. We were then very efficient on our own chances. That probably frustrated them a lot,” said Blues defenceman Otso Rantakari, who had 1 assist. “Their penalty killing was pretty similar as the teams in Finland have. Today we moved the puck well and that created chances. This time we had more shots on the power play than we usually have.”
“We didn’t capitalize when we needed to, got trapped around the edges and so on. We need to find a way to score on 5-on-3, especially when you have two of them. It’s something we’re working on in practice,” said Brandon Yip, Mannheim's lone goal scorer. About an incident he got into at the end of the second period with Espoo's Roope Talaja, Yip said, “It’s tough to be in the box. Unfortunately, I thought he was ready to go. It was just a reaction and I have to control myself better.”
Ocelari Trinec 2–2 HV71 Jonkoping
Ocelari Trinec and HV71 traded goals in each of the first two periods, and overall played to a fair 2–2 result after 60 minutes of this 120-minute home-and-away series. Both teams had chances to break the deadlock in the third, particularly Trinec, who had a four-minute power play, but nobody scored in the last period, meaning this series will be decided in Sweden.
“I think we played an okay game,” HV71 coach Johan Lindbom figured. “The first period wasn’t that good, we had low tempo, low puck tempo. From the second period on we played well. We had some scoring chances, scored two goals. The last period was full of penalties. We had some power plays, some chances, but didn’t manage to score. But it was a solid game, I’m satisfied. But as I said, we want to win everytime. We have a good chance of winning at home and advancing into next round.”
“I’m pleased with the way we played, but one more goal would have been good,” said Trinec coach Jiri Kalous, who obviously would have liked a win from his home half. “Today I recognized our team. We played well, had some chances. I think that we are missing a bit of luck in key moments. However, I’m not happy about our last power play. It was a long power play but we played badly in it. Overall I’m satisfied. HV71 is typical Swedish team, a very good team. I’m pleased that we were equally good in this game.”
JYP Jyvaskyla 2–2 TPS Turku
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JYP appeared to do themselves a huge favour by taking a 2-goal lead in the second period of their home game in this all-Finnish series – Miko Salmio and Petr Hubacek just 2:16 apart. TPS came right back in the third, however, to score twice 37 seconds apart early in the third – both defencemen, Petteri Nummelin on the power play and Elmeri Eronen. They now take it back home on even terms, and merely need a win to advance.
Vitkovice Ostrava 0–2 Tappara Tampere
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Vitkovice came out flying on home-ice, determined to win their home half of this Round of 32, and outshot Tappara 13–3. Veteran goalie Mika Noronen was ready, though, and stopped everything. In the second period, Tappara got 2 goals 1:32 apart – defenceman Teemu Aalto and then captain Jukka Peltola on a penalty shot – and that was the only scoring of the game. Noronen stopped 32 shots in all to help his team to a 2-goal lead heading home.
“I didn’t see any difference apart from efficiency,” said Vitkovice captain Jiri Burger, who couldn’t find much fault in his team’s game. “They scored the goals they had to and we didn’t – that’s the difference. We were prepared for them from video analysis, and we played solid game apart from scoring. I had a chance in the third period as well and hit the post twice in a few seconds. I had wide open net and couldn’t capitalize on that, it’s my fault. We tried new power-play units and you saw that – we didn’t play well on the power play. But Tappara did a great job on the penalty kill. We have to score in Finland and then we have a chance to advance.”
“We knew that Vitkovice would defend hard and look for turnovers and power plays, so our plan was to play the puck deep and stay out of penalty box, but we didn’t manager the latter,” said a partly satisfied Tappara coach Jussi Tapola. “We took a lot of penalties, but our penalty kill was fantastic and our goalie was superb as well. Of course we are very satisfied with the 2–0 win, but we have a lot to improve on. We’re not there yet – we still have three periods to play.”