Two early first period goals put SaiPa in a commanding position in the home leg of their CHL Round of 16 match with Vaxjo. Read more in Gamecentre. 

by Luke Fisher

Brock Trotter opened the scoring with just 22 seconds on the clock in Finland, taking posession of the puck and skating into the zone before going high on Ericsson in the Lakers' net to make it 1-0. A good start for the hosts got better with 10:28 gone in the opening period, Trotter again going high past Ericsson though this time in the other corner.

“I think we played pretty well,” Trotter would later say about himself and linemates Curtis Hamilton, who assisted on both of his goals, and Matti Jarvinen, who assisted on one. “I had a couple of good players as my linemates today. We were creating lots of offence and managed well opportunities in the first period. During the game we created a couple more chances.”

A scoreless middle period meant the teams came out for the final period of the evening as they were at the end of 20 minutes. Vaxjo needed something, and duly got it at 41:26 as Linus Froburg was left too much room to slot home and make it 2-1. Just over 10 minutes later the Lakers drew level, Pontus Netterburg scoring at 53:50 to tie the match.

However, the final period scoring wasn't done there. SaiPa were not phased by giving up their two-goal lead and eventually going ahead again with Tomi Leivo poking the puck into the net after a goalmouth scramble at 55:44.

That goal was enough for SaiPa to hold on for the win, and take a one-goal lead with them to Sweden next week, but they won't be travelling alone. Some of the team's fans will be joining them on the same charter flight.

“Actually I’m hearing it first time,” Trotter reacted when told the news of the fans travelling with the team. “It should be fun. I’m looking forward to going to Sweden and playing a couple more games. This is my first time playing in the Champions Hockey League. So far it has been a pretty good experience.”

“I think we were pretty bad throughout the game and I don't like that SaiPa won pretty much every battle,” Vaxjo coach Sam Hallam assessed without mincing words. “We had a couple of good shifts here or there, and somehow we managed our way back (to even) but then we gave it away again ... but there's still 60 minutes left.”