Skelleftea opened play on Saturday with a home-ice win over Liberec to claim top spot in Group D. Meanwhile, Sparta and Trinec both came through in must-win games to advance to the Round of 32, and Karpat and HV71 both finished the group stage with a perfect 12 points.
Red Bull Salzburg 1–3 HV71 Jonkoping
HIGHLIGHTS
HV71 had already wrapped up 1st place in Group C and Salzburg 2nd, but HV71 wanted to finish the group stage with a perfect 12 points, while Salzburg wanted to go into the Round of 32 on a high note. It was visiting HV71 who accomplished their goal by winning 3–1. The two teams traded goals in the first period and Bjorn Mellin put HV71 into the lead early in the second on the power play – that turned out to be the game-winning goal. A late empty-netter rounded out the scoring.
Karpat Oulu 4–0 Vienna Capitals
HIGHLIGHTS
These teams engaged in the final game of Group J already knowing they were finishing 1st and 2nd, respectively, but that made no difference to Karpat, whose defence was just as stingy has it has been all tournament. Only 17 shots against and no goals, as Sami Aittokallio recorded his 3rd shutout in four games and Karpat take a perfect 12 points from the group stage. Miko Pyorala assisted on the first Karpat goal and scored the next 2, while Julius Juntilla and Lasse Kukkonen also chipped in with 2 points each.
Ocelari Trinec 6–0 KalPa Kuopio
HIGHLIGHTS
Trinec needed a regulation victory to advance, and they took care of that by scoring the first goal in the 16th minute, then breaking the game wide open with four more in the second, en route to a convincing victory. Penalties were the key in the second period, as Trinec took advantage of a major penalty and three other minors to KalPa in the period to score three power-play goals, two of them 5-on-3. Erik Hrna recorded a hat-trick, finishing it off with the game's last goal in the third period, and Peter Hamerlik made 24 saves for the shutout.
“It was a great game, especially the second period,” said Hrna, who was obviously pleased with his own performance. “Last year our power play was a problem, but today we scored three times. That’s the reason we are advancing to the next round. Hopefully it will raise our morale for the upcoming games and we will be able to score as many goals as we did today. The hat-trick is nice, I hope that I won’t have to pay anything into club’s treasury.”
“It was an excellent game by us,” agreed head coach Jiri Kalous. “We had a good power play and Peter Hamerlik was great in the net. We are very satisfied with our performance and are looking forward to playing more games. Yes, we still have to improve some things, but I’m very proud of my team, that we managed to play the way we set out to.”
Sparta Prague 5–2 Geneve-Servette
HIGHLIGHTS
Sparta needed only a single point to advance, and further strengthened their position with a 2–0 first-period lead. Geneve battled back with a strong second to tie it up, but Jan Buchtele gave Sparta the lead back less than a minute later and Martin Reway's second of the game in the third period on a penalty shot put it away. Sparta finish 2nd in Group M and advance to the Round of 32, while Geneve-Servette are suprisingly eliminated.
“I wouldn’t say we played a bad game but we made bad mistakes at key times,” said Geneve assistant coach Louis Matte. “We thought we were finally showing good form in the second period, we got the two goals but then we made another big mistake. It’s been the same thing all four games in the CHL – we didn’t play bad but we didn’t play good enough to win. We thought before the start that we had a good chance to go to the second round of the CHL and maybe farther, but we’ve had a big problem scoring goals since the beginning and this is the result – we’re finished.”
“Geneve was a really tough opponent for us,” said Sparta assistant coach Zdenek Motak. “From watching this game, anyone could see how much talent they have. In the second period when we were leading 2–0 we lost our concentration a little bit and it led to their two goals. So we are really happy we were strong enough to score three more goals, win this game and advance to the next round.”
Skelleftea AIK 5–2 Bili Tygri Liberec
HIGHLIGHTS
Both teams entered the game already qualified for the Round of 32, but with a regulation win Liberec could have finished top spot in Group D. The teams exchanged power-play goals in the first period, but Skelleftea pulled away with three straight goals in the second and another early in the third. John Norman had 1 goal and 1 assist for last year's CHL semi-finalists, while Michal Repik scored both goals for Liberec.
“The coaches challenged us between the first and the second periods, and I think we answered it well. Whole team came out strong in the second period and really put the forecheck down and that made the difference today. We were pretty relentless and they couldn’t handle it,” said Skelleftea forward Terry Broadhurst, who had 1 assist in the game. “It’s good to have this great start. The overall goal is to win the entire Champions League but we are not gonna get too far ahead of ourselves. The next game is what we are looking at, whoever we play.”
“We played a really good game here today, but we lost it in four minutes in the second period. We should be better to compete for the whole 60 minutes. Our goal was to go to the playoffs and now we are there, and now anything can happen,” said Liberec defenceman Martin Sevc, who played last season in Skelleftea, and received a warm reception from the fans there. “They were really nice to me. They always make me happy. I have really good memories of Skelleftea – it's kind of my family now.”