Sparta Prague and Tappara Tampere went into Hamar and Stockholm, both winning closely contested games. At the same time, however, a pair of Swedish powerhouses – Vaxjo and Frolunda – were less than hospitable to their guests from the UK – Braehead and Sheffield – winning big.
Vaxjo Lakers 10–2 Braehead Clan
HIGHLIGHTS
The Swedish champion Vaxjo Lakers reached double digits on opening night, having no trouble with their visitors from Scotland, taking care of business early with five goals in the first period. Patrik Lundh led the way with an incredible 6-point performance (2+4), while Joakim Hildling had 4 points (1+3) and Ilkka Heikkinen 3 (2+1). Stefan Meyer scored both goals for Braehead.
"We let them overwhelm us a bit with their speed and got caught watching," said Braehead coach Ryan Finnerty. "I didn't think we created enough, and when we did have puck possession we gave it away to easily. We will learn from this and move forward to be a better team, and get better every day. We had great travelling support tonight."
Frolunda Gothenburg 9–1 Sheffield Steelers
HIGHLIGHTS
It was more bad news for Britain, as Sheffield lost by the same eight-goal margin to Frolunda in western Sweden. It was actuallly only 2–0 after 40 minutes, but then the Gothenburg club ran away with the game in the third. The power play was where Frolunda really took over, scoring five times with the man advantage including once up two men. Henrik Tommernis recorded the day's third hat-trick, while Spencer Abbott had 3 assists. Colton Fretter scored the lone Sheffield goal on a penalty shot.
"We talked about our discipline, and it wasn't good enough today," Sheffield coach Paul Thompson assessed. "We started to die off in the last period. For two periods we battled hard, but we hung our goalie out to dry and I'm not very happy about it. I think it's a big lesson for everyone in our locker room – you didn't see Frolunda taking penalties today, and it's a big eye-opener for my locker room now. We will get better with our conditioning."
Djurgarden Stockholm 2–4 Tappara Tampere
HIGHLIGHTS
In an evenly played game, Tappara Tampere went into the Swedish capital and beat Djurgarden. The key moments of the game were in the middle of the second period, when in the span of 1:36 Djurgarden took a 2–1 lead, but then Tappara scored twice to take a lead they'd never relinquish. Youngster Teemu Laine led the Tappara attack with 2 goals and 1 assist.
"Overall I think it was an even game between two strong teams, but it's the small mistakes that were the deciding factor in Tappara's victory tonight. In my opinion we gave them three goals on individual mistakes," said Djurgarden head coach Stefan Nyman. "Our penalty killing was solid tonight and the power play resulted in two goals even though we didnt play that good on our PP."
Storhamar Hamar 2–3 Sparta Prague
HIGHLIGHTS
Sparta were favoured and looked like they'd win easily after scoring twice in the first period, but urged on by a sellout home crowd of over 4,700, Storhamar battled back to tie the game in the second. Then Michal Cajkovsky scored the winning goal on the power play in the 48th minute. Cajkovsky, Tomas Netik and defenceman Michal Barinka each had 3 points for Sparta, while goalie Robert Hestmann was Storhamar's big star, stopping 35 of 38 shots.