HV71 also gets the winning record

North Division

Just one day after a disappointing home performance against HC Mountfield, Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg get the revenge with a 5-3 win in the Czech Republic. Salzburg had everything under control and had a 3-0 lead after two periods with goals by Tyler Maxwel, Steven Regier and Justin DiBenedetto. When the fire seemed to be out of the match, Mountfield managed to get the equalizer within ten minutes of the third period. First Jakub Suja and Stanislav Dietz brought their team back onto the tracks before Peter Mikus made it 3-3 at 53:16. This could have been the turning point in favour of the hosts but Matthias Tratting earned the guest lead back after an assist by Ryan Kinasewich just 180 seconds later. When Mountfield looked for their last chance by pulling out their goalie for another attacker, Steven Regier had an empty netter for the deserved - but in the end lucky - away win for Salzburg.

In the match between the two Czech bottom clubs of North Division it was HC Kometa that earned its first ET win of the campaign. After a goalless first period it took the hosts only 16 (!) seconds until Milan Gulas opened the score for them with a very nice individual effort. But this early goal didn't help Plzen to get more self-confidence. Instead a shot from the blue line by Filip Krejcirik at 24:14 already tied the match again. In what continued to be a nervous game due to the low score where every shot could bring the decision it was Jan Hruska wo let Kometa get the very late winner at 59:29. In the remaining seconds they defended their tight lead and get all three points back to Brno.

South Division

Yesterday Luleå HF set a new record by winning all their first six ET games with three points each. 24 hours later they already have to share this record with their Elitserien rivals HV71 who crushed Linköpings HC with half a dozen goals. In the first two periods LHC had more difficulties to find to their play while HV71 used the opponent's mistakes ice cold. Already at 02:28 Jesper Thörnberg brought the guests in front with a rebound. Patrik Carlsson and Rhett Rakhshani trippled the lead early in the second before Carl Söderberg deflected a shot into the net for the 1-3 at 26:08. Almost at "half time" Jesper Fasth get the three-goal lead back to his team. Again Rakhshani and Oscar Fantenberg made half a dozen perfect even before the second break. In the last 20 minutes nothing notable happened as HV71 leaned back and LHC was too demotivated with the big gap. With this win HV71 is already qualified for Red Bull Salute with two remaining games.

Sparta Praha was the next victim of the surprise team of this year's European Trophy season so far - Pirati Chomutov. Miroslav Zalesak and Michal Duras with goals in the first period earned a comfortable lead for the guests from Chomutov before Petr Tenkrat brought Sparta on the scoreboard at 27:17. With the begin of the third period Duras made his second goal of the night at 42:40 and scored the decisive goal for Chomutov against a very disappoiting Sparta that is now out of ET.

In front of a good crowd of 4,300 the two automatically qualified Red Bull Salute hosts Vienna Capitals and Slovan Bratislava faced each other in the Austrian capital. In a low-scoring game Vladimir Dravecky scored first for Slovan late in the second period at 38:31. In the third Milan Kytnar failed in a penalty shot attempt and so made possible the equalizer for Vienna that came at 52:19 through Philippe Lakos. In the overtime Czech left winger Zdenek Blatny earned the extra point for the Capitals after only 16 seconds. For KHL newcomers Slovan Bratislava a shaky grouph phase ended with only 10 points in 8 matches and only one 3-point win. Vienna is doing their best to represent EBEL well and have best chances to end the Division at the second place behind HV71.

Finnish champions JYP get the revenge for yesterday's loss against KalPa - with the exact same result of 2-5. Jukka Hentunen scored early for the home side at 04:11 but even before the first intermission Ramzi Abid with a double turned the result around for JYP. With a lot of motivation KalPa came out of the dressing room and scored in the first minute of the second period through Mikko Kukkonen. Kristian Näkyvä again didn't need to much time to get the answer and Kristian Näkyvä.made it 2-3 at 24:32. This one became the game-winning goal. Later French international Yohann Auvitu and Ramzi Abid - who get the hat trick with an empty netter in the last minute of play what made him a deserved man of the match - made it 2-5 in the end. Now both teams have 5 points each but continue to be the last two in the group table.  

West Division

A two-time two-goal lead through was not enough for ERC Ingolstadt. In front of more than 6,000 fans in the SAP Arena Adler Mannheim wanted to finally show some good hockey in the European Trophy to their own fans and Ken Megowan get the immediate answer for the hosts at 18:59 after Jared Ross and Alexander Oblinger had scored for Ingolstadt at the begin in the first period. The cold shower for the Eagles came early in the second when John Laliberte scored the 1-3 with a rebound against German national goalie Dennis Endras. Mannheim cut the lead to just one at 38:31 through Michael Glumac. Early in the third Frank Mauer even tied the game for the first time. After a goalless overtime it was Adam Mitchell who transformed the decisive penalty to give Mannheim the extra point. Mannheim still is last in the group while Ingolstadt now has made the final tournament qualification for themselves more difficult.
      
Second in West Division is EV Zug. The regular season winners of NLA won against the Swiss champions ZSC Lions at home. Reto Suri opened the score for the hosts at 06:23 before Marco Maurer tied the match at 13:01. Just 36 seconds passed until Timo Helbling get the lead back to Zug. Fabian Lühti and Björn Christen made it 4-1 in the last 20 minutes for a solid home win.

In the duel of the two Swedish sides of the group, Färjestads BK kept their hopes for the final tournament qualification alive. Fredrik Eriksson and Joel Lundqvist brought Frölunda two times in front but Jack Connolly and Per Åslund answered with their goals for the 2-2 after the regular time. In the shooutout it was Per Åslund who won the game for FBK.

For a long time the initial first-period goal of Ville Peltonen for HIFK stood. In the third the hosts missed the decision in several occasions although Eero Somervuori and Joakim Eriksson had made it 3-0. When really no one believed in a turn-around Markus Nordlund in PP and Teuvo Teräväinen brought hope back to Jokerit. In the last minute of play the guests pulled out their goalie and with one of the last desperate tries they scored the incredible equalizer through Riku Hahl at 59:48. Esa Lindell even get the extra point for Jokerit in the shootout to keep them in fighting distance for a Red Bull Salute qualification.  

East Division

In a game to forget Tappara won with the minimum 1-0 at TPS. The lone goal of the match was scored by Tuukka Mäntylä at 37:15. Guest goalie Juha Metsola earned a shutout to extend the group lead to four points. Tomorrow both teams will face each other again.

Pardubice missed a good opportunity to keep in fighting distance with group leaders Tappara. Against their Czech rivals Bili Tigry Liberec they had more difficulties than thought and a good third-period finish let the guests win 0-3. Juraj Cebak, Jaroslav Kudrna and David Havir were the goal scorers for Liberec whose goalie Robin Blazicek earned his shutout with a good performance.

In a prestige duel of two Swiss sides, it was Fribourg-Gottéron who became the lucky winners. Byron Ritchie twice scored the lead for Bern with the equalizer comming through Pavel Rosa and Romain Loeffel. After the second goal of Fribourg the hosts got a real push and Andrey Bykov turned the game around completely. Now the NLA finalists had to react and Nicklas Danielsson made it 3-3. Adam Hasani won the game for Fribourg at 52:00.

 

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