On Thursday night in the CHL, the Stavanger Oilers, HV71 Jonkoping, Karpat Oulu, SC Bern, HC Lugano, the Vienna Capitals and Vaxjo Lakers all registered wins.
Vienna Capitals 3–2 Skelleftea AIK (OT)
Considered one of Europe's top teams, Skelleftea AIK are huge favourites to win Group N with the Vienna Capitals expected to battle with KalPa Kuopio for the second advancing spot. The team from the Austrian capital did themselves a huge favour toward advancing by scoring a 3-2 overtime victory on home ice over Skelleftea.
Visiting Skelleftea carried the play most of the night and when recent re-acquisition Oscar Moller opened the scoring in the 11th minute, it looked like they were on their way. But the Caps were fortuitous in the middle frame, scoring twice and taking the lead on Jerry Pollarstrone's power-play goal. Skelleftea very nearly tied it again on a 5-on-3 late in the period but J.P Lamoureux made an unbelieable save diving to his left and making a backanded catch to rob Adam Pettersson.
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Adler Mannheim 2–3 HC Lugano
In front of their usual large and enthusiastic home crowd, Adler Mannheim had a strong first period against HC Lugano – outshooting them 10-6 and scoring two goals in the first five minutes. Undaunted, however, Lugano came back.
The second period seemed to be a completely different game as Lugano dominated, firing 15 shots and Dennis Endras and scoring twice to tie the game. In the third, Damien Brunner scored Lugano's second power-play goal of the game, which held up as the game-winner. Mannheim pressed furiously to tie but couldn't beat Elvis Merzlikins again – the Latvian keeper stopped 32 of 34 shots on the night.
Vaxjo Lakers 7–3 BK Mlada Boleslav
At first it looked like the Vaxjo Lakers would run away with the game, scoring twice in the first 2:26. Then BK Mlada Boleslav battled back with a couple of quick ones of their own. Each team added one more in a wild first period that had six goals in total, including two by Mlada Boleslav on breakaways.
After that, the Lakers settled down and dominated. They added two goals in the second and two more in the third to win 7-3. Tempers flared late in the game with several skirmishes, but they had no affect on the outcome.
Black Wings Linz 1–3 SC Bern
Black Wings Linz knew that to have a chance against SC Bern they'd have to slow the pace down and they did – for one period. The visitors from the Swiss capital were patient, however, and took control of the game with three straight goals. Simon Moser, who scored a goal in the first game against Vitkovice, assisted on the first two goals in Linz.
Dan Dasilva broke the shutout in the 46th minute, but that's all the offence the Wings would get as Leonardo Genoni – who backstopped HC Davos to the CHL Semi-Finals last season – stopped 22 of 23 shots to post his second win of 2016-17.
Krefeld Pinguine 0–2 Karpat Oulu
The Krefeld Pinguine and Karpat Oulu played an even-paced, tight-checking game with visiting Karpat holding a very slight 26-25 edge in shots. They got one goal from Tuomas Vartiainen in the last minute of the first period and a second from Mikael Ruohomaa halfway through the middle frame on a one-timer from the slot and that's all they needed.
Other than those two blasts, Danish goalie Patrik Galbraith stopped the other 24 shots. However, at the other end, Sami Aittokallio stopped all 25 shots he faced to record his sixth CHL shutout – including the five he recorded in 2015-16. That means that Karpat took the maximum six points from their away games at Vitkovice and Krefeld, and now face the same two teams in northern Finland.
HV71 Jonkoping 5-3 Sheffield Steelers
For almost two periods, it looked like the Sheffield Steelers would only stay in their game against HV71 Jonkoping for as long as Latvian goaltender Ervins Mustukovs would hold them in it. 32-11 were the shots for HV71 after 40 minutes but the score was just 3-2.
It was 1-1 halfway through the game but then a pair of HV71 goals four minutes apart seemed to signify that the end was near. However, a Mike Ratchuk marker late in the second period gave the Steelers hope and then Robert Dowd tied it early in the third, to the suprise of many. The visitors from Sheffield pushed hard for the equalizer, out-shooting HV71 11-9 in the last period but a pair of penalties gave the momentum back and Dylan Reese scored the game-winner on the power play with 9:12 to go.
Stavanger Oilers 2–1 HK Nitra
If you only watched the first period of the game in Stavanger, you saw the teams go back and forth and you also saw all the scoring. Svein Petter Falk Larssen and Judd Blackwater traded goals 18 seconds apart in the sixth minute, and then Kristian Forsberg scored what held up as the game-winner on a power play late in the period, following some nice puck movement.
After that, goaltenders Henrik Holm and Michal Valent were perfect. Valent was especially key in keeping his team close in the third period, when his team was outshot 16-6 as Nitra were forced to kill off three penalties. A sizable group of Nitra fans made the trip north and it made for great atmosphere at DNB Arena, where the Oilers took all three points on home ice.