Fribourg-Gotteron won their second straight CHL game with a 5-2 home win over Orli Znojmo. Read more in Gamecentre. 

Fribourg-Gotteron have taken the maximum six points from their first two games in Group F and put themselves into good position for advancing to the Round of 32 after a 5-2 victory over Orli Znojmo. Caryl Neuenschwander scored Fribourg's first and last goals and Killian Mottet had two assists, while Benjamin Conz made 34 saves for his second straight victory of the competition. 

"I am happy I was able to help the team to grab this win with my two goals," Neuenschwander said after the game. "Playing together with Andrei Bykov and Killian Mottet was a pleasure tonight and we'll see how this goes. In the end, the coach decides the lines and we are a good team with many good players and I'll do my best whoever I am playing with."

The home team came out with lots of energy in the first period and scored twice – first Neuenschwander with a high wrister at 7:20, then Benjamin Neukom at 14:15, deflecting a point shot from Yannick Rathgeb on the power play. Znojmo finally got on the board just past the game's midpoint. It was on the power play and it was defenceman Libor Salek that beat Conz with a wrister to the glove side, meaning that Salek had scored all four of his team's goals in the CHL so far – all of them on the power play. 

It was a close 2-1 game heading into the third period, and the teams traded goals early on before Fribourg broke it open. Roman Cervenka restored Fribourg's two-goal lead on a nice re-direction in the first minute of the final period, then Radek Cip responded for Znojmo six minutes later. Znojmo then had their best pressure of the game as they pushed hard for the equalizer, but it was goals by Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Neuenschwander just 16 seconds apart in the 48th minute that put the game away.

"It was a weird game," thought Fribourg defenceman Alexandre Picard. "We started pretty strong in the first period, but then we had a bit of a let-down – we hadn't played in a long time. In the third we got a quick goal and that seemed to cut them down."

"When you lose 5-2 you're disappointed," reasoned Znojmo defenceman Andre Lakos. "It's a tough loss for us because I think there were some parts where we played well, but we made a few mistakes that cost us the game. We didn't skate that well tonight, so it's disappointing. I think we're going to learn from our mistakes and be stronger."

Znojmo coach Jiri Reznak said, "We knew that we were playing against a good skating team and that we'd have to avoid individual mistakes that they could take advantage of. Unfortunately, we didn't. We gave up unnecessary goals – one after an unnecessary penalty and two from right in front of the net. It's a shame, but that's hockey. Now we have to recover and prepare for the rematch."

There's not much time for recovery or preparation because the rematch comes quickly – this Sunday in Znojmo. In that game, Znojmo will almost certainly need to pick up some points if they have ideas of advancing to the next round. Meanwhile, Fribourg will have a chance to secure a spot in the Round of 32 with just one point. 

Looking ahead, Picard said, "I think we have to move the puck a little bit quicker. We seem to have some long passes that get picked off, so we've got to tighten that up."