Group A featured a pair of home-and-away series. Kölner Haie took four of six points from Kärpät Oulu to come within one point of the group lead, while Bili Tygri Liberec and HC Kosice split the points down the middle.

by Derek O'Brien, with contributions from staff writers.

One of the more interesting developments of Game Days 3 and 4 was the two home-and-away mini-series in Group A - one between Kärpät Oulu and Kölner Haie and the other between Bílí Tygři Liberec and HC Košice. All four games were won by the home teams and all four were decided by one goal.

Kärpät entered the weekend with six points, three ahead of both Köln and Liberec. The first game of their mini-series was in Oulu, and Köln scored the first two goals to lead 2-0 after two periods. However, Kärpät come back and win the game 3-2 in a shootout. Two days later the exact reverse happened. Kärpät scored the first two goals in the first period in Cologne, only for the home side to come back and win 3-2 in regulation time.

After a scoreless first period in Oulu, Philip Riefers scored the first goal for Köln and assisted on the second. "My goal was pretty strange," he explained. "The shot came from the outside and got deflected. The puck bumped off my chest and went in from there. On the second goal, I went up with the play and waited for the defender to act. As he went down I just moved by him and passed it to Marcel [Ohmann] and it went in."

"We weren’t desperate. We just thought that we lost our edge, game, maybe momentum," said Kärpät defenceman Adam Masuhr, assessing the situation at the end of the second period. "Of course they were able to push us then. At the same time, I thought they we were settling down too much, got too comfortable in our zone, so they scored two. But we got ourselves together in the third and bounced back."

Did they ever, and Mashur himself scored the tying goal on a slapper from the point on the power play with 7:15 remaining in regulation time. The shootout then took eight rounds to decide, with Kärpät's Joonas Donskoi scoring three times.

"It took us a little bit to get into the game but in the second and third period it got better," said Köln coach Uwe Krupp, who seemed satisfied with the point on the road despite blowing the two-goal lead. "We worked hard for that point and deserved it. In the shootout, both teams scored some really nice goals but you also need a little bit of luck in that situation."

Two days later, it was Kärpät scoring out-shooting Köln 18-7 in the first period and scoring twice. Over the last 40 minutes, however, Köln led 20-18 in shots and scored the only three goals.

"The first 20 to 25 minutes was kind of the hockey we want to play, after that we ran into some penalties and they got their momentum going," said Kärpät captain Lasse Kukkonen. "That’s how it is when two teams are pretty close. It’s all about how you use your momentum."

Köln used its momentum in the third period, getting two power-play goals from Chris Minard to tie the score and then win it. "I think we played a little more aggressive than on Friday," he said. "Maybe Friday we sat back, we didn’t know what to expect. Today we knew how they were gonna play. We went at them and played our game. I don’t think we doubted ourselves after the first period. We were just a lucky bounce away or a shot away from getting back in it. Our power play obviously did a good job, we scored all three goals on the power play so that was key."

"It was a tough loss for us," said Kärpät assistant coach Mikko Manner. !We started really good and got two goals and played really disciplined. Köln got a couple of penalties but we couldn’t score our third goal. We couldn’t use that second 5-on-3 power play. We had some problems earlier to put these kinds of games away in Liberec and Kosice. Then we got a little bit frustrated because we couldn’t get quality shots in open places and took some unnecessary penalties and Köln's power play was winning against our penalty killing today. It was a tough game and we knew that they were going to come hard in the second period and they pushed really hard and found a way to win.”

"Both teams fought for every centimetre on the ice and the way the game was played was a little bit of a reversal from the game we played in Oulu, where we had the lead and Oulu pushed back hard," observed Krupp. "Today we never let up, kept playing our game. Obviously, in the first period, Oulu was stronger than us, but the first power-play goal from Riefers gave us some extra wind and gave us a little bit more energy and then we got into the game better and better as the game went on.

"I am really proud of the way the guys battled," Krupp summarized. "We're really shorthanded with a lot of injuries right now. We're playing out there with three lines and a couple of really young guys. They're doing an excellent job. I am very happy with the game."

Meanwhile, Group A's other two teams, Bílí Tygři Liberec and HC Košice, also played a home-and-away series and split the points down the middle -- Liberec won the first game on home ice in regulation time and Košice returned the favour in their own rink.

"I was looking forward to this game for a couple days," Košice goalie Marcel Melicherčík said about the first game in Liberec. "They have smaller ice here so the game is faster and I felt good about that. We were ready, but it's too bad we couldn’t take advantage of their weaknesses. We had bad luck at the end of the third period where we got really close to tying the score. We need to become more aggressive."

Trailing 3-1 late in the third period, Košice did manage to get one goal back courtesy Richard Jenčík with 1:24 on the clock. A last-minute push with Melicherčík on the bench could not produce the equalizer, however.

"We had a really good start and the first period was all ours. Unfortunately, they scored on their first power play and that cost us," said Košice coach Anton Tomko. "The second period was more even-sided, we tied the game, but they scored on a power play again. We worked hard, but made a defensive mistake and allowed the third goal. Then we couldn’t take advantage of a 5-on-3. The second goal came a little bit too late, but we still managed to get close to scoring."

"I agree with coach Tomko," said Liberec assistant coach Milan Černý. "Košice was the better team in the first period, but we moved around better in second and great penalty killing helped us a lot. Unfortunately, we stopped working hard with about seven minutes left and it could have cost us. I think all game long we should have been better defensively and change our playing style in order to do so. (Ján) Lasák helped us in goal a lot tonight."

Two days later, the game in Košice was a back-and-forth affair. Liberec's Michal Bulíř scored the only goal in the first period, but Adam Lapsánský scored twice on consecutive power plays for Košice early in the second. Two goals later it was Liberec back in front, with Bulíř scoring his second. In the end, however, it was the home side that came back and took the game 4-3.

"I think that today's game was completely different from the one in Liberec," coach Tomko stated. "This game was faster and people saw exciting hockey. That thanks to a huge effort from the guys, who survived several long minutes of defending at the end of the game, we deserved to win today."

"We played well in the first period, but then we started the second with poorly," said Liberec head coach Pavel Hýnek. "This resulted in penalties. We had seven penalties and that's too many. I think that we lost because of those penalties. What is more important to me than the result is that we lost because of poor discipline."

"The decisive moment in my point of view was after our 3-2 goal, we should have held and built on this, but Kosice tied it a few seconds later," said Bulíř, who wasn't happy despite scoring twice. "We wanted to win here, so I cannot be satisfied."

"We didn't play bad in the previous games, but we lacked a little bit luck," said Peter Bartoš, whose third-period goal brought Košice their first CHL win. "The luck finally came to us, mainly in the end of the game. We're glad that we managed to put our first three points up on the group table. We had good speed today, forced them into taking penalties. We got them under pressure, created the chances and scored goals, which was the most important thing."

After four games each now, Kärpät continues to lead the group, but their lead is down to one point over Köln, while Liberec is just two points in the rear-view mirror.

Group A standings

Schedule and results