So far, the Vienna Capitals have been the class of Group B, taking 11 of 12 possible points. ZSC Lions Zurich are three behind and Färjestad Karlstad six back. Valerenga Oslo are in fourth but have competed hard in every game they've played, losing three of their games by one goal.

by Derek O'Brien, with contributions from staff writers

In the first two rounds, the Vienna Capitals jumped into the Group B lead with six points, followed by ZSC Lions Zurich with four, Färjestad Karlsad with two and Valerenga Oslo with none. After four rounds, the order remains the same and the point difference widened slightly between all teams.

Vienna took five of six possible points, starting with a tight 2-1 win over Valerenga. For Vienna, it was the second time they'd taken the full three points from Valerenga with a tie-breaking goal in the third period.

"We had a lot of chances and it was bad of us not to score on more of them," said Niklas Bröms, who began the weekend as Valerenga's Cramo Top Scorer. "We should have won this game, but our power play was not good enough. I’m happy with penalty killing though. I think we were better today than the last game."

In fact, Valerenga had seven power play opportunities, but was unable to capitalise. Vienna was 0-for-3.

On the same day, Färjestad defeated the ZSC Lions 4-3 in overtime. Färjestad held a 35-25 shots adavantage, but Urban Leimbacher was solid in goal until Anton Grundel scored in the extra period. This meant that Färjestad took four of six points from Zurich, yet still remained in third place, and set up another match-up between the Färjestad coach and his former team on Sunday.

"We're now in a good position, but this is a tough group and there are still several games to play," said Vienna goalie Matt Zaba. "We've got Färjestad next, and we’re aware of their reputation as a really strong team. They will also be looking to take revenge for the last game (a 4-1 Vienna home-ice victory on Game Day 1). It’s going to be very exciting to play against our old coach again. Tommy Samuelsson was the one that brought me to the Capitals, and I hae a lot of respect for him. I wish him luck as well, as long as it's not at our expense."

Once again, Samuelsson had no luck at his old team's expense. Peter MacArthur scored in the early minutes for Vienna, Rickard Wallin tied the score early in the third period, the game eventually went to a shootout, where it was won by the visiting Capitals.

"For some reason we chose to just control the puck and keeping the play outside the slot area too much instead of getting the puck in front of the goal," a frustrated Wallin said after the game. "I'm disappointed that we're probably not going to proceed from this group. If someone told me that we would beat Zurich both times, then I would have thought that we'd win this group. We had a tough start in the first game against Vienna and maybe didn't really think that they were gonna be that good, and that's a reason to why I'm extra disappointed about having such a weak start today."

Wallin was so pessimistic because, at the same time Zurich was beating Valerenga 3-2, which puts Färjestad six points behind the group leader.

"Today’s game against Vålerenga was a fun game," said Zurich's Robert Nilsson, who factored in on all of his team's scoring with a goal and two assists. "They came out good from the beginning. There were several scoring chances to both teams, so it could have gone both ways. In this tournament you always have to give 100 percent to win. There are no easy games, and we knew that Vålerenga really wanted to win."

For Vålerenga, the tournament has been an excersise in frustration, as they are still looking for their first points but have lost three of the four games by one goal.

"We had many opportunities on the power play again today, but it seems that we lack the little extra, the last finishing touch on the puck to get in," said Daniel Sørvik, who scored Vålerenga's first goal to tie the score at 1-1 early in the second period. "And we aren’t tough enough to be first on the puck in front of their goalie. We have even more dedicated to the task in the games to come against Färjestad. We’re ready to take on the task, and are looking forward to playing against them."

The two games to come between Vålerenga and Färjestad will be interesting, as Olso and Karlstad are less than 170 kilometres apart, so there should be plenty of visiting fans in each arena. Vålerenga will be looking for their first points, while Färjestad will desperately try to deny them, as they need all six points if they have any hope of advancing to the next round.

As for the other match-up, Vienna and Zurich will play twice and that will determine the group winner. As they have a three-point lead, Vienna needs only two points to secure first place.

Group A - standings

Schedule and results