HC Lugano have won both of their road games in Group C after a 3-1 win in Tampere. It avenges Tappara's win in Lugano on Tuesday night. Read more in Gamecentre. 

Tappara finished up strong on the road in Lugano on Tuesday and started the first few shifts of this game where they left off, attacking hard from the opening faceoff, but it was Lugano that scored against the run of play – Ryan Gardner intercepting a pass and  springing Alessio Bertaggia in alone, beating Teemu Lassila far side. With the game not even four minutes old Damian Brunner made it 2-0 for the visitors, and the home fans were stunned. Tappara recovered and got one back at the 8:30 mark – defenceman Valtteri Kemilainen with a nice wrister, but Elvis Mezlikins was solid the rest of the period in the Lugano goal. In fact, he wasn't beaten for the rest of the game, stopping 28 of 29 shots overall.

The second period was back and forth with a lot of shots both ways, but both teams were strong in front of their own nets and forced shots from far out, making things easier for both Mezlikins and Lassila. With 5:25 left in the middle frame, however, veteran defenceman Julien Vauclair restored Lugano's two-goal lead.

In the third, Lugano left nothing to chance and put the game on lock-down, frustrating Tappara attacks again and again – limiting the defending Finnish champs to just four shots on goal. They held on to win 3-1, and now lead Group C with six points.  

"Both teams have been perfect hosts," Lugano coach Doug Shedden wryly grinned after his team has won in both Mannheim and Tampere. As for Tappara, he said, "They played very well in our rink (on Tuesday), you gotta give 'em credit. Our team bounced back and played a pretty good game tonight and Elvis was great in goal – that always makes things easier when you've got a good goalie. We got a good start but, you know, you've gotta be careful because those 2-0 leads are the worst in hockey, I don't know why. But we played a really good game after that, limited their chances, and I'm happy with the win."

"For the most part, we played well," said Tappara coach Jussi Tappola. "The start was tricky – two chances and two goals. We created chances, but shot quality was weak and in some parts we didn't shoot enough. We have still lot to do with both offensive and defensive sides of the game."

When asked about any change in Lugano's game from the team's first encounter, Tappola replied, "For sure, they defended smarter than they did at home. The overall picture of the game was quite similar, but there they didn't get goals early and we were able to score goals from our own chances. Some aspects of the game were similar, but they improved their defending, especially in the neutral zone."