In the first four series to begin, all in Finland, Lukko Rauma and Frolunda Gothenburg both siezed huge four-goal road wins to take stranglehold leads over TPS and Tappara. Meanwhile, Karpat Oulu and JYP Jyvaskyla got closer wins at home.
JYP Jyvaskyla 5–4 Skelleftea AIK
WATCH the highlights here. FOLLOW the series here.
JYP partially accomplished what they wanted, getting the win on home ice. However, it could have been a much larger lead, as they were up 5–1 after two periods. Markus Hannikainen, Miika Lahti and Juuso Ikkonen – who scored on a beautiful solo effort – led the JYP attack with two points each. Skelleftea got three big goals in the third period to make their task much more manageable on home ice next week. Kirill Kabanov got a goal and an assist for them.
"(I've got) A really bad taste in my mouth. Good win but the third period was awful," said Hannikainen, who was clearly unhappy with letting a potentially commanding lead into the second leg mostly get away. "We have to go next Tuesday even harder and forget about this."
Karpat Oulu 3–1 Vienna Capitals
WATCH the highlights here. FOLLOW the series here.
Karpat got a huge first period on home ice, out-shooting Vienna 17–7 and scoring twice, increased the lead to 3–0 early in the second and eventually won 3–1 to take a two-goal lead into Vienna next week. Cramo Top Scorer Joonas Donskoi added two points to his total, including the game-winning goal on the power play, while Vienna captain Jonathan Ferland made his team's situation a little better in the second leg by scoring in the third period.
"We did not play our best game but we are actually very happy with the result,"said Vienna coach Tom Pokel. "We did not have the jump we were hoping for. The first two periods Karpat was the better team. We played a good third period, which gives us more chance for victory."
"We prepared for the game well and started well," said Karpat coach Lauri Marjamaki. "We took couple of stupid penalties, which we cannot afford in games like these. The third period was bummer for us. We had a chance to make it 4-0 but we could not do it. After that Capitals came and scored."
Tappara Tampere 1–5 Frolunda Gothenburg
WATCH the highlights here. FOLLOW the series here.
Frolunda was an offensive machine during the group stage and carried that over into the first period in Tampere, scoring three times en route to a 5–1 road victory. They got two points each from Cramo (and CHL) Top scorer Mathis Olimb, Andreas Johnsson, Mathias Janmark and Christan Backman. Antti Erkunjuntti got one back for Tampere late, but his team still has a huge mountain to climb in Gothenburg.
"I don't think that the score reflects the game," Frolunda coach Roger Ronnberg said afterward. "I think that Tappara was better than that and it was a more even game. We were a bit lucky on our offence and we had a good goaltender."
"We put everything on the line, both mentally and physically," said Tappara coach Jussi Tapola. "I assumed that we would have enough strength for this kind of an opponent but, as we could see at the beginning, we didn't. Frolunda was this much better, there's no denying it."
TPS Turku 1–5 Lukko Rauma
WATCH the highlights here. FOLLOW the series here.
Lukko got the first two goals of the game in Turku, led 2–1 after one period, and eventually won 5–1 to take a commanding four-goal lead into the home half of their series. Aaron Gagnon scored the game-winning goal and added two assists for the winners, while Ville Vahalahti and Janne Niskala had two points each. Tero Koskiranta scored the lone TPS goal.