TPS Turku get the leg up on Group H by beating Bili Tygri Liberec 2-1 in a shootout. Read more in Gamecentre. 

TPS centre Eric Perrin had it pegged going into Friday night's game in Liberec – the first of two that will likely decide the Group H winner – when he said, “I think that the key to playing against (Liberec) is to be good defensively and then capitalize on those attacks when we do have them. So, it’s gonna be a defence-first mentality for sure.” 

Indeed, it was a battle between two disciplined teams, waiting for the other to make a mistake. In 65 minutes of hockey, each team scored once – Patrik Virta for TPS and Tomas Mojzis for Liberec. In the shootout to follow it took seven rounds to decide a winner – Dave Spina with a modified "Forsberg" move to beat Liberec relief-goalie Roman Will. Will faced TPS's last three shooters after Jan Lasak had played the full 65 minutes of hockey before getting beaten 1-on-1 by the first two penalty-shooters he faced.

Virta opened the scoring way back in the 8th minute by taking a pass from Henrik Tallinder and skating in on Lasak, eluding a poke-check and putting it inside the far post. Mojzis, with the White Tigers pressing for the equalizer with 6:00 to play in regulation time, drilled a slapper that went high to the glove side of Oskari Setanen – the only one of 39 shots to beat him before the shootout.

“Setanen deserves to be praised because he played really well tonight,” praised TPS coach Ari-Pekka Sellin. “Both teams played an entertaining game and wanted to score goals. We were luckier because we had to kill a lot of penalties. The game was a tough test for us because Liberec is a physical team with strong offence. We had to battle for the entire 65 minutes.” 

As Sellin implied, there were other chances, but both Lasak and Setanen benefited from the sound of iron on more than one occasion – veteran winger Branko Radivojevic of Liberec and Perrin both with great chances in the second period but both hit the crossbar. In between, Jan Stransky of Liberec re-directed a mid-air shot into the net but after video review it was determined to be a high stick and didn't count. 

“We played another tight game with a tough opponent,” said Liberec coach Filip Pesan. “TPS had good strategy, strong puck possession and their players are also very skilled. We didn’t play a good first period, but after that we managed to break into the game. We had a lot of hunger for victory and that helped us tie the score. I believe we were the better team in overtime, but we haven’t been effective lately. The shootout is proof of that.”