Vitkovice Ridera Ostrava have nearly confirmed their place in the Round of 16 with a convincing 7-0 home ice win in the first leg against HK Nitra. Read more in Gamecentre.

HK Nitra might have been the Cinderella story of this year's CHL Group Stage, but it appears the clock struck midnight today in Ostrava, as Vitkovice scored a convincing 7-0 victory to take a strong grip on their ticket into the Round of 16.

“We are very disappointed, we wanted to be a better opponent,” said Nitra’s Filip Bajtek. “Today we were slower – Vitkovice were one step ahead all the time.”

The peak of the night for Nitra was when they got the game's first power play at the 4:36 mark. However, they gave up a shorthanded 2-on-1 and Vojtech Tomi converted Karol Sloboda's pass to make it 1-0, and Vitkovice never looked back. 

“It was a good game,” said Tomi. “We went with a good mood into the game. We wanted to have fun and win. We’ve been focusing on shooting lately – that was our problem in Extraliga games. We have to take as many shots as we can, shoot from any position. That’s what we are practicing and that was the key to today’s victory.”

The home team dominated all three periods and out-shot Nitra 45-22 on the night, with Daniel Dolejs stopping everything he faced for the shutout. It was still 1-0 after one period, and Michal Vandas made it 2-0 just past the game's midpoint on a brilliant individual effort, cutting in on goal and going high stick side on Valent. Jan Hudacek's goal late in the second was a real back-breaker – his shot squeezing through Valent's legs.

Had they at least prevented the damage from getting worse in the third period, Nitra might have something to look ahead to next week at home. However, Vitkovice added four more goals – three of them on the power play – to take an almost insurmountable seven-goal lead on aggregate. Sloboda, Vandas and Ondrej Roman all had three-point games for the victors. 

“We really needed this type of game and those goals,” said Roman. “From the beginning it was a tough game, but after we scored more goals it was easier for us. Our third and fourth goals, those were the breaking points of this game. We didn’t know what to expect from this series. They are the best team in Slovakia, so naturally we have respect to them.”

“Seven goals is a lot, but we didn’t play well today,” said Nitra's Juraj Stefanka. “I would like to thank our fans who came to this game. We have to apologize that we allowed seven goals. I can assure them that our home game will be much better from our side.”