Fribourg-Gottéron got two goals less than a minute apart in the first period and Reto Berra stopped all 31 shots he faced in a 2-0 away win over Ilves Tampere. As a result, Fribourg now have six points and Ilves remain in the Group E basement with two. 

Fribourg recorded only five shots on goal in the first period but scored on two of them. The first came on a lucky break at 9:40, with just one second remaining in the game’s first power play. Sandro Schmid’s shot from the top of the circle was stopped by Marek Langhamer, but defenceman Jarkko Parika accidentally kicked the rebound into his own net.

Then just 36 seconds later it was 2-0. On a 2-on-1 rush, Nathan Marchon passed across to Julien Sprunger, who beat Langhamer high to the glove side.

Then just 30 seconds later it was very nearly 3-0 as the puck bounced dangerously close to the open Ilves goal but nobody was there to sweep it in. Langhamer made his biggest save of the opening period with about five mintues to go when Janne Kuokkanen skated in alone but the Czech goalie didn’t bite on his fake and made the save.

In the second period, Ilves had two powerplays and Fribourg had one, with Ilves outshooting Fribourg 12-8. Ilves’ best chance to score came late in the frame on a quick shot by Santeri Airola. Berra got a glove on it but it resulted in a wild goalmouth scramble that was eventually cleared away.

Desperate, Ilves came out firing in the third period and they had a flurry of chances around six minutes in. First Henrik Haapala had a great chance but hit the pads of Berra, who didn’t see the shot. Then later on the same sequence, Eemeli Suomi was in alone and attempted a forehand deke but couldn’t beat Berra’s outstretched pad.

With 5:08 to go, Ilves went to the power play for the fourth time but again came up with nothing, as they did in the last two minutes with Langhamer on the bench for a sixth attacker.