The Växjö Lakers claimed their seventh victory, defeating ERC Ingolstadt 4-1 to take the First Game of this Round of 16 series. Four different skaters scored for the Swedes who had no trouble finding the net and secured a three-goal aggregate lead heading into their Return Game next week.

The visitors were buzzing as puck dropped in period one where the Swedes showcased their first-ranked offence by tallying two in the opening 20 minutes.

First, a fortuitous bounce gave the visitors the early lead three minutes in. Tobias Rieder secured his third of the campaign after a scrum along the boards resulted in the puck being hoisted into the air before it fell behind Devin Williams to open the scoring. Then, near the midway mark of the period, a nice keep in by Eric Martinsson led to Gabriel Carlsson making it 2-0 as the defenceman received the puck, corralled it to his forehand and wristed it past the Ingolstadt netminder.

Ingolstadt would make it a game, halving the deficit 35 seconds into the second stanza when Daniel Pietta scored one off a crisp cross-ice pass from Travis St. Denis. St. Denis chased the puck into the offensive zone, made a button hook and lasered a pass right on the tape of Pietta who put it past Adam Åhman to bring the home side to within one.

Växjö, however, continued to push the pace and went on to score their third and fourth goals a little over two minutes apart.

Victor Stjernborg gave his team another two-goal cushion with a highlight-reel goal at 26:52. Stjernborg retrieved the puck in the neutral zone, deked around an Ingolstadt defender and wristed one stick side from the slot. Dylan McLaughlin followed Stjernborg's efforts with a one-timer to make it 4-1 as Växjö continued to establish themselves in the Ingolstadt zone for long stretches of play.

After 40 minutes of play, it was Ingolstadt still playing catch up as the Germans were unable to muster many quality scoring chances.

Third period action saw the hosts enjoying the lion's share of puck possession as they had their legs going early. But for all their efforts with the puck, it was Växjö's structured play going to work, frustrating the Germans' chances as they maintained their three-goal advantage.

Åhman continued to do his part with the netminder turning aside several grade-A opportunities including a breakaway attempt and with Ingolstadt opting to skate with six attackers late in the period, the onus was on the home side to try and close the gap before the final buzzer.

But it was not to be as Ingolstadt fell for a fourth consecutive time, and now trail on aggregate as they prepare to travel to Sweden next week.