This back-and-forth affair saw both sides enjoy the lead for stretches of play, but it was ultimately Ilves Tampere taking their third game and first on home ice 5-4 over Czech challengers Oceláři Třinec.

Puck dropped in Tampere and right away the home team had their legs going. Ilves managed to occupy the offensive zone and were rewarded for their efforts with a goal at 5:40.

Oula Palve was lurking down low when he got his stick on a puck fired from the point and sent it to the back of the net for the Finn's second of the season.

Ilves added a powerplay tally after some tic-tac-toe passing, highlighted by a no-look feed from below the red line from Eemeli Suomi, found the stick of Petr Kodýtek who snapped it past Marek Mazanec.

Two consecutive penalties were handed out to Ilves to end the first, giving the Czech side a healthy dose of 5-on-3 action to begin the middle frame.

It was Andrej Nestrašil who cut into Ilves' lead on the powerplay as the second period got underway when he picked up a rebound and fired it past Jakub Málek. A minute later, Libor Hudáček earned his second of three assists on the night when he got the puck to Richard Pánik who sped down the right side and wristed it by the Czech netminder to make it 2-2.

The Finnish club responded to reclaim the lead on an outstanding individual effort from Juuso Könönen who muscled his way past a Třinec defender down low and slid the puck past Mazanec for the go-ahead goal.

But Třinec weren't far behind.

Marko Dańo knotted things up at 3-3 three minutes later when he jammed home a loose puck in the blue paint after a diving Málek was unable to control it. The visitors then took their first lead of the game off Pánik's second tally.

Down by a goal on home ice to start the third, Ilves forced Třinec into making some disciplinary mistakes which led to the Finns' sixth man-advantage where Les Lancaster made them pay, wiring one from the top of the far circle to get his team back into an all square position.

Lancaster would go on to score the go-ahead goal, ripping it over the pad and under the glove of Mazanec to take Ilves' third lead of the night.

The Czechs continued to try and claw their way back as the reality of losing another close contest became all too real in the closing minutes, but the Finns' defensive effort capped off by Málek's play in net overpowered Třinec as the visitors would go on to drop their third contest while Ilves would secure their third win of the 2023/24 campaign.