- Frölunda still on track to make fourth CHL Final with a huge win over Kometa Brno
- A 6-1 return leg victory gave the Indians a 10-2 win on aggregate
- Kometa's lone goal coming from 16-year-old Erik Meluzín with his first professional goal
The road to a fourth Champions Hockey League Final continues for the Frölunda Indians as they defeated Czech side Kometa Brno to advance to the Semi-Finals.
Frölunda carried a 4–1 lead following the first leg, with both Patrik Carlsson and Ryan Lasch both registering three points on the night, and Bedřich Köhler scoring the lone goal for Brno who played hosts on the night.
As the second leg got underway at the Frölundaborg it was the visitors who struck first. Just 2:26 into the game, 16-year-old forward Erik Meluzín grabbed his first professional goal in just his second appearance, picking up the scraps with a tap in as 20-year-old Tomáš Mlynář grabbed the primary assist for his first point of this CHL campaign, after putting a speculative effort towards net from the corner that spilled loose to Meluzín.
"We were a little sloppy in the first period and Brno had a couple of chances and obviously they got ahead. But Gustafsson saved us there, and after that we played better and managed to win."Chay Genoway (Defenseman, Frölunda Indians)
Despite surrendering the first goal, it was an opening 20 minutes largely dominated by Frölunda, outshooting Brno 12-6, generating 25 shot attempts in total but struggling to find a way past Karel Vejmelka who stopped everything he faced in the opening frame.
With the deficit cut to two, it only took a matter of seconds in the second period for the hosts to re-open their three goal cushion. Just 39 seconds into the middle frame, Chay Genoway with a great release from the high slot to tie things up on the night, giving Frölunda a 5–2 advantage overall, before Patrik Carlsson gave the Indians a lead on the night just five minutes later with a wicked shot after picking up the puck on the left wing, firing a bullet past Vejmelka.
After Frölunda struggles to find the back of the net in the first, they seemingly had no trouble at all in the early parts of the second, with Genoway adding a third and his second of the night before the midway mark, this time with a drive from the point through a sea of bodies and into the net to make it a 7-2 aggregate score. With no further goals it meant Frölunda were 20 minutes away from the Semi-Finals.
With a powerplay carrying over from the second, Frölunda applied the pressure early and broke through again just after the end of the man advantage. Vejmelka couldn’t contain enough of Pathrik Westerholm’s shot as it trickled just over the line, and the two time CHL champions continued to pile on the goals as Rhett Rakhshani made it 5-1 on the night just over two minutes later. A sixth of the night was added later in the period by Ponthus Westerholm, who finished the scoring as Frölunda cruised their way to the Semi-Finals with a 10-2 victory on aggregate.