The Växjö Lakers notched three unanswered goals in the third to overtake HK Nitra 3-1 and gain some ground in the standings. The Slovakians scored first, but it was a pivotal five minutes in the third that made all the difference for the visitors.

It was a scoreless affair through the first 20 minutes with neither side finding the net with the Swedes holding a slight advantage in shots at 11-9.

The scoreboard changed in the second when Martin Vitaloš engineered the game's first goal a little past the midway mark of the period. Tomáš Chrenko dug the puck out of the corner and fed it to Vitaloš who rifled it past Ludvig Persson.

But then the tide turned completely in the third when the Swedes found the net three times in the span of five minutes. Karl Henriksson got things started when he capitalised on a rebound from in close. Växjö managed to hold the puck in the zone as a defender threw it towards the net where it bounced around before finding Henriksson's stick. 

A little over a minute later, Brian Cooper made it a 2-1 game when his wrister from the point found its way through bodies and into the back of the net. Lucas Elvenes then added the dagger with a one-timer from between the circles off a slick feed from Peter Cehlárik.

Nitra kept the pressure up in the final minutes, generating several grade-A chances and maintaining extensive offensive zone time, but the Swedes did an excellent job taking away the lanes and suffocating the attackers along the boards to take their first game of the 2026/27 campaign.