After losing their first two games on the road, Bílí Tygři Liberec needed a strong performance on home ice and they got it, winning 6-1 over the Belfast Giants – the same team that beat them a week ago in Northern Ireland. Libor Hudáček scored two goals in that game and scored two more today, upping his team-leading total to five. More importantly, the White Tigers have their first three points and are very much alive in the chase for a playoff berth.

Hudáček scored his first goal at the 39-second mark, sliding in a rebound after Lukáš Derner’s shot from the point. Eight minutes later it was 2-0 when Petr Jelínek picked off an errant pass in the slot right in front of netminder Shane Owen and made no mistake.

After being outplayed for the most part over the opening 20 minutes, the Giants came out strong in the second period, got some momentum on an early power play although they didn’t score on it, and cut the deficit in half in the 25th minute on a one-timer from the high slot by Ben Lake after a nice backhand feed from Liam Morgan.

It looked like the Giants were threatening to pull even, but two Liberec goals 52 seconds apart in the middle of the second period changed everything. The first was by Marek Zachar, and then Hudáček scored his second of the game from a weak angle. After that, the game degenerated a bit and some rough stuff broke out. Liberec added two more goals in the third period – Radan Lenc on a breakaway and then Rostislav Marosz on a scramble in the dying seconds – to round out the scoring.