A top-corner blast from Petr Straka with 3:09 remaining in 3-on-3 overtime gave HC Pilsen an opening-night, come-from-behind victory over Finnish champions HPK Hämeenlinna before 5,135 enthusiastic fans in Western Bohemia.

After a scoreless first period in which Pilsen outshot HPK 13-0, it was the visitors who dominated the second. Jere Innala opened the scoring in the second minute of the second period when, carrying the puck into the Pilsen zone, the 21-year-old showed pass and then sniped a shot top corner. Then just over a minute later it was 2-0 when Philippe Cornet centred to Petteri Nikkilä out front, and he went top shelf as well. HPK then had a couple of golden chances to go up 3-0 but Dominik Frodl came up big to keep his team in it.

Pilsen got one back with 7:26 to play in the middle frame when Jaroslav Kracík fired a wrister from the slot over Karjalainen’s shoulder. But HPK’s two-goal lead was restored on an unfortunate play when the puck deflected off the referee’s skate to Miro Ruokonen and, after a brief scramble, he put it in the net past a sprawled Frodl.

Pilsen came out hard again in the third period and once again got within one when Peter Čerešňák’s rising shot from the point found the back of the net, but four minutes later it was 4-2 when Markus Nenonen fired a shot through a defenceman that beat a screened Frodl. It was all Pilsen after that, though. Tomáš Mertl scored with exactly nine minutes to go on a goalmouth scramble on a play where HPK thought that Karjalainen had covered the puck, and finally Jakub Pour scored on his own rebound with 3:48 to go, setting up overtime and Straka's heroics to complete the comeback.