With a two-goal lead to work with, Sparta Prague got an early goal and then sat back and defended. Skellefteå AIK got two back in the third period but fell just short, sending Sparta to the Quarter-Finals.

Skellefteå knew they needed to get their offence going to get back into it and started strong, outshooting Sparta 8-1 in the first 10 minutes but couldn’t get the all-important first goal. Instead, Sparta did, with captain Michal Řepík beating Gustaf Lindvall on a wraparound at 10:57. From there, Sparta carried the play for the rest of the period.

With now a three-goal aggregate lead and 40 minutes to play, Sparta’s gameplan was clear as they went into a defensive mode, knowing their opponents would need to force the issue, and then mounted counter-attacks when the opportunities presented themselves. And for the middle period, that worked to a tee, with Skelleftea getting 14 shots in but none of them particularly trouble for Matěj Machovský.

Once again, Skellefteå pressed hard to begin the third period and this time they broke through. With a delayed penalty coming, Linus Karlsson engineered the goal by circling almost the full circumference of the Sparta zone before dishing to Petter Granberg in the slot. Granberg’s first attempt hit a skate but he got it back and made no mistake to tie the game score at one.

Skellefteå still trailed by two on aggregate, however, and still had almost a full period to work with. Predictably, they got some energy from the goal and continued pressing. Machovský made a big save off Rickard Hugg with just over 12 minutes to play.

Still trailing by two, Skellefteå pulled Lindvall for a sixth attacker with more than three minutes to go and finally broke through with 22 seconds left, with Karlsson putting it in amidst a scramble. But that didn’t leave them much time to get another, and Sparta successfully killed it off.