Tappara Tampere confirmed their place in the Round of 16 as the winners of Group E thanks to a late win over Skellefteå AIK in Finland.

A back-and-forth opening period saw Skellefteå leading after 20 minutes but having done it the hard way by coming from behind. Patrik Virta opened the scoring for Tappara when he crashed home Kristian Kuusela's feed across the front of the net with just 4:13 gone. That lead held until midway through the period thanks to Joakim Lindström wristing home on the powerplay, and 36 seconds before the buzzer Albin Sundsvik let one fly from the blueline that found the back of Christian Heljanko's net.

The middle period looked to be ending scoreless until Kristian Tanus' wonderful no-look pass found Anton Levtchi to slot home at the back post on the powerplay.

Skellefteå thought they’d taken the lead with 10:01 left in the third period but Jonathan Pudas’ goal from the blueline was washed out after video review. Tappara, however, did take the lead with just over seven minutes to go thanks to a rocket shot from Joni Tuulola which changed the dynamics of Group E yet again.

A late penalty on Samuel Salonen gave Skellefteå the chance to level, but with that opportunity gone the Swedish side had to pull Gustaf Lindvall and go for the extra attacker. Tappara had a couple of tries at the empty net before Sami Moilanen found it with 68 seconds to play.

While Tappara go through as group winners, Skellefteå will now have to nervously wait for HC Lugano’s result on Wednesday night to learn their fate.