Djurgården Stockholm earned their second straight victory on the road and the Vienna Capitals were defeated for the second straight home game, but the outcome was in doubt right up until the final horn. The Capitals, and in particular goaltender Ryan Zapolski, were looking to bounce back from a subpar performance against Adler Mannheim on Friday and did just that – Zapolski stopped 45 of 47 shots.

The first period was quite evenly played and the only goal was scored by Vienna on their only power play of the period when Alex Wall ripped a wrist shot over the shoulder of Robin Jensen. Djurgården came out much stronger in the second period and immediately began pressing for a goal. It came in the 24th minute when Michael Haga found Sebastian Strandberg streaking to the net and he one-timed it before Zapolski could slide across. It looked like Djurgården might take over the game at that point, but Vienna held steady and even came up with an offensive push of their own late in the period but failed to score. It remained 1-1 after two.

Djurgården again came out strong in the third period and took the lead for the first and only time with 15:34 to play on a goal that looked very similar to their first one – this time it was Anton Hedman finding Tom Wandell heading to the net. Vienna didn’t give up and pushed hard for the equalizer, but just weren’t able to get it.

While they can feel better about the effort, the Capitals are still in a precarious position with zero points from two home games and will need to get it done on the road if they want to advance past the Group Stage. Djurgården, meanwhile, have done everything they had to do by taking the maximum number of points in their first two road games.