Tuesday night saw the second leg of the Round of 16 decide who will go through to the quarterfinals of this year's Champions Hockey League. Below is a match by match review.
As suggested in my pre-match review, all the teams that had significant leads in the first round succeeded in finishing off what they started. That meant victories for Kometa Brno, HC Pilsen and Malmö Redhawks.
Brno's opponents Tappara Tampere managed to take a 2-0 lead and score 5 goals at home to make up for a disappointing first match, but the Czech club fought their way back scoring 5 goals themselves on the night.
HC Pilsen crushed any notion of a miraclous comeback by Bolzano Foxes with a brutal 4-0 lead after only 25:29 played in the Czech Republic. Three of those four goals were scored by former Färjestad BK points machine, Milan Gulaš. The 32 year old Czech player added another goal in the 6-2 demolition of the Italian EBEL champions.
Malmö played it tight away from home at SC Bern and protected their 4-1 victory from the first match. Netminder Oscar Alsenfelt held a shutout and the only goal in Switzerland was scored by Stefan Warg (pictured) when he landed the empty netter with just 1:42 left of the clock.
American Ryan Lasch took over at the top of the Points Scorer's leaderboard with 2 Goals and 2 Assists as he helped Frölunda Indians come back from a 1-3 deficit at 32:25 to beat Swiss HC Lugano 5-4 in Sweden.
The third Swiss side in the competition EV Zug came into their home match against Red Bull Munich with one goal advantage after the first game. But the Germans provided perhaps the biggest shock of the Playoffs so far with a 2-0 regulation win. Not surprisingly, it was one of the five German Olympic silver medalists in the team, Frank Mauer who scored the winning goal with just under six minutes to go in the tie.
Meanwhile across the border in Austria, Red Bull Salzburg made no doubt about their passageway into the quarterfinals finals finishing off French hopefuls Rouen Dragons 5-1. Canadian forward, John Hughes notching up three assists on the night.
The other team hoping for an upset after a great home match were Norwegian champions, Storhamar Hamar. But their journey to Skellefteå AIK in northern Sweden would ultimately end in defeat despite leading the game 2-1 with 28 minutes of the match played. It was former Montreal Canadiens', Bud Holloway who shone for the home side with 2 Goals and 1 Assists as the Swedes ran out 3-2 winners.
In the final match in Finland Kärpät Oulu knocked out the fourth Swiss team left in the competition, ZSC Zurich Lions. The home side left it to the third period with Czech youngster Radek Koblizek scoring twice with assists on both goals by Nicklas Lasu helping the Swede to second place in the Total Points competition.
So despite having 4 teams in the Round of 16, the Swiss are now left without a team in the competition. 3 Swedes, 2 Czech, 1 Finnish, 1 German and 1 Austrian team are left in the quarterfinals which will take place on 4/5 December with return matches on 10 December:
Munich - Malmö
Kärpät - Salzburg
Brno - Frölunda
Skellefteå - Pilsen
* quarterfinal matches subject to confirmation from the Champions Hockey League
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