KalPa Kuopio were minutes away from elimination, but pulled out a 3-1 victory over the Vienna Capitals to set up a big game on Sunday. Read more in Gamecentre. 

For two and a half periods, KalPa Kuopio looked to be in danger of being eliminated. However, trailing 1-0 in a game where they needed a regulation victory to stay alive, they got three goals in the last nine minutes to keep their chances of advancing alive.

The first three penalties of the game went to Vienna, giving KalPa a great chance to strike first. However, after Mikko Nuutinen of KalPa was called for interference to make it 4-on-4 in the 13th minute, it was Vienna's Jerry Pollastrone who opened the scoring – Eero Kilpelainen got most of his wrister from the point, but the puck snuck through the pads and grew little legs to crawl across the goal line. 

KalPa had some good energy in the first half of the second period, but the momentum seemed to swing the other way as it went on, and Kilpelainen had to be sharp to keep his team within a goal. As the game moved into the third period, the situation for Kalpa became more desperate, as they needed to win in regulation time, but Vienna continued to play a solid defensive game. Eventually they broke through,and did so in a big way.

“We knew we had more to give in reserve," KalPa coach Pekka Virta said about his team's condition after two periods. "We had a difficult start to the game, as we had a long break from our previous game and the Vienna Capitals had played only a few days ago. We were little nervous and even gutless."

David Kickert wasn't especially busy in the Capitals net over the first 50 minutes, but was solid when he needed to be and he made a huge save off with 8:46 to play. That led into a KalPa power play, where they finally tied it one a one-time slapper by Janne Karanen with 7:17 to go. Vienna then went to the power play with a chance to regain the lead, but instead Ville-Vesa Vainiola scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Then with under three minutes to play, Vainiola had another breakaway and was tripped. On the ensuing penalty shot he scored, which pretty much secured the victory for KalPa, setting up a huge re-match between the teams in Vienna on Sunday. 

"We tried to force the play but we believed in our play and knew we have physique left. We knew we would need that first goao and that would change the nature of the play - and that is how it went," Virta explained. 

"For the first two periods I was really pleased with out effort," said Vienna coach Serge Aubin. "We played a good game, but made some individual mistakes and they cost us. It's too bad, because we were a few minutes away from advancing, but it's still in our hands, so we'll go home and try to do it there. We took some penalties, made a mistake on the power play there, but we'll learn from that and try again on Sunday."

Looking ahead, Virta said, "Now I believe we are going to make a great trip to Vienna. We will be leaving early in the morning and then play in a warm arena - tt will really test our young team. We have to still improve our game. And I mean passes and having the courage to make passes. We have to get the puck moving because those guys are strong guys and if it goes to man-to-man play, we are not in our area of strength. We need to work smart as five-man units, quickly and cunningly to get more out of us in the next game.”