We take a look back at some of last year's big tlaking points from the return games!
Staff writers
HC Davos, Frlounda Gothenburg, and Skelleftea AIK pulled off the most notable results as teams played return games in last year's Round of 32.
The Swiss side headed back to the Valiant Arena after a 2-1 loss in Helsinki against IFK. The teams traded goals in the first and second, and still it was the club from the Finnish capital in front by a goal in the final period. Finn Perttu Lindgren scored his second of the game to tie the series for Davos early in the third, and then on a late power play Dario Simion scored the winner with 1:10 to go. An empty-netter made sure of a 5-2 win for the Swiss, which sent them through 6-4 on aggregate.
Frolunda went into their return game against Ingolstadt 4-2 down from the first leg in Germany, and had to make the Round of 16 the very hard, and incredibly dramatic, way. Ingolstadt maintained their two-goal lead through 40 minutes in Gothenburg, tied 1–1, but Frolunda came alive in the third. They outshot Ingolsadt 14–2 in the period and scored twice – Elias Falth early and Lukas Bengtsson very late, on a one-timer just 11 seconds before his team would have been eliminated. Not to be outdone, Ryan Lasch scored an amazing goal in overtime on a brilliant individual effort to put Frolunda through to the next round and prove that it's never over until the buzzer sounds!
In another comeback, Skelleftea hosted Kosice a goal down from their surprise loss in Slovakia a week before, 4-3. Kosice protected their lead for more than half of the game in Sweden despite constant bombardment from Skelleftea, thanks to the brilliant goaltending of Marcel Melichercik. They couldn't hold out forever, though, and Janne Pesonen opened the scoring in the 37th minute. In the third, Terry Broadhurst scored the series winner on the power play with a brilliant move in front of the net, and a late empty-netter put Skelleftea through 6-4 overall.
Elsewhere, Litvinov needed an OT winner to overcome Vienna, despite heading back to home ice a goal ahead. A real battling performance form the Austrians saw them win the return match over 60 minutes, but they were undone in the extra period to go out 6-5 on aggregate as the game finished 2-2 on the night. JYP and TPS played out a tie in the first leg, but it was the Turku side who made home ice count as they won 4-1 in their own rink to go through 6-3 overall. Also making use of home ice were HV71, who headed back to Jonkoping after a 2-2 tie in Trinec only to win 3-1 and put themselves through. Finally, it was almost a memorable comeback for Farjestad as they took on Lulea – down by three from the first leg, they won the return game 3-1 but fell just a goal short on aggregate and exited the competition.