The final two Group A games were played simultaneously on Wednesday, and Karpat Oulu took first place with a home-ice win over Bili Tygri Liberec. In other action, HC Kosice beat Kolner Haie to take third place in the group.
Karpat Oulu 3–1 Bili Tygri Liberec
It was a one-game showdown for first place in Group A, and Karpat Oulu got an early jump when Sakari Manninen scored on the power play. Karpat out-shot Liberec 14–1 in the first period but Liberec bounced back with a 10–4 advantage in the second, but there was still only one goal after 40 minutes. However, Karpat pulled away with a couple of goals in the third period before Petr Jelinek got Liberec on the board with 2:59 to play. The victory puts Karpat through to the playoff stage.
"Making the CHL playoffs feels really good," said Karpat's Adam Masuir. "This was one of our goals before the season. Another one is of course to win the whole league. Achiving one goal is great and I believe this will even give us an extra boost for the national league."
“This was a huge game," agreed coach Lauri Marjamaki. "Losing the game means not making the CHL playoffs. The team was really well prepared for this game. We played some good hockey tonight. We were able to create chances and with better efficiency we could have had a bigger lead after the first period. The team's overall performance was excellent and elegant.”
"I think Karpat was the best team in this group," conceded Liberec coach Pavel Hynek. Congratulations to Karpat on winning the group. We played well in the second period but unfortunately we were not able to produce more. Playing well only for part of the game is not enough. Karpat was the better team tonight."
HC Kosice turned in an inspired performance in their last CHL outing of the season, out-shooting Kolner Haie 27–17 and winning 4–3. The score was tied at 2 early in the second period, but Kosice added two goals late in the period. Richard Jencik and Cramo Top Scorer Gabriel Spilar each recorded two points for Kosice, while Evan Rankin did likewise for Koln. The two teams finish tied in Group A with seven points, with Kosice winning the tie-breaker.
"First of all, I congratulate Kosice," said Koln coach Uwe Krupp. "I think they had a great start to game and gave us several problems on defence. Kosice played great offensively tonight. That was something that gave us trouble after the first period. My team battled; we've been playing shorthanded the past week without some injured players. We knew that this was our last CHL game, and the guys still battled hard, and scored a goal at the end to improve the score. We can build upon our play from the last period.”
"All CHL games were really difficult," said Tomas Hrnka, who scored the winning goal for Kosice. "We played among the absolute European hockey elite, and our group was especially strong. Unfortunately we lost some tight one-goal games at the start, but that's the sport. We earned huge amount of experience. The CHL is a really nice project and I hope it continues!”