With the group already wrapped up, Linkoping HC finish Group K with a perfect 12 points after a 6-1 home win over the Gap Rapaces. Read more in Gamecentre.

In the Gap Rapaces' two CHL home games, they withstood enormous pressure from both Linkoping and JYP, but kept the score respectable both times. They managed to do the same for a while when they came to Linkoping, but eventually the home team managed to break the dam and win going away, 6-1.

The first period was played almost entirely in the Gap zone, and the shots on goal were an incredible 23-3. However, Gap had good defensive positioning and kept most of those at  shots at Clement Fouquerel from far out. The French team really only got one chance to score when Cedric Di Dio Balsamo got a shorthanded breakaway. Jacob Johansson stopped it, but his backwards momentum carried him and the puck back into the net for a goal. Incredibly, it was 1-0 Gap after a period.

Linkoping didn't panic, however, and eventually the goals came. Niclas Bergfors broke the goose-egg on the power play in the 26th minute, taking a nice feed from Kristian Nykyva, skating into good shooting position and firing it home. That seemed to lift the weight, and just 1:03 later it was 2-1, with Jakob Lilja scoring right off an attacking-zone faceoff. Then on another power play just over two minutes later, Nakyva made another nice pass, this one to former CHL MVP Mathis Olimb and Linkoping had three goals in 3:10.

The pressure off, Linkoping went into cruise mode. They added two more goals in the second period and one in the third. Olimb finished with two goals and one assist, while Lilja also scored twice. Linkoping's next CHL game will now be in the Round of 32, whereas Gap still have a chance to get there, but they'll have to come up with at least a three-goal win in Jyvaskyla on Saturday.

"I thought we had a good start," Gap coach Luciano Basile. "We had a lot of energy at the beginning and played well defensively. Unfortunately we ran into penalty trouble, and that caused a problem for us. The result for us wasn't the priority tonight. We wanted to hold the puck and try to make some plays, but we were playing against a team that was way, way stronger than us. We're a young team and we fell into a really tough group and I thought we dealt well with the situation."