Special teams were big in Linkoping's 4-1 victory of JYP Jyvaskyla, which gives them the lead in Group K. Read more in Gamecentre. 

The game started at a torrid pace with an edge in play to JYP, whose pressure forced Gustav Forsling into the game's first penalty at 6:24. It took 47 seconds for JYP to cash in – Antti Suomela on a one-timer. 

On the line of Suomela with Jani Tuppurainen and Joonas Nattinen, JYP coach Marko Virtanen said, "The guys have played a few games together and have been able create a bunch of scoring chances like tonight – and one goal tonight. They still have a lot to improve as everybody else has too."

After the goal, though, the tide of momentum seemed to turn in favour of Linkoping. They got the next two power plays and capitalized on both – in the 16th minute Henrik Tornqvist took a nice feed from Niklas Persson and flicked a shot from in close over Veini Vehvilainen's glove and in the first minute of the second period it was Broc Little deflecting Forsling's shot, which JYP argued was a high stick, but the goal stood.

For the rest of the second period, Linkoping continued to carry the play but Vehvilainen was solid, as was Jacob Johansson at the other end in the Linkoping net. 

JYP had a chance to equalize on a power play early in the third period, but for the first time in the game the penalty-killing was successful, and Linkoping seemed to get a boost from that. Little scored his second of the game to give his team a two goal lead with 13:24 left to play. With Linkoping playing solid team defence, that cushion was more than enough.

Former JYP defenceman Kristian Nakyva salted the game away with an empty-netter in the final minute, which was another power-play goal to make Linkoping a perfect 3-for-3 in the game.

"The first period was our best period," Virtanen said afterwards. "Then the second period wasn't so good – they got too many chances. Our game routine wasn't too good and they did that too us – they put on hard pressure. We let them control the game and we were trying to keep up. The pace was too quick for us today."

"I think JYP came out really strong and were all over us for the first 10 minutes, we had a tough time keeping up and were glad to be down by only one," thought Linkoping coach Dan Tangnes. "But then we got the power play going and we tied it. The second period is how we wanted to play – we looked really good. Then we got the break in the third and controlled the game pretty well." 

The win gives Linkoping a three-point lead atop Group K, with the return game coming this Friday in Linkoping.

On the opposition, Tangues said, "We had great respect coming into this game playing JYP – we know they're a high-end team in Finland and we watched a couple of their pre-season games, so I'm really glad how we grew into the game after the first 10 minutes. The last 50 minutes were really good from our side.”