In a game that may go a long way to deciding which of these teams advances, Black Wings Linz got a 3-2 win in Kosice. Read more at Gamecentre.

With both teams dropping their first Group M games on home ice to SC Bern, this was a big game to avoid falling into third place – especially for Kosice, who didn't want to come away with no points from their two home games. However, that's exactly what happened, as Dan Dasilva scored on a beautiful backhander with exactly 9:00 to play to break a 2-2 deadlock in favour of Linz. 

Kosice held a wide margin in play on the night, outshooting Linz 39-18, but the story of the game was Michael Ouzas, who was simply brilliant. He was brilliant in the first period when he stopped all 12 shots he faced and his team escaped with a 1-0 lead. The only two times he got beat were 59 seconds apart in the second period. Then he was brilliant the rest of the way, when Linz tied and went ahead, and then had to kill off a penalty in the dying minutes with Kosice putting on heavy pressure. 

“It was a really good game, the Kosice players were fast, they moved a puck very well but we found a way to win,” Ouzas said afterward. “I didn’t think that was our best game. We did a lot of good things and this time of year there’s room to improve. I made some big saves but that’s my job. I always do the same – I’m just trying to give my team a chance to win. My teammates also did a great job – they blocked some shots. It was a really good team effort.”

"I thought our goaltender played well," Linz coach Rob Daum understated. "They had a lot of chances in our end and he made a lot of saves. We had some chances too and we scored on ours, so I think you'd have to say that goaltending was the difference in tonight's game." 

Brett McLean assisted on each of Linz's first two goals, while Jakub Suja scored Kosice's first and assisted on the second. 

Kosice will now have to get points away, with a regulation victory in Linz almost certainly needed.

"We’re disappointed with the loss, because we played much better than in the first game – we were skating better," Kosice coach Rostislav Cada understandably felt. "A stupid individual mistake in the third period was the deciding moment, but we also wasted lot of good chances. That equalizing goal just before the second intermission helped them a lot and again, it was our error that helped them. Today’s game showed us that we can definitely beat them on their ice, but it all depends on our performance there."