In Saturday's earliest games, ZSC Lions Zurich won 3-2 in Oslo, the Växjö Lakers won 2-1 in Mannheim, Skelleftea AIK shut out Krefeld Pinguine and the Vienna Capitals got a shootout win in Karlstad.
Färjestad Karlstad 1–2 Vienna Capitals (SO)
The Vienna Capitals continue to impress, recording a dramatic shootout win in Karlstad to solidify their position atop Group B with 11 points. David Kickert was brilliant in goal for Vienna, stopping 33 of 34 shots in 65 minutes of hockey and five of seven in the shootout. Hugh Jessiman scored the shootout winner.
"For some reason we chose to just control the puck and keeping the play outside the slot-area too much instead of getting the puck in front of the goal," said Rickard Wallin, who scored Färjestad;s only goal. "I'm dissapointed that we're probably not going to proceed from this group. If someone told me that we would beat Zürich both times, then I would have thought that we'd win this group. We had a tough start in the first game against Vienna and maybe didn't really think that they were gonna be that good, and that's a reason to why I'm extra dissapointed about having such a weak start today."
Skellefteå AIK 4–0 Krefeld Pinguine
Skelleftea AIK continues to show why they were the top-ranked team heading into the CHL Draw with a dominant 4-0 win over Krefeld Pinguine. The shot total was 47-11 as Markus Svensson picked up the shutout and Marcus Burstrom, Martin Lundberg and Par Lindholm each recorded two points.
Adler Mannheim 1–2 Växjö Lakers
Nick Johnson's goal with 13:26 remaining gave visiting Växjö a 2-1 lead, and they hung on the rest of the way to get their second win and move into second place in Group G with six points. It spoiled a great goaltending performance from Mannheim's Dennis Endras, who made 38 saves.
“The first period was okay, they way we played, even though we lost some important battles and lose pucks,"Växjö head coach Sam Hallam began. "The second period was way better and the game reached a competitive level, especially in the last 10 minutes. After we took the lead in the third, we lost a bit of our edge and were under pressure against the Mannheim offence. But in the end I’m very confident with the victory and our game today.”
“I’m also pleased with the way we played in the first period," Mannheim head coach Geoff Ward agreed, but that's where the agreement ended. "But we lost our momentum in the second period, when we run into penalty troubles. We have to improve our defensive work in the slot, since all the goals came from the slot. Also we have to work on scoring goals when playing equal strength.”
Vålerenga Oslo 2–3 ZSC Lions Zurich
They've been in every game, but Vålerenga Oslo suffer another close one-goal defeat. Robert Nilsson had one goal and one assist for ZSC Lions Zurich, who now have eight points and trail Group B leader Vienna by one.
"It was yet another honorable loss for us today," said Daniel Sørvik, who scored Vålerenga's first goal of the game. "This is the third time we lost by only one goal, so that sucks a bit. It’s a bit disappointing that we don’t have a single point. Today we slipped back a bit for a couple of minutes, and ZSC scores two goals on us. They played tight, with good defensive play and they took advantage of their chances."
"Today’s game against Vålerenga was a fun game," said Nilsson, the team's Cramo Top Scorer. "They came out good from the beginning. There were several goal chances to both teams, so it could have gone both ways. In this tournament you always have to give 100 percent to win. There are no easy games, and we knew that Vålerenga really wanted to win."