Mountfield HK suffered a 3-4 loss to Round of 16 opponents Färjestad Karlstad in Sweden on Tuesday evening.
The Czech side, who were 3-1 up at one point, outshot their opponents, had more powerplays and less penalty minutes and racked up 3.44 Expected Goals, good for a 52% Expected win, yet they will enter next week's Return Game with a one-goal deficit.
What went wrong?
"The first period was great from us," said Radek Smoleňák after the game, "but we switched off and stopped playing our game after that."
"We were overthinking things and started making stupid mistakes, like bringing the puck back into our own third."
"When we were 3-1 up we started losing so many pucks that it was only a matter of time before they caught us out."
"These are mistakes a club of Färjestad's quality punish," he added.
We know what works against themMountfield's Radel Smoleňák
What does he think Mountfield need to do to turn the series around in next week's Return Game?
"We need to play like we did in the first period and not play like some super players."
"We know what works against them, we proved that in the first period, we just have to keep our composure," he ended.
Mountfield will face Färjestad in their Round of 16 Return Game on home ice on Tuesday, 22 November at 17:30 CET.