Tuesday's Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals game between Finnish side Tappara Tampere and Swiss side EV Zug saw the home team skate away with a two-goal lead heading into their Semi-Finals Return Game next week, as visitors Zug struggled to keep all their players on the ice throughout the game picking up 12 penalty minutes to Tappara's six.
Zug, who lost their first game of the season, were on the back foot for most of the game, failing to match Tappara's pace. The NL side failed to score a goal in a game for the very first time this season, as Tappara's Christian Heljanko in net recorded his fourth shutout of the season.
Mikael Seppälä scored just one minute into the game to put Tappara up by one goal before a spectacular Niko Ojamäki fired in a first-timer on the powerplay to double his side's advantage at 32:20.
Zug pushed for at least one goal, but Tappara's sturdy defence and perfect goaltending proved too hard to overcome.
"In five-on-five play I think it was a pretty even game"EV Zug's Fabrice Herzog
"We needed some time to get into the pace of the game," said Zug's Fabrice Herzog after the game.
"We took too many penalties and they capitalised on that to make it 2-0. In five-on-five play I think it was a pretty even game," he added.
The 28-year-old forward has played in seven CHL seasons since 2014/15, splitting his CHL career between EV Zug and ZSC Lions Zurich, but this season is the furthest Herzog and Zug have ever been in the pan-European competition.
"It's huge for us playing in the Semi-Finals," highlighted Herzog, "but it's clear we want to go all the way to the Final."
"We will give it everything"EV Zug's Fabrice Herzog
Heading into their Semi-Finals Return Game which will be played in Switzerland, Zug have a two-goal deficit they will have to overturn. What will they focus on?
"We need to fire more pucks on the net and get more people in front of the net to pick up the rebounds," thinks Herzog, adding: "We will give it everything and try and win the game at home on aggregate!"
A surprising number of fans made the long trip from Zug to Tampere to support their team.
"It's really nice that they travelled to cheer for us even though we didn't give them the win," concluded Herzog.
Zug will host Tappara in Switzerland for the Return Game of their Semi-Finals series in a game scheduled for Tuesday, 17 January at 20:15 CET.