Things were looking good for Slovan Bratislava as they began Group F action by going into their first game in Sweden and built up a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. They still led 3-2 with five minutes to go before running into penalty trouble and allowing three straight goals to lose 5-3. Mikael Ruohomaa scored the game-winning goal for Leksands IF on the power play at 58:07, and then added an empty-netter just over a minute later to seal the victory for the home team.

Both teams carried that momentum into action two days later, with Leksand defeating Oceláři Třinec 3-2 and Slovan falling 5-2 at Fribourg-Gottéron. The result of all of that is that Leksand is now tied with Fribourg for top spot in the group with six points, while Slovan are stuck at the bottom with Třinec, with neither having moved the needle off of zero. As such, we currently have a strong indication of which two teams will advance from Group F unless the Czech and Slovak teams get their acts together on home ice Thursday and Saturday.

Getting a fast start and scoring goals hasn’t been a big problem for Slovan so far, and they will need to duplicate that part of their game in the return match-up with Leksand, which will be played on their home ice at Ondrej Nepela Arena this time. Their offence has been fairly well spread out, too, with 12 players recording at least a point but only forward Jakub Sukeľ with two. Playing a full 60-minute game and staying out of the penalty box are things that have been lacking so far, though.

In goal, Latvian Kristers Gudlevskis has been strong so far, playing all but 14 minutes from the first two games and posting a save percentage of 92.42. On the other hand, former World Junior standout Samuel Hlavaj got off to a rough start against Fribourg and was beaten three times in 13:53 before being lifted.

Ruohomaa is one of four Leksand players with four points through two games, with the others being Oskar Lang and defencemen Jonas Ahnelöv and Matt Caito – all members of the team’s top power-play unit, which Slovan would like to keep off the ice. Kasimir Kaskisuo has seen all the action in goal for the Swedish side so far, with a goal-against average of 2.50 and a save percentage of 89.36.