Having taken 8 of 9 points thus far, Kometa lead Group B and need just 4 points from their remaining games to guarantee a spot - they could even potentially clinch on Saturday if everything goes their way.

“We just have to keep going,” said Kometa forward Alexandre Mallet, who scored the game-winning goal the first time his team faced the Oilers. “We have to keep playing hard and get ready for the next one.”

The next one is against Stavanger, who have had some bad luck, losing three games all by one goal. Their hopes of advancing are almost wishful at this point - they’ll have to win all three remaining games in regulation time and get some help. When these teams met in Stavanger back on 24 August, Kometa escaped with a 2-1 win.

“They did a good job of taking away space from us and that’s something we have to improve on,” Oilers coach Pal Gulbrandsen said after that first game. “We have to manage to play the game for 60 minutes and not have drops in intensity.”