JYP Jyväskylä are through to the Semi-Finals for the first time, thanks to a strong first period in Brno and a three-point effort from veteran Jarkko Immonen. After weather delayed their arrival to DRFG Arena to shortly before faceoff, they needed all the offence they got as they narrowly held on for a 5-3 win in the game and a two-goal aggregate victory.

After getting a draw in Finland and with their home energetic home fans behind them, Kometa had reason to be confident heading into the second leg, but a sloppy start, in which both teams were penalized 11 seconds apart, led to nearly two minutes of 4-on-4 action and two brief power plays. Then in the sixth minute, Immonen opened the scoring for JYP by driving to the front of the net and converting Jani Tuppurainen‘s backhand pass from the boards right in front.

The news got worse for the home side later in the period, when the JYP lead was extended to three with two goals 1:21 apart. First Juuso Puustinen’s one-timer from the slot beat Marek Čiliak to the glove side, and then a neutral-zone turnover and a poor Kometa line change led to a Janne Kolehmainen breakaway and he made no mistake, beating Čiliak high to the stick side. JYP actually had chances to add another goal or two late in the opening period, but it remained 3-0.

Thanks to three power plays and only one penalty to kill themselves, Kometa were able to finally build a bit of offensive pressure in the middle period, but they weren’t able to beat Jussi Olkinuora until the last power play of the period. The Finnish goalie had not had much difficulty with any of the shots he faced until heavy traffic in front left him unable to see Luboš Horký’s long, low wrister.

JYP regained their three-goal lead with just under 13 minutes to play when Joonas Nattinen tapped in a rebound, but Kometa fought back with a pair of goals to come within one and bring DRFG Arena back to life. First Martin Nečas converted a nice pass from Horký on a 2-on-1, and then Tomáš Svoboda’s one-time slapper on the power play with 6:24 to play made things interesting.

However, after some furious pressure in an attempt to tie the score, Nolan Yonkman’s long-distance empty-netter with 17 seconds to play silenced Brno and punched JYP’s ticket to the next round.