HC05 Banská Bystrica are not moving on to the Champions Hockey League’s next round, but they did what nobody else has done in the competition so far, and that’s take a point from Tappara Tampere – and they took three with a 5-2 win.

Tappara took the early lead when Niko Ojamäki shovelled home a loose puck with goalie Jan Lukáš down and at his mercy but Banská Bystrica tied it in the 15th minute courtesy Mário Lunter, who took a pass at the blueline, skated in on Christian Heljanko and beat him with a high wrister to the blocker side.

Banská Bystrica continued to go all out in the second period and got a couple of goals from a pair of veteran Slovaks. First Marek Bartánus’s wrister from the slot beat Heljanko to the blocker side, and late in the middle frame it was Tomáš Surový on the power play, potting the rebound after Bartánus’s one-timer was stopped.

Tappara pushed to get back into it early in the third period and had some chances but Lukáš came up big, and then Branislav Kubka made it 4-1 exactly halfway through the period to give the home team a stranglehold. Jarno Kärki brought Tappara back within two while shorthanded, but an empty-netter from Matej Češík put it away.