Just as they did two years ago, Neman Grodno got off to the perfect CHL start by winning their opening home game.
This time around however it was a game that had everything against the Vienna Capitals. Neman came out flying, and were ahead with only 28 seconds played - Andrei Korshunov blasting from the point through traffic. A nice passing move saw MacGregor Sharp tie the game for the Capitals as the period drew to a close on 17:33, and then 15 seconds later a Jerry Pollastrone wrist shot flew into the top corner to put the visitors ahead going into the break.
It took until 35:17 for Grodno to be able to tie the game, Mikhail Stefanovich the receipient of great work behind the net from Grzegorz Pasiut to fire home. However on the very next play Vienna were back ahead, a slapshot from Kyle Klubertanz going through the five-hole at 35:33.
At 45:28 the home team were eventually level again, Artyom Levsha sending the home fans wild with his goal to tie the game. If the fans were excited by that, they were delirious four minutes later when a rebound fell kindly to Sergei Malyavko to fire into an empty net at 49:13. With 7:40 to play however Vienna tied things up themselves, Ryan Mckiernan shooting through a screen to make it 4-4.
No further goals saw the game go into Overtime, and it was the home fans who were on their feet in celebrate - a 2-on-1 breakaway finished off with a wrist shot from Alexander Zhidkikh at 61:23.
"That was super! We trained very hard over the last two months to be ready for this game, and it was worth all the hard work."Andrei Korshunov (Captain, Neman Grodno)
"We are disappointed to have lost the game. We didn't play our best today."Andreas Nödl (Captain, Vienna Capitals)