Nicholas Baptiste scored the only goal of the shootout, giving Tappara Tampere their third win in as many games, 2-1 over Adler Mannheim – the first defeat for the German team. 

Through 65 minutes of hockey, Mannheim outshot Tappara 41-26 but both goaltenders Arno Tiefensee and Christian Heljanko were brilliant, each only beaten once. Tappara have now surrendered only two goals in over 185 minutes of hockey this season.

The only goal of the first two periods came at 26:07. From a faceoff in their own zone, Tappara got possession of the puck and rushed up ice which turned into a 2-on-1. Tiefensee topped the initial shot from Nicholas Halloran, but the rebound went right to Petteri Puhakka, who one-timed it into the open near side. 

Mannheim had several chances to tie the game in the middle frame, the best one coming when a penalty shot was awarded in the 33rd minute when Joni Tuulola hooked Tyler Gaudet in the neutral zone. On the shot, Gaudet tried to go five-hole but Heljanko closed the wickets and took it away. With less than three minutes to go in the period, the puck came to Max Gildon with the near side open but he couldn’t get the shot off quickly, which gave Heljanko time to slide across.

Tappara had a great chance to widen their lead early in the third period on the powerplay but a shot from the point rang off the goalpost.

As the minutes wound down, Mannheim began putting on more pressure and they finally scored with 4:43 to go. Jordan Murray took a shot from the point through a crowd that was stopped by Heljanko, but defenceman Korbinian Holzer went to the front of the net and put in the rebound to tie the game.

Not satisfied, Mannheim continued to press, going for the regulation win, and drew a powerplay with 3:27 to go, but nothing came of it. In the last minute of regulation time, Heikki Liedes had a great chance for Tappara but Tiefensee made his biggest stop.

In overtime, John Gilmour and Anton Lievtchi got breakaways for their respective teams but the two goalies continued to stand tall. Tappara got a powerplay in overtime but that didn’t produce the winner either.