HC Pilsen are in good shape going into their home leg after earning a 6-1 win in Bolzano. Miroslav Indrák led the offensive attack with three goals, while Lukáš Kaňák and Petr Kodýtek each registered two assists.

The visitors from Western Bohemia came out strong, scoring twice in the first seven minutes. First it was Connor Allen firing home a one-timer from the left wing before Irving could move across, and then Indrák scored his first on a persistent effort on a rebound, first kicking free the puck and then reaching with his stick to bang it in the net.

However, the flow of the game evened out somewhat later in the period, and then Bolzano began the second period with good energy and in the 23rd minute Alexander Petan cut the deficit in half, following up on a rebound after Dmitri Milchakov stopped the initial shot.

Indrák restored Pilsen’s two-goal advantage less than three minutes later, finishing off a nice tic-tac-toe passing play in the Bolzano zone, but the hometown Foxes had a really good chance to get closer again when a pair of penalties gave them almost five minutes of powerplay time and a two-man advantage for 54 seconds. Pilsen killed off the penalties and then Milan Gulaš’s top-shelf shot on the rush made it 4-1, really putting Pilsen in the driver’s seat.

Indrák completed his hat-trick late in the seond period, lifing a rebound over a fallen Irving. Jacob Smith entered the game at the start of the third period to relieve the besieged Bolzano starting netminder, and he allowed one more goal – Petr Stráka on a partial breakaway – to make it a 6-1 final. Frustrated, tempers boiled over a bit in the latter half of the third period for Bolzano, as this result gives them a real uphill climb ahead of them in the second leg on the road.