After his team’s 5-1 loss in the first game in Brno, Tappara Tampere Captain Kristian Kuusela felt his team was capable of scoring enough goals on home ice to overcome the deficit and they were, scoring five. Unfortunately, they also conceded five to lose 10-6 on aggregate, which once again ends their CHL journey and the Round of 16 and sees Kometa Brno through to the Quarter-Finals.

The start of the game was promising for Tappara, as Veli-Matti Vittasmaki opened the scoring at 2:02 with a beautiful wrist shot just under the crossbar. The home team remained dominant for much of the first period and got the game’s second goal nine minutes later on a blast from the point by Elias Fälth, which cut the aggregate difference to just two with still 49 minutes to play. A couple of Kometa penalties late in the period gave Tappara a golden chance to close the gap even further, but they were unable to capitalize.

After their sluggish start, Kometa gained momentum from their penalty kills and then got two goals of their own courtesy of Lukáš Kašpar and Martin Zaťovič 1:12 apart. Tappara didn’t give up and two goals from Antti Erkinjuntti –  one just past the game’s midpoint and another on a powerplay early in the third period – again brought Tappara back to within two, but they would get no closer.

In fact, Kometa then scored three straight goals to take the lead in the game, with each goal by Jan Hruška, Peter Mueller and Martin Dočekal another stake into the hearts of the Tappara players. Juhani Jasu did get one back for Tappara on a late powerplay to even the game score at 5, but Kometa had advancement well in hand by that point.