Unia Oświęcim earned their second-straight Champions Hockey League win, this time taking a 4-1 victory over the visiting Straubing Tigers, and as a result, are potentially in contention for a Playoffs spot on Game Day 6. Straubing outshot the Polish champs 48-21 but Linus Lundin added 47 to high saves total, and the players in front of him did a good job of keeping most of the chances from a distance.

Straubing fired a lot of rubber on Lundin in the first period – in fact, they outshot Oświęcim 18-6 – but for all their shots, couldn’t find the back of the net. Oświęcim scored the lone goal of the first period just past the midway point when Carl Ackered’s first shot attempt from the point was blocked, but he regained the puck in the high slot and sent a shot through a crowd that Florian Manuel Bugl never saw.

Oświęcim very nearly went up by a pair late in the opening period, but following a video review it was ruled that Henry Karjalainen played the puck into the net with a high stick.

Undaunted by their fruitless first period, the Tigers went back to the attack early in the second and tied it two minutes in. Lundin couldn’t hold on to Justin Scott’s high shot and Elis Hede got to the rebound and, from a sharp angle, put it into the far top corner of the net.

Straubing kept pressing, trying to take the lead, but Lundin was in top form – his best stop was a brilliant glove save off ex-NHL defenceman Justin Braun.

Against the run of play, Oświęcim regained the lead at the game’s exact midpoint. Ackered’s shot from the point hit the blocker of Bugl, and after a brief scramble in front, Krystian Dziubiński fired home the loose puck.

In the last minute of the middle frame, Oświęcim opened up a two-goal lead. On the powerplay, Hampus Olsson picked up the puck in the corner and passed out front to Daniel Olsson Trkulja, who one-timed it under Bugl’s glove.

The third period was Oświęcim’s best of the game, as they defended their lead perfectly, giving Straubing very little in the way of quality scoring chances. The Tigers pulled Bugl in the late going, but that only resulted in an empty-net goal by Karjalainen with 27 seconds left.