Mountfield HK are off to the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals for the first time following a 4-0 road victory over EV Zug – and 5-1 on aggregate. The hero was goalie Marek Mazanec, who stopped all 28 shots he faced, and has now conceded only two goals in four CHL Playoff games.

The first two periods were like two different games. The difference was that Mountfield capitalized on their chances while Zug did not.

Thanks to a couple of Zug power-play chances, the puck was in Mountfield’s end for most of the first period. However, the home side was unable to score – missing the net on many occasions and meeting a ready Mazanec when they didn’t. Other than those penalty calls, however, there were very few whistles and the opening 20 minutes flew by.

After showing very little offence in the first period, Mountfield came alive in the second, firing 17 shots at Leonardo Genoni, who is just recovering from a groin injury. Early in the period, Zdeněk Čáp took a shot from the point that hit Genoni, but Petr Koukal grabbed the rebound and scored on the backhand. Five minutes later, Radek Smoleňák came up with the puck behind the net and, from a sharp angle, put it up and over Genoni’s left shoulder and just inside the far post. Then on their first power play of the game, Petr Zámorský feathered a perfect cross-point pass right into Filip Pavlík’s wheelhouse, and his one-time blast made it 3-0 just shy of the game’s midpoint.

Zug would have desperately loved to get one back before the end of the middle frame, but in the last minute of the period, Mazanec absolutely robbed Lino Martschini with the glove, keeping Mountfield up by three with 20 minutes to go.

Zug didn’t give up and continued to try to push for a goal but Mazanec wasn't to be beaten. They even pulled Genoni for a sixth attacker with more than five mintues to go, but that only resulted in Matěj Chalupa's empty-net goal to round out the scoring.