Tappara and the Pelicans lost the home openers of the 1st round of the hockey CHL playoffs on Tuesday.
Tappara led 2–0 against the CHL regular season winner Färjestad BK, but the Karlstad team won 3–2 away from home in Tampere.
Nicholas Halloran and Hugo Gallet (1+1) gave Tappara a pair of goals at the beginning of the second period, but the classy Färjestad turned the game around by Oskar Steen, by Joel Kellman and Axel Bergkvist with hits. The Swedish team scored the last two complete hits with superiority in the third set.
Tappara’s good game look lasted for two sets. In the final set, Färjestad was better and took the fight towards the goal with the shots finally 29–15.
Pelicans, on the other hand, lost to the Austrian Red Bull Salzburg with 1-2 goals in Lahti. Also in this CHL playoff match, the shots went to the visitors, 33–13.
Mario Huber took Salzburg to a 1–0 lead at the beginning of the second period with an understrength until Lars Bryggman smoothed the readings Jimi Junkkari and Patrik Carlsson of inputs.
In the third set Troy Bourke completed a 2–1 victory for Salzburg in 44:52.
The second legs will be played next week. Tappara will play on Tuesday, November 19 in Sweden, and Pelicans will play in Austria on November 20. In the CHL playoffs, the winner is decided by goal difference.
Follow-up of CHL matches (text TV) here.