Adler Mannheim beat Djurgården Stockholm 2-1 to regain top spot in Group F and go through to the Round of 16 with 14 points from six games – one of the highest returns in the CHL this season.

Adler Mannheim desperately wanted to get back to winning ways after a few bad results from their most recent games and that’s exactly how things started off for them – just two minutes into the game, Markus Eisenschmid broke the deadlock to give his side a head start. He was followed by Nicolas Kraemmer 10 minutes later who doubled Adler’s advantage with a nicely placed shot that slid past Djurgården’s goalie Karri Rämö. Despite Djurgården having a powerplay awarded for Cody Lampl’s interference call 16 minutes into the game and one minute of a four-minute penalty awarded for Markus Eisenschmid’s checking call, they were unable to hit the back of the net and left for the locker rooms still trailing by two goals.

Djurgården started the second period with an extra skater on the ice because of the three-minute remainder of Eisenchmid’s penalty, but Mannheim’s defencemen and goalie Dennis Endras were bulletproof and withstood all of Djurgården’s attempts to break through. It took 13 minutes of game time for Djurgården to finally score and it was all thanks to Manuel Ågren’s solo effort. His strong shot into the right-side netting left the Mannheim goalie motionless and in disbelief.

Djurgården upped the pressure in the third period and desperately tried to tie the match but the minutes just seemed to tick away and they soon found themselves running out of time. They resorted to pulling goalkeeper Rämö to the bench with a minute to go, but it was all too late for them – before they got a solid shot on goal, the match was over.