The Rouen Dragons travelled to Bavaria on Tuesday night to face the struggling THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers in Nuremberg. For the second week in a row, against the same opponent, Rouen faced a must-win-in-regulation scenario and secured the desired result. Nuremberg’s campaign comes to a disappointing end after failing to get any points in the final two games against the French side.

Alexander Aleardi opened the scoring for Rouen on the powerplay at 11:10 of the first period when the puck found its way through a crowd in front of the net and onto his stick. He made no mistake, snapping it into a yawning net past a diving defender and goaltender Niklas Treutle. Shawn Lalonde evened the score for the Ice Tigers 3:40 later on the powerplay with a slapshot that found the top corner behind Rouen netminder Matija Pintarič who never saw the puck. After one period, the score was even with the shots 11-7 in favour of Nuremberg.

Rouen took control in the second period with a pair of goals coming from hard work in front of the net. At 24:04, Loïc Lampérier drove the net from the right side after being sprung by a beautiful pass from Chad Langlais, corralled his own rebound off the midsection of Treutle and flipped the puck into the net over the goalie’s glove. For the Dragons' second goal of the frame, Slovak forward Michel Miklík took up real estate in front of the Ice Tigers net and used strong stick work to slot home a pass from Aleardi.

Pintarič led Rouen into the third and final period with a two goal lead but the Slovenian National Team member was left helplessly watching as a deflected puck flew over his right shoulder and into the top corner of the net. The Nuremberg goal was credited to Eugen Alanov, his second of the Group Stage. However, Rouen’s hero of this home and home, Nicolas Deschamps added the dagger to the heart of Nuremberg’s playoff hopes when he combined with Florian Chakiachvili and Aleardi for one of the prettiest goals you will see in this year’s tournament.

Deschamps added an empty netter for his fourth goal in two games to seal the victory for Rouen and ensure their miraculous qualification from Group F.