David Kaše scored in overtime to give Sparta Prague their second extra-time win in a row, and giving them four points so far. The loss is the first blemish on the record of the Växjö Lakers, who with the single point are still first in the group with seven points.

Sparta’s Roman Horák got the game’s first great chance midway through the first period when his shot from point-blank rang off the post, and before he could get his stick on the loose puck in the crease, Janis Kalninš jumped on it.

A couple of minutes later, the Lakers went to the power play for the first time in the game. Although they didn’t score, they did gain some momentum and that eventually led to a goal at exactly 15:00, when Alexander Salák stopped the initial shot from Olle Lycksell but couldn’t control the rebound, and a falling Martin Lundberg got his stick on it and flicked it in to open the scoring.

The second period was all Sparta, who held an incredible 20-1 edge in shots. Horák had his second great chance of the game about five minutes in when he carried the puck up the ice. With Miroslav Forman open, he elected to shoot but Kalninš came up big.

At the game’s midpoint, Sparta were outshooting Växjö 22-8 but trailing 1-0.

The home team finally broke through a couple of minutes later, however. Captain Michal Řepík won a battle for the puck behind the net and passed out front for a one-timer from Tomáš Dvořák. Kalninš stopped the initial shot but Vladimír Sobotka was there to put in the rebound and the game was tied.

With the teams skating 4-on-4 six minutes into the third period, Horák had yet another great chance for Sparta, firing a blast from the right wing and just missing the far top corner, and he skated back to the bench while staring into the rafters at Tipsport Arena.

Sparta had a chance to take the lead when they went to the power play with 11:24 to go when Andrew Calof was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the Lakers killed it off and then went to the attack after, forcing Salák to do his toughest work of the night. The heat got turned up even more when Řepík was called for tripping with 4:41 left, but the Sparta goalie and penalty-killers stood tall.

It went to overtime, where Sparta finally scored their second goal on their 47th shot of the night, with Tomáš Pavelka and Filip Chlapík setting up Kaše, who was stopped but followed up and buried his own rebound to send the home fans home happy.