After splitting their first two Champions Hockey League games of the season at home, the Växjö Lakers were full credit for an impressive road victory over Oceláři Třinec on Game Day 3.

The Lakers outshot Třinec 8-5 in a scoreless, defensively-played first period.

The Lakers opened the scoring early in the second period when an errant pass out of the Třinec zone was intercepted in the neutral zone by Hugo Gustafsson. He then found Joachim Blichfeld in full stride, who beat Marek Mazanec with a shot between the legs.

The action went back and forth for the next few minutes with great chances at both ends – Sebastian Strandberg was stopped by Mazanec on a breakaway and at the other end Daniel Kurovský hit the goal post.

Finally, Justin Addamo tied it in the 29th minute. Flying down the right wing on a 2-on-1 rush, the Frenchman showed pass and then snapped a shot that beat Emil Larmi on the short side.

However, the Lakers were forced to kill off a penalty shortly after the tying goal, then came back with a mighty push. Mazanec was forced to make a couple of nice saves but he was finally beaten with less than four minutes to go in the middle frame. With the Lakers pressuring in the attacking zone, Mazanec stopped Dennis Rasmussen’s shot from the point but Filip Eriksson converted the rebound.

In the 45th minute, the Lakers went up by two as Rasmussen corralled a centring pass in front of the net and backhanded it inside the far post.

Třinec tried to get some momentum going but the Lakers played solid team defence and the game got chippy toward the middle of the period, and a power play allowed them to keep the puck in the Třinec end for two crucial minutes.

After getting back to full strength, Třinec again tried to push offensively and pulled Mazanec for an extra attacker with over two minutes to play. They got a couple of shots on Larmi but were unable to get another goal, let alone two.