- Brady Ferguson was the man of the night as his marker put Rögle into the Semi-Finals
- Sparta scored two late goals but couldn't secure the comeback
- Filip Chlapík found his scoring touch, notching two goals on the night
Rögle Ängelholm entered their Return Game against Sparta Prague sans some key components to their lineup, including Adam Tambellini up front and Calle Clang in net as both were sidelined for the night's affair. With a 3-goal aggregate advantage, however, the Swedes were able to preserve their lead with a Brady Ferguson tally - their only score of the night - and hold off a tenacious Czech side to claim victory over the visitors.
15 minutes into the first, Sparta found themselves in a dire position when they went down a man against one of the better powerplays in the Champions Hockey League. Fortunately for the Czechs, Rögle failed to find their 17th goal on the man-advantage and after 20 minutes the two sides entered their respective locker rooms knotted at 0.
Sparta had the better chances early on, but Rögle's Christoffer Rifalk stood tall in net.
Both netminders endured powerplay opportunities through the first 7 minutes of the second, with Rifalk making several key saves to keep the home side's aggregate lead alive. Alexander Salák, however, had his own spectacular strand of saves, including a number of stops on a 4-minute man-advantage awarded to Rögle after Tomáš Dvořák was called for a double-minor midway through the middle frame.
But if Sparta were able to take any momentum from their two penalty kills, it wouldn't translate into goals as the visitors had no luck solving Rifalk after 40 minutes. Matching minors would open up the ice at the tailend of the second, but neither side was able to capitlise.
With the 3-goal aggregate staring them down, Sparta were in desperation mode for the final 20 minutes of this Quarter-Finals contest.
4 minutes into the third, that 3-goal deficit would become 4 when Rögle claimed the first goal of the night on their fifth powerplay. Eric Gelinas fired the puck on net where it took a lucky bounce to the stick of Ferguson who wasted no time in putting it past a helpless Salák.
Sparta wouldn't go away without a fight, though, as a couple minutes later Miroslav Forman netted his first of the competition to give the Czechs some life. Forman skated into the zone before cutting in between the circles and wristing one over the glove of Rifalk.
With 6 minutes still to go, Sparta's Head Coach Miloslav Hořava made the decision to pull the netminder to give the Czechs the extra attacker. Hořava's bold move immediately paid off when Sparta's most prolific scorer Filip Chlapík found the back of the net to cut Rögle's lead to two. Sparta kept an open invitation on their net for the remainder of the contest and with less than a minute to go, Chlapík continued his heroic bid by securing his fifth of the competition at the 58:37 mark.
In need of a single tally, Sparta maintained their pressure in the closing seconds as Rögle played their own desperate hockey. Yet in the end, a cleared puck and some hard-nosed defence by the home side prevented the Czechs from completing their thunderous comeback and after two well-contested battles, Rögle Ängelholm continued to shine in their CHL debut as they advanced to the Semi-Finals on the back of a 6-5 aggregate score.