Dukla Trencin took it 3-1 in Zvolen, and the middle period did the damage. Two goals in a 0-0 game inside three minutes of the second turned a scoreless night into a two-goal cushion Dukla never surrendered.
The opening 20 produced nothing on the board. Ture Linden opened it at 22 off a Ryan Merkley feed, and Matthew Sop made it 0-2 at 24 with Andrej Hatala assisting. Aurel Naus pulled Zvolen within one at 44, assisted by Alex Rene Bartakovics, but Travis Barron restored the two-goal margin at 47 from Ryan Spooner — the turning point in a third period the hosts otherwise had reason to like.
The number that frames it: three minutes of second-period hockey accounted for two-thirds of Dukla's output. Zvolen answered once in 60 minutes; the response at 47 by Barron, Spooner's assist behind it, settled the regulation result.