Reigning Finnish champions Tappara Tampere began their 11th Champions Hockey League campaign with a 6-3 victory over visiting Czech side Bílí Tygři Liberec, thanks to three goals from Aapeli Räsänen and three assists from Benjamin Rautiainen.

The teams traded goals in an evenly-played first period.

Räsänen opened the scoring just 83 seconds in, taking a behind-the-back pass from Joachim Blichfeld just inside the blueline and firing a long-range wrister that beat Petr Kváča to the glove side. Then Liberec tied it shorthanded later in the period, with Radan Lenc converting a pass from Jakub Rychlovský on a 2-on-1.

But shorthanded success wouldn’t continue for Liberec, who took three straight penalties in the second period and Tappara made them pay, converting twice with the man advantage. Räsänen’s second of the game, just shy of the game’s midpoint, was a backdoor tap-in following a cross-ice pass from Rautiainen, and Vilho Vanhatalo made it 3-1, ripping a shot that beat Kváča to the blocker side.

Martin Faško-Rudáš drew Liberec closer early in the third period when he won a race for the puck in the Tappara zone after a Filip Sandberg dump-in, and then the White Tigers had a chance to tie the game on the powerplay, but were unable to cash in.

After killing off the penalty, goals from 17-year-old Oliver Suvanto and Juuso Nykänen exactly one minute apart gave Tappara a commanding 5-2 lead with under 13 minutes to play. Adam Najman got one back for Liberec, but Räsänen completed his hattrick with his second powerplay goal of the game at 52:22.