Ice Tilt Mechanics EASHL
Some tips to eliminate cpu programmed mistakes:
If you're playing 3 on 3 then have your cpu be a winger and play two-way defense.
Read the other teams offensive strategy, adapt the CPU by changing the breakout and forecheck to cover the odd man rush (do not setup for offense). Human players have a tendency to not have much defensive strategy and focus on scoring. That can be exploited.
To exploit this: setup the offense and defense strategy during the shifts, don't just spam x or a. Set it up to prevent shots with high pressure when the puck is close or in your zone. Set the offensive and defensive strategies to the faceoff circles if at all possible.
The CPU starting skillset is RNG, read what he is decent at and play with his skills in mind. Aka Get good at defense and understand it better by playing that position. The CPU is limited by the class skills just the same as humans are.
Observe the plays that CPU are programmed to mess up, cover for them when you read them, they are usually repeated with omens and warnings. They are more frequent during/after bad takeaways, unfortunately the CPU can cause the ice-tilt that results from these.
If you have bad ice-tilt that cannot be avoided then conserve energy, by sprinting only when you have to, checking less(don't press button just let the puck carriers tire themselves by running into them), bad dekes, bad passes, and overall bad puck control by the other team should get the ice-tilt back to your team, if you waste too much energy, you won't get the ice-tilt back or when you get it back you won't be able to use it to your advantage.
The ice-tilt goes to the team with better time on possession, it is a small boost that gets more and more noticeable when you keep the puck with good control and discipline because of dekes, passes, and successful shots on net then collecting the rebounds. Usually this what makes humans frustrated, which is what drags the entire team down if you get emotional with a mic. It's very important not to get affected by the ice-tilt good or bad as you can get overconfident when the game mechanics are in your favor.
A lot of players get mad at these ice-tilt physics because they don't understand and think they're unfair, but it rewards good plays not just possession, successful moves will generate more skill boosts but wasting energy will make sure that you can't makeup for the CPU when the programmed mistakes happen.
One thing is that scoring doesn't add to the ice-tilt, but being beat by plays or failing to make good plays does. Although, Goalie's reflexes or animations to make saves decrease or increase because of the ice-tilt. This makes cpu Goalie's easier to score against but human goalies can use positioning to make up for the disadvantage.
TLDR: ice-tilt physics, and strategies do help but only if you play well with your CPU in every zone. Don't get frustrated with the stuff you can't control or makeup for. Ultimately reliable humans are the best fix, you can recruit more players for your club here on Reddit, if none of these tips help, I suggest you don't rely on the computer.
I hope this helps in the end playing to the CPU's disadvantages takes away from the realism of the game, but if you care about winning then these tips should help.