Sweden tends to hold the upper hand over Germany in both Champions Hockey League and international matches, but yesterday's national team clash had similarities for at least one of the German players.

by Luke Fisher

COLOGNE – Yesterday was not the first time this season that Dominik Kahun was involved in a tight battle against a team from Sweden. Earlier in the campaign his Red Bull Munich side was in Champions Hockey League action against the Vaxjo Lakers, tying the first game 1-1 in Bavaria, before losing 4-3 in Sweden to go out by a single goal on aggregate. Fast forward eight months and this time almost a repeat, as in the his national team's jersey the young German forward saw his team match its Swedish opponents for 40 minutes before again seeing the game slip away.

"I think everybody could see how good they were at the end," explained the 21-year-old. "We played a pretty good game the first two periods, we had a good goaltender and battled, but in the end they showed their skill and how good they are."

Kahun's Red Bull Munich team has its first taste of Swedish opposition in the CHL this season, and after this game the forward had no doubts about the qualify of hockey from that country. "I think they're one of the best countries in the world for sure, already how they develop the youth players. They're such great skaters all of them, super-skilled, so it's really thought to hold out against it. But I think we did a pretty good job for two periods, after that it was just goal after goal."

In last night's game, Germany was undone by a goal just seconds before the end of the second period, which put the game out of reach. "We made a mistake there in our own zone, and you can't give them so much time or room with the puck – they'll just take it and score. In the end, they out-battled us everywhere," concluded Kahun, who has 9 points in 11 CHL games for the Red Bulls over two seasons.