The CHL Round of 32 starts tomorrow with the first legs of each match-up – and while no one can advance to the Last 16 after those first games, teams can put themselves in good (or bad) positions going into the return games.
by Luke Fisher
But what happened in last season's Round of 32 opening matches? We took a look back...
Three teams stole the headlines after the opening leg of the CHL's Round of 32 a year ago, with reigning Slovak champs HC Kosice being one of them as they won a very exciting game over Skelleftea AIK 4-3 on home ice. The Slovaks twice tied the game before Adam Lapsansky scored the game-winner late, less than a minute after his team had drawn level. Lapansky left Kosice in January of this year to the Indy Fuel in the ECHL, but is now back in Slovakia with Poprad.
The fairytale story of last season's CHL was Storhamar Hamar of Norway, who came past both Sparta Prague and Geneve-Servette to win their group. In the opening playoff round last year, they travelled to Red Bull Salzburg and came away with a shocking 3-1 win.
It could have been very different for last season's winners, Frolunda Gothenburg. In their first leg visit to Ingolstad, the SHL club went two up inside six minutes as they looked to make light work of their DEL opponents. However, the Panthers were having none of it and got themselves back in the game midway through the period. Daniel Irman and Jared Ross scored in the middle period to put the home side ahead by two, and Petr Taticek rounded the scoring off to give Ingolstadt an unlikely, but nevertheless huge, 4-2 win over Frolunda who were left in a hole going back to Gothenburg. Ingolstad missed the cut for the playoffs this season, while Frolunda have a tricky away visit to Minsk.
Elsewhere in the opening round, eventual semi-finalists HC Davos lost out by a goal in Helsinki to IFK, Sparta Prague recorded a 3-2 home win over ZSC Lions Zurich, Bili Tygri Liberec shocked Linkoping HC with a 4-1 win and Eisbaren Berlin made their passage to the last 16 easier with a 3-0 blanking of the Stavanger Oilers. Lulea Hockey and Djurgarden Stockholm also came out on top in SHL-only battles over the Vaxjo Lakers and Farjestad Karlstad, respectively, with only 2014-15 champions Lulea the notable absentees from the playoff stage this time around.