Lulea Hockey are the defending European Champions but they face elimination from the CHL this Tuesday, trailing by a goal heading into the second game against Tappara Tampere. However, with the game on home ice, coach Joakim Fagervall is confident his team can overcome the one-goal deficit.

by Anders Lundqvist

LULEA – The Champions Hockey League's quarter-finalists will be determined on Tuesday. One series that is still wide open is the one between Lulea Hockey and Tappara Tampere. Tappara enter the game with a 2–1 lead on aggregate, but Lulea have the game on home ice, and as reigning European champions, will be difficult to eliminate.  

Will the current top team in the Liiga beat last year's champs, or will Lulea recover and take one step towards their goal of repeating?

“If we manage to play the same game as last Tuesday, we have a good chance. We just need to be a little bit sharper on the power play and not make as many mistakes on defence,” says Joakim Fagervall, head coach of Lulea.

Lulea have had a rough start to their season in the SHL, and currently sit in 10th place. Many experts, and Lulea, themselves had high expectations heading into the season – expectations that have not been met so far. 

“The team have been through a pretty significant rebuild with many new players,” Fagervall explains. “However, that’s no excuse, considering that’s pretty common today. We still haven’t reached our full potential, but we’re getting there.”

One of the factors in Lulea's favour going into Tuesday's game is the fact that they will be playing at home, on a big rink.

“We’re going to be hard to beat in our own rink,” Fagervall says confidently. “We scouted Tappara before the last game and we know that we’re good enough to be the team in control when going up against them. As long as we can capitalize on our chances and play well in our own zone we can turn this around.”

Watch highlights of the first game in Tappara below:

Read more about the Lulea–Tappara series HERE.