It’s been a long campaign for both Finland’s Lukko Rauma and Germany’s Red Bull Munich, but both teams go into the first game of their CHL Quarter-Final on Tuesday with an eye on making the last four of the competition.

Lukko have only progressed further than this stage of the competition once previously when they reached the CHL Semi-Finals in 2015/16 season. 

It was during that season when Lukko and Munich came head-to-head for the only time in the competition’s history, after the two sides were drawn together in the Round of 32. 

It was Lukko who came out on top on that occasion, winning both games with a 8-3 aggregate scoreline - a fate Munich’s head coach Don Jackson is wary of repeating.  

“We remember our series against Lukko Rauma a couple of years ago when they beat us. They were young, hungry and organized,” he recalled. 

Jackon’s Munich team still harbour ambitions of bettering their 2018/19 campaign when they became the first German team to reach the CHL Final, eventually finishing as runners-up.

“We will have to focus on one game, one day at a time to be sure our work and habits are top notch until we meet Rauma.  We will need to neutralize their speed and play smart,” said Jackson.

Lukko’s head coach Marko Virtanen believes Munich will be a tough test for his team: ”We are looking forward to our games against Munich and expect tight games against a very skilled team.

“We have to be careful with the puck and have a good balance between offense and defense.”

Munich advanced to the Quarter-Final thanks to back-to-back victories over Fribourg. A 4-2 win in the first game in Switzerland gave Munich a solid footing to progress which they then made good on, after a third-period rally saw them close out the return game with a 3-2 victory back on home ice.

For both teams, this is their biggest test yet.