This is a matchup between two Central European teams that have both played in the Champions Hockey League many times before but, somewhat surprisingly, have never crossed paths. Given that they share a group with Djurgården Stockholm and GKS Tychy, there’s a good chance one of them will be advancing and one of them won’t and the difference just might be their two head-to-head meetings, starting with this one in Vienna.

The Vienna Capitals are making their sixth straight CHL appearance, but have never advanced past the Round of 16. The past three seasons, they’ve ridden the goaltending of Jean-Philippe Lameroux to three straight regular-season titles and an EBEL championship before he and top scorer Peter Schneider departed to HC Biel-Bienne. The Caps did, however, score a major coup by landing former KHLer and American Olympian Ryan Zapolski in net. Paired with veteran Austrian international Bernhard Starkbaum, they seem to be set in the most important position.

Vienna will be hard to score on but Adler Mannheim come in with a solid team, starting with veteran Dennis Endras in goal. Die Adler won the DEL championship last season and that’s not a big surprise given their roster full of German internationals such ad Dennis Reul, Marcel Goc, Mathias Plachta and Marcus Eisenschmid, who is currently out with an injury. A couple of very interesting players to watch for on this Mannheim team are a couple of youngsters – 18-year-old defenceman Moritz Seider and 17-year-old forward Tim Stützle – both members of the German national junior team and both future NHLers.