With the first weekend of Champions Hockey League action in the books, our attentions turn to Thursday night when Game Day 3 gets underway, and over in Group H the Graz99ers return home for the first time after picking up four out of a possible six points on their road trip last week, and they’ll take on the Frölunda Indians, with the reigning champions surprisingly still searching for their first win of the new season.

The two sides met last week in Sweden, and despite a quick start that saw Frölunda leading 2-0 after just 62 seconds, Graz pushed back and took the game to a shootout, where Robin Weihager sealed the extra point for the Austrian side to take a 6-5 victory in their first ever CHL game. Graz currently sit second in the Group following a shootout loss to the Cardiff Devils on Sunday afternoon, but after two impressive outings away from home, they’ll be looking to use the home ice advantage well to try and continue their run. Colton Yellow Horn comes into Thursdays meeting as the team’s top scorer, with assists on four of the nine goals Graz have scored through the opening weekend, while Trevor Hamilton and Dominik Grafenthin both are tied for the team lead in goals with two each, with both of Grafenthin’s goals coming in that win over Frölunda last week.

Frölunda take to the road this week looking for better luck than what they’ve managed at home. They followed up their shootout loss to Graz with a 3-2 loss to Mountfield HK taking just one of six points available for them as they began their CHL title defence at home. They had a strong offensive showing in their first meeting against Graz with five goals from five different players, with three players having two-point nights including Ryan Lasch, the CHL’s all-time points leader who will be heavily relied upon on Thursday to kickstart his teams campaign. Defensively they improved in their second game despite the loss, but they’ll need to improve again if they’re to get their first win of the season this week.