- Indians host EHC Biel-Bienne as the playoffs continue
- Frölunda looking to continue on to a fifth CHL final
- Biel impressing in their debut season
From 32-teams back in August, we’re down to just eight remaining as the Quarter-Finals of this year's Champions Hockey League begins, as the reigning champions the Frölunda Indians host Swiss side EHC Biel-Bienne with both looking to start strong in their bid to progress to the Semi-Finals.
Frölunda survived a scare in the Quarter-Finals against Färjestad Karlstad, overturning a 6-3 deficit in the first leg to come back and win 8-2 in the second meeting to earn their place in this round. As always, Ryan Lasch has been coming up huge for the Swedish side, leading the competition with 18-points in 8 games so far, just adding to his all-time CHL points where he has a comfortable lead with 87-total points in 55 games.
Since the teams 8-2 victory over Färjestad last month, the team has continued to impress domestically, picking up three of four wins, scoring 16 times in four games as they keep their momentum going into the first leg. They currently occupy second spot in the Swedish Hockey League and are looking to be in the hunt for both domestic and CHL silverware once again.
For EHC Biel-Bienne, it’s been a fantastic debut season in the CHL, topping Group A to advance to the Playoffs, and coming out on top in a difficult Round of 16 clash against the Augsburger Panther thanks to some overtime heroics by Finnish forward Toni Rajala. The 28-year-old leads the team with five goals and two assists in the competition so far, and while the Swiss side haven’t been scoring at the same electrifying pace as their Swedish opponents, they’ll be looking to their goalies once again to put on a good display with the pairing of Jonas Hiller and Elien Paupe proving to be one of the strongest goaltending duo’s in this years CHL.
Following their overtime victory against Augsburger, Biel have been impressive in league action, winning four of their five games since the second leg of the Round of 16, continuing to show some strong defence which they’ll hope continues into their first meeting against the Frölunda Indians.