Like most of the Gameday 3 matchups, Friday night’s encounter between Sparta Prague and the Växjö Lakers is a rematch of when the teams met a week ago to open the tournament. In that encounter at Växjö’s Vida Arena, the two teams played a balanced, defensive game but the Lakers got a pair of goals by the 24-minute mark and were able to grind out the victory. Sparta finally spoiled Janis Kalnis’ shutout bid when Michal Řepík scored with just six seconds remaining.

Two days later, Adam Åhman had better luck than his partner, posting a 21-save shutout in a 5-0 Lakers win over Pinguins Bremerhaven. Meanwhile in Finland, Sparta salvaged their Nordic road trip with a 3-2 shutout win over TPS Turku. As a result, the Lakers lead Group A with six points, but their lead is anything but secure with Bremerhaven sitting on three points, Sparta with two and TPS with one. While Sparta can’t overtake Växjö in this game at Prague’s Tipsport Arena, they can come within a point and, if they win by at least two goals, win the head-to-head matchup, which could come in handy if it comes down to tiebreakers at the end of the Group Stage.

What seems clear from watching these two teams so far is that they are both well-coached and play strong team games, so goals could again be at a premium even though both teams can score. Sparta hasn’t shown that so much yet, though, with only Řepík and Zdeněk Doležal recording two points so far, and nothing from the defence. Alexander Salák has been very strong in goal, having posted a 1.95 goals-against average and 94.12 save percentage in both games.

Thanks to the five-spot they put up against Bremerhaven, the Lakers have more offensive statistics. Richard Gynge and Ollie Lycksell lead the way with three points – Gynge was briefly a member of Lev Prague in the KHL in 2012-13, so will be returning to Tipsport Arena. As mentioned, the Lakers have surrendered only one goal so far and it was in the dying seconds against Sparta, so both Kalnis and Åhman have sparkling numbers.

Looking at advanced stats, Växjö forward Andrew Caloff has the CHL’s best Corsi for percentage at 88.00 so far, while Sparta defencemen Adam Polášek and Tomáš Dvořák are among the top defensive zone starts with 14 and 13, respectively.