The first meeting between these two teams last Thursday in Switzerland was almost as even as a game can get. Fribourg-Gottéron outshot Ilves Tampere 23-21 and won 3-2 on Mathias Rossi’s goal with 9:13 to play. Fribourg also got two goals from Janne Kuokkanen and Ilves got two from Tommi Tikka.

Two days later, Fribourg could have pulled further out front of Group E but lost 1-0 to the visiting Stavanger Oilers. Meanwhile, Ilves could have been buried in a deeper hole but beat Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 in overtime. After four games decided by just one goal, everybody is still very much in the thick of the race in Group E. Somewhat surprisingly, Stavanger lead with four points, Fribourg and Salzburg both have three and Ilves have two.

Now shifting to their home ice at Tampere’s state-of-the-art Nokia Arena, Ilves have a great chance to pick up some points over the next two games and move up the group standings, but expect the games to remain close.

Offensively, Tikka leads Ilves with three points while Joona Ikonen and Petri Kontiola have two each. Kuokkanen and Sandro Schmid have two points each for Fribourg.

Czech goalies Marek Langhamer and Jakub Málek have split the goaltending duties for Ilves so far, and that can be expected to continue. Likewise, Swiss national team goalie Reto Berra and Canadian Connor Hughes have split the net for Fribourg.