Red Bull Munich and the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers find themselves in two diametrically opposite situations heading into their rematch in the Bavarian state capital. The two teams met on opening night last Thursday in Rapperswil, with Munich securing a 4-1 away victory thanks to two goals from Ben Street. Two days later, Munich again won on the road at Slovan Bratislava and the Lakers again lost at home to Tappara Tampere.

As a result, Munich find themselves in the enviable position of having taken the maximum of six points so far with three of their remaining four Group C games on home Olympia Isstadion ice. Rapperswil, on the other hand, still have no points with three of their remaining four games away from home. In short, a Munich win will almost guarantee their place in the Round of 16, where they have been many times before. Rapperswil, in their first CHL adventure, will almost certainly need to come up with something from this game to maintain any realistic chance of advancing.

The biggest thing the Lakers have to improve is their offence, which has only scored once in each of their first two games. Danish former NHLer Nicklas Jensen has figured in both with a goal and an assist, but they really need captain Roman Červenka to get going. Coming off a season where he led Switzerland’s National League and the IIHF World Championship in scoring, Červenka has five shots on goal but no points through two games.

That’s not going to be easy though against a Munich team that has been one of the best defensively in the CHL so far. German national team goalies Danny aus den Birken and Matthias Niederberger have each allowed only one goal in their starts to far and the team is getting offence from numerous sources, led by three points each from Yasin Ehliz, Zachary Redmond and Maksymilian Szuber.