After a very one-sided Champions Hockey League Round of 16 First Game last week which saw Swedish side Frölunda Gothenburg confirm their role as favourites in the matchup against Straubing Tigers, the DEL side will welcome the four-time CHL Champions to Germany for the do-or-die Return Game.

For the Swedes, it was a dream start to the series. Four goals is a comfortable margin heading into the Return Game and their performance was near perfect. They were active on the puck, tight defensively (with goaltender Lars Johansson ending the night with a a shutout), won faceoffs (43 to Straubing's 25) and overall managed the game flawlessly.

Team captain Joel Lundqvist got on the scoresheet two times as Frölunda scored three goals in the middle frame and one in the final minutes of the game, but, according to him, there is room to still improve.

The Swedes had trouble with the productivity of their powerplay unit that managed to score on only one of their eight man-advantage situations.

"We had chances, but we need to be sharper on the powerplay for sure," said the 40-year-old veteran hockey player after the game, "we could easily have scored two or three more goals, so it's definitely something we need to look at."

Straubing had a sensational start to their debut CHL season, finishing in top spot in a competitive Group F, beating the likes of 2022 SHL Champions Färjestad Karlstad to the position. But a challenger in the form of veteran CHL team Frölunda proved to much for them, as the visitors left with a bitter first taste of CHL Playoff hockey. What went wrong?

To start, Straubing racked up over three times as many penalty minutes as the Swedes, offering them eight powerplays, from which they scored once. Spending so much of the game with a man down meant they didn't have the strength or time to properly test Frölunda's defence. That also meant they only managed 20-ish shots on goal - half that of Frölunda. 

If Straubing are to overturn their four-goal deficit, they'll need to start scoring early into the game because Frölunda, who only just missed out on the Final last season, know how to manage Playoff games and are rarely caught off guard.