DEL semi-finalists Grizzlys Wolfsburg are set to take on Swiss national champions EV Zug in their first meeting of the 2022/23 Champions Hockey League season.

Zug finished in first-place in the NL regular season and went on to claim their second national title in as many years. In their previous six seasons, the Swiss side has never finished worse than third and hasn’t finished worse than fourth since 2013/14. Since becoming Head Coach in 2018/19, Dan Tangnes has brought a winning culture to a club that was always on the cusp, securing the Swiss Cup to go along with two national titles.

Having qualified for every season so far, Zug are the most experienced squad in Group B. Despite their regularity, however, they’ve never made it past the Quarter-Finals and were ousted early last season after a less-than-stellar Group Stage performance. New faces and another title later, however, and the Swiss side are even more motivated to make a deep run this season, according to Tangnes who acknowledged, " We haven’t made it through the Quarter-Finals, yet” but the goal stays the same, “We want to win the Champions Hockey League.”

As recently as the 2019/20 season, Wolfsburg were not much more than an afterthought in the DEL, barely cracking the top 10 clubs. Fast forward one year, and the club from north-central Germany were competing in the final; a year later, and they were one game away from returning there. Their resurgence in Germany's top-flight has been nothing short of spectacular and the results are tangible as Wolfsburg are now readying up for their third CHL appearance.

Wolfsburg made their CHL debut in 2016/17 where they played well enough to advance to the first round of the Playoffs, but not well enough to go further. The German side’s second qualification a year later wasn’t as eventful as they were undone in the Group Stage.

Zug won't be the first Swiss team Wolfsburg have faced in the CHL - that honour goes to ZSC Lions Zurich who defeated the Germans in their Round of 32 clash in 2016/17. Regardless, the DEL side are hoping for better results this time around no matter what country the opponent comes from.