To open the last day of Game Day 4, the Lahti Pelicans host Oceláři Třinec. The Pelicans are coming off an impressive 4-0 shutout win over another Czech club, Vítkovice Ridera, on Friday, while Třinec suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Finnish team Ilves Tampere on the same day.

The loss was so heartbreaking for a couple of reasons. Playing against one of the competition's top teams so far, Třinec fell behind early 2-0, then battled back to take a 4-3 lead after two periods, only to see that slip away and lose 5-4. To make matters worse, Třinec really need the points right now. They’re stuck on just two, which ranks them 18th after Game Day 3, just outside the playoff picture. The good news is they seem to be trending in the right direction and still have three games left, starting with this one.

Ranked eighth with six points in three games, the Pelicans are in a good spot and will look to improve it by adding more points in this home game. Thanks to two powerplay goals on Friday, the Penguins are ranked third in the CHL in that department at a 30.77 clip. With three points in the game, CHL all-time scoring leader Ryan Lasch is back in his familiar spot on top of the competition leaderboards with seven points, followed by Aatu Jämsen with five.

Offensively, Třinec have been fine with 10 goals – they’re led by Libor Hudáček with five points – but 14 goals against in three games is fourth-worst in the CHL. That’s largely due to their second-worst-ranked PK at 70.59%, so they’ll especially need to stay out of the penalty box against a potent Lahti powerplay. Třinec defenceman Jakub Jeřábek is ranked second among shotblockers with nine.

These two teams did meet twice back in the 2019/20 Group Stage, with each side winning at home.