Two undefeated teams face off on Thursday at the Nokia Arena, and the winner will be looking in very good shape on the Regular Season Stangings.

Tappara Tampere are back at home after a Game Day 1 away game and a Game Day 2 game in the Nokia Arena. First up was a very tough game against Danish champions the Aalborg Pirates, where Tappara escaped with a 2-1 overtime victory. Two days later, the reigning Finnish and European champs appeared in much stronger form, convincingly beating the Belfast Giants 6-0.

One of five teams with a perfect six points, Adler Mannheim made the most of their first two games at home against a pair of ICE opponents, although they were both close. First was a 4-2 victory over Italian-based HC Bolzano. That was followed by a 3-2 win over Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg, which saw Mannheim almost blow a 3-0 lead in the last three minutes.

Despite only taking five of six possible points, Tappara have only been scored on once, which is tops in the Champions Hockey League in defence right now. Not surprisingly, that gives goaltender Christian Heljanko some very good stats – his 0.48 goals-against average and 97.62 save percentage both rank second, and are best among goalies who have played two games. Offensively, Tappara’s Nicholas Baptiste is one of four CHL players to score three goals in the first two games.

These are two of only three CHL teams that have perfect penalty-killing records and each have scored a shorthanded goal – Petteri Puhakka for Tappara and Kris Bennett for Mannheim.

Bennett is one of seven Mannheim players with two points and nobody on the team has scored more than one goal, so they rely on a very balanced attack. Their most important players so far have been defenceman Jyrki Jokipakka (20:35 TOI, 8 shots on goal, 3 blocked shots) and forward Matthias Plachta (17:33 TOI, 11 shots on goal, 2 blocked shots).

Historically, these two teams met twice in the 2016/17 Group Stage, each winning on home ice.