Unia Oświęcim host the Straubing Tigers in a match-up of two teams with Champions Hockey League Playoff aspirations. In the case of Oświęcim, that is somewhat unexpected, but the Polish champions have been a very tough opponent so far, taking two games to overtime and winning their most recent CHL game 5-4 over KAC Klagenfurt to reach five points, which is the Playoff cut-off line heading into Game Day 5.

The Tigers have been in a lot of very close games – their last three CHL scores have been 3-2, most recently over Czech powerhouse Dynamo Pardubice. They currently have eight points and a win will put them in a very safe position.

The biggest reason for Oświęcim’s place in the standings is the goaltending of Linus Lundin. The Swede has played all four of his team’s games and leads the CHL with 151 saves. Despite that workload, he still has a very respectable 90.96% save percentage. Offensively, Krystian Dziubiński and Hampus Olsson each have five points, with Dzubiński’s four goals tying him for second in the competition. Thanks largely to those two, they have a respectable powerplay that’s firing at 20.00%.

Defenceman Marcel Brandt is Straubing’s leading scorer with four points. He also leads the CHL with 20 shots on goal and is tied for fifth with 10 blocked shots. However, it’s fellow D-man Justin Braun that leads the team in ice time at 22:19 per game. Among forwards, Joshua Samanski has scored two goals, both on the powerplay, and has 10 shots on goal. As a team, the Tigers have the CHL’s second-best powerplay at 30.77%.