It’s a clash of league leaders, as Swiss National League table toppers SC Bern take on SHL frontrunners Växjö Lakers.

The Bears sit seven points clear at the top of the table but are on a bad run. Three straight losses (two after shootouts) probably isn’t the form Kari Jalonen would have wanted going into the Champions Hockey League. Generally strong at home, however, SCB haven’t lost in their own rink since mid-September in the league – and only to Munich in the CHL last round since then.

The Lakers are only three points clear at the top of the SHL, a lead that’s shrunk after back to back losses that snapped a three-game winning streak. The Lakers are specialists at two-goal margins: since their last CHL game, five of their nine subsequent matches have been decided by a pair.

Special teams are always key at this stage of any tournament, and while the visitors have the superior power play (29.95%), their penalty killing will need to be vastly improved (78.57%). The two sides have an identical record with 28 goals scored, and 21 against, while Växjö have only lost one game in regulation time in this season’s CHL – in Cardiff, with qualification already secured.