The Växjö Lakers secured their third appearance in the Quarter-Finals last night as the Swedes sailed past ERC Ingolstadt by a 7-4 score on aggregate.
Despite the pretty uneven scoreline, this series was very tense.
"Winning any series is fun, but looking back it was really great to get to go to Ingolstadt and face them," said Växjö's Tobias Rieder after the game.
The match-up against Ingolstadt was special for Rieder who was born and raised in Landshut not too far from Ingolstadt. How did that feel?
"My parents got to come to the game which was really nice!" he said with a big smile.
The 30-year-old who has played nearly 500 games in the NHL is in his third season with reigning SHL champions Växjö Lakers but has represented Germany on international level for many years now. Did he know anyone from the team?
"Yeah there were a couple of guys I knew so it was fun going up against them over the two games," he replied.
Despite going 4-1 down in the First Game, around 150 Ingolstadt fans made the trek to Sweden to support their team and it's something Rieder and the other Växjö players noticed.
"I have to tip my hat to all the fans that made the trip from Germany - there were so many of them!"
"We could hear them all game, it's really amazing," ended Rieder with high praise.