This Round of 16 matchup pits against each other two teams that need no introduction to Champions Hockey League fans since they've played in a combined 10 prior seasons of the pan-European competition.
Despite that though, the 2022/23 Round of 16 will be the first time Tappara Tampere of Finland and HC Davos of Switzerland face each other on the ice - here's our Matchup Preview!
- Both teams have made it to the CHL Semi-Finals in the past
- Tappara only lost a single game in the Group Stage this season
- Davos have scored three more goals than Tappara, but let in six more over six games
Last season's Finalists Tappara Tampere had an amazing Group Stage run, winning five of their six games and picking up a very solid 15 out of a maximum 18 points.
The Finns secured their place in the final 16 early on, mainly thanks to their 3/3 record from the first three Game Days, and beat familiar foes Red Bull Munich twice to ultimately gain top spot of Group C.
Tappara scored 20 goals over the Group Stage with Niko Ojamäki pitching in with three (3G, 2A in total) and Jere Henriksson also scoring three times (3G in total), but more impressively, the Liiga team only let nine hit the back of their net which puts them in the Top 3 of the Goals Against leaderboard after the Group Stage.
That is in huge part down to goaltender Christian Heljnako who spent five games in net for the Finnish team making 115 saves and letting only six hit the back of his net, good for a Save Percentage of over 95% - by far one of the highest in the CHL so far this season!
His GAA is also one of the best we saw over the Group Stage, sitting at just 1.19!
His top-class performances landed him a spot on our six-man Team of the Group Stage.
Overall, Tappara have played strong, dominant hockey in the CHL and have also picked up form domestically. They are one of the big favourites to make it all the way to the CHL Final in February - all they need to do against Davos is continue where they left off!
HC Davos of Switzerland will be the ones to challenge Tappara in the Round of 16. The NL club qualified for the Playoffs in second place behind Swedes Skellefteå AIK. They scored 12 points from four wins and two losses on their journey through Group H.
Davos have been active up front having scored 23 goals in six games (an average of nearly four per game) in large part thanks to forward Matěj Stránský who has found the back of the net five times so far this season. Helping him up front has been playmaker Enzo Corvi, whose 3G and 6A make him Davos's leading points scorer.
Duties in net have been split - Sandro Aeschlimann has played in four ties (posting a Save Percentage of over 90%), whilst Gilles Senn has played in two games.
An area the Swiss club could improve are power plays - out of 31 opportunities on the man advantage, they've only scored seven times. On the other hand, they've fended of all but two situations when they've been a man down.
Tappara are a strong opponent, but Davos have proven their strengh this season - could they topple the ex-CHL Finalsts?