When Finnish side Tappara Tampere welcome their Swiss counterparts EV Zug to the Nokia Arena on Tuesday evening for the First Game of their Semi-Finals series in the Champions Hockey League, it won't be the first time these two sides meet on Europe's biggest club ice hockey scene.
Every true CHL fan knows that there are three teams that have featured in each and every CHL season since the competition's inception in 2014/15 and Tappara and Zug just happen to be two of them. The third team, for anyone asking, is Frölunda Gothenburg. So it comes as no surprise that these sides have locked horns on the ice before, and not just once.
The first encounter between these two clubs dates back to 2015/16 when Tappara and Zug were drawn into Group B. The Bossard Arena hosted their very first game and boy was it a result, as Tappara ran riot scoring three goals in the opening 20 minutes, before adding four more to beat the Swiss side 7-0.
A brief glance at the rosters offers a few surprises with Tappara's Veli-Matti Savinainen and Kristian Kuusela, both players still playing for the Finns in 2022/23, prominently on display in the first line. Zug's line-up also features two players that are around still today - Reto Suri and Livio Stadler.
The two sides met again later on in the season for a game that would once again end in victory for Tappara, this time though an acceptable 3-1 result.
2016-2019 was a period in which both clubs struggled on the European stage, with neither of them advancing past the Round of 16, until they met again in the 2019/20 Round of 16 for a much more level two-game series.
The First Game, played in Tappara's old Hakametsä Stadium, ended 3-3 after Tappara came from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in the second period. Four of the six goals came from powerplay situations and guess which two goaltenders were in net? Christian Heljanko and Leonardo Genoni - the two exact netminders that will most likely man the nets in their encounter four years later.
Their Return Game, played the very next week, saw Zug pick up their first, and only, win over Tappara and move on to the Champions Hockey League Quarter-Finals for the very first time.
So to sum up, here are some quick-fire stats!
- Both Tappara and Zug have played in every single CHL season since 2014/15
- Both won their domestic championship title in 2022
- This will be the third time the two clubs meet on Europe’s biggest club ice hockey stage, following encounters in the 2019/20 Round of 16 and 2015/16 Group Stage
- Finnish side Tappara have a slight edge, having lost to the Swiss team only once
- Tappara beat Zug 7-0 in Switzerland in 2015/16
- Zug knocked Tappara out of the Round of 16 in 2019/20 - the last time these two teams met
Tappara will host Zug in the Nokia Arena on Tuesday, 10 January at 17:30 CET, before travelling to Switzerland for the Return Game the following week for a game scheduled for Tuesday, 17 January at 20:15 CET.